Vanessa Savage

I can honestly say that this book will be next years must read psychological thriller of 2019.

It has it all, what appears to be the perfect family, but in reality they are facing underlying stress, a mental ill wife, self-destructive teenage children, deteriorating marriage and of course, the move into The Murder House!

As with all books in this genre, things are never as they seem but sometimes, just sometimes, they are exactly that! I mean, who would expect The Murder House to be a perfect family home and a fresh start for them all? But can a house really have influence over the occupants and their actions? How much influence does our upbringing and past have on our futures?

Sarah, a once young colourful aspiring artist looking forwards to her future painting her way around the world. Her best friend and fellow aspiring artist Caroline, never a fan of Patrick but who has supported Sarah as best she can. Patrick, the older professional career and family man, who had an idyllic upbringing, brought up in a perfect house by the sea and who loves his wife and children. Joe their 17-year-old son, also a promising artist who has yet to find out Sarah is not his real mother and finally, Mia, the 15-year-old daughter who has always been a daddy’s girl.

All have their own story, their own problems that all culminate and come to a head inside the murder house!

Although Patrick is the only family member that wants the move and the fresh start the family all agree that they will try to make it work and to make the house perfect again just as it was when Patrick first lived there. It will be a monumental task for them all, the house has been neglected since the family before were all murdered in that house, damp patches and mould on the walls, rotting window frames, cold spots in certain parts of the house, not to mention the noises an old house can make don’t go anyway towards helping the new occupants to settle in to their new house.

Sarah becomes convinced someone is watching the house ever since they moved in, but is that just her imagination as Patrick suggests? And then what of the odd items left on the doorstep? A seashell? Living that close to the beach doesn’t sound that strange but then things begin to escalate as both Sarah and Patrick’s sanity and reality being to deteriorate.

Who’s perception is in fact reality and who’s is reality slipping away from them?

Will the house always be The Murder House or can it become the perfect family home they wish it to be?

With some plot twists to be expected and some that come as a shock, this is a psychological thriller not to be missed!

The Woman in the Dark will be published in the UK on 10 January 2019

A big thank you to Vanessa Savage, the publishers Little Brown Book Group and NetGalley for my advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

All thoughts and opinions are my own.… (más)

I can honestly say that this book will be next years must read psychological thriller of 2019.

It has it all, what appears to be the perfect family, but in reality they are facing underlying stress, a mental ill wife, self-destructive teenage children, deteriorating marriage and of course, the move into The Murder House!

As with all books in this genre, things are never as they seem but sometimes, just sometimes, they are exactly that! I mean, who would expect The Murder House to be a perfect family home and a fresh start for them all? But can a house really have influence over the occupants and their actions? How much influence does our upbringing and past have on our futures?

Sarah, a once young colourful aspiring artist looking forwards to her future painting her way around the world. Her best friend and fellow aspiring artist Caroline, never a fan of Patrick but who has supported Sarah as best she can. Patrick, the older professional career and family man, who had an idyllic upbringing, brought up in a perfect house by the sea and who loves his wife and children. Joe their 17-year-old son, also a promising artist who has yet to find out Sarah is not his real mother and finally, Mia, the 15-year-old daughter who has always been a daddy’s girl.

All have their own story, their own problems that all culminate and come to a head inside the murder house!

Although Patrick is the only family member that wants the move and the fresh start the family all agree that they will try to make it work and to make the house perfect again just as it was when Patrick first lived there. It will be a monumental task for them all, the house has been neglected since the family before were all murdered in that house, damp patches and mould on the walls, rotting window frames, cold spots in certain parts of the house, not to mention the noises an old house can make don’t go anyway towards helping the new occupants to settle in to their new house.

Sarah becomes convinced someone is watching the house ever since they moved in, but is that just her imagination as Patrick suggests? And then what of the odd items left on the doorstep? A seashell? Living that close to the beach doesn’t sound that strange but then things begin to escalate as both Sarah and Patrick’s sanity and reality being to deteriorate.

Who’s perception is in fact reality and who’s is reality slipping away from them?

Will the house always be The Murder House or can it become the perfect family home they wish it to be?

With some plot twists to be expected and some that come as a shock, this is a psychological thriller not to be missed!

https://debbiesbookreviews.wordpress.com/2018/09/27/the-woman-in-the-dark-by-van...… (más)

Hanna, estranged from her family since her teenage years, has agreed to go on a blind date with Adam who is her best friend Dee's partner's friend. While initially not open to the date, Hanna finds herself opening up and liking Adam, until he opens up to her and introduces her to his passion project, which a "dark tourism" website. Dark tourism includes virtual tours of areas and sites where sinister events have taken place, including murders, mysterious deaths, vanishings, etc. When Hanna checks the website, again, she finds her own family home listed on the website as the site of the murder of her dad, stepmother and stepsister. This opens Pandora box, with Hanna enlisting Adam and her best friend Dee to follow whatever clues they can come up with to ensure her family's safety.

The story unfolds not only through Hanna's eyes, but also those of Sasha's. From Sasha's perspective, we are able to see the events unfold that lead to the point at which Hanna discovers this sinister publishing on the dark tourism website. Sasha, also a teenager herself, is trying to figure out who she is, and why she feels such a kinship to her estranged sister, and in trying to unravel her sister's life, she uncovers a few family secrets along the way.

The story, as it unfolds, is actually quite interesting - and a few chapters into Sasha's story, I could sort of predict where the story was going. It is still a well-paced story. But I think the reason I did not give it a five star is that when I read the synopsis, I imagined a lot more of the creepy moments that were promised by the bit that was the "dark tourism", I expected to read and find a lot more about that than this book mentioned. I would have loved to see more development, and a little more elaboration on that aspect of the book. Otherwise, overall, a pretty good mystery!… (más)