Tag: Damp Pebbles

I’ve been a fan of this author for a while, as you can tell from my past reviews (search this blog with the author’s name and you can see all of them). She usually has an interesting build-up and pretty decent suspense.

The latest release from her is no exception.

I’ll admit that it took me a little while to get into the book. I thought the first few chapters seemed scattered, and I was having a difficult time figuring out who the characters were, who was important, and how they all connected.

But by the time Hadley’s sister shows up (very early on) I had it all straightened out and had formed opinions about the various characters.

Kenny was creepy, Faith was beyond annoying (but obviously for a reason) and Deborah knew more than she was telling (or maybe even more than she thought she knew because of her condition).

But was any of it real, or were they all just artificial fronts? You’d have to read the book to find out.

It took me a couple of chapters, but I caught on to where the intermittent fairy tale chapters fit in pretty quickly. I originally had two guesses but discounted one almost immediately, so it was interesting to see how the author worked it all together.

There were a few moments that required the complete suspension of disbelief, parts that didn’t seem as well fleshed out. They didn’t detract from the overall story, but they were noticeable. And frankly, I didn’t care for the ending too much. But that could very well just be a personal thing.

Overall, I thought this was a good psych thriller with some unique aspects that wrapped up neatly.

About Cathryn Grant:

Cathryn Grant writes psychological thrillers, psychological suspense, and ghost stories. She’s the author of twenty-three novels.  

She’s loved crime fiction all her life and is endlessly fascinated by the twists and turns, and the dark corners of the human mind.  

When she’s not writing, Cathryn reads fiction, eavesdrops, and tries to play golf without hitting her ball into the sand or the water. She lives on the Central California coast with her husband and two cats. 

Cathryn is the author of The Assistant, The Good Mother and many other psychological thrillers. Only You will be her sixth novel published with Inkubator Books.

Karma.

That’s the word that kept repeating itself as I read this fine psychological thriller from one of my favorite authors.

The prologue gave me the first clue that we were going to be dealing with a very demented mind, but it took a while into the book to realize just how twisted the “speaker” was.

I thought the set up was very well-done and an excellent choice to base the story on. Honestly, I don’t think the plot would have worked any other way.

There are other reviews and blurbs where you can get a rehash of what happens. But I want to talk about something that really hit me while reading.

We now live in a world where reality is only what each individual makes of it. Let me see if I can explain.

Skye is a social media influencer. In real life, we already know that anyone with that title is paid to “like” or endorse products that they probably don’t even use on a regular basis.

So, right there, we know that she peddles a false reality to her millions of followers.

How fitting.

We also see how easily young people are swayed by these influencers. Nathan’s (and Sacha’s) absences leave Chloe and Isla at loose ends. Admittedly, the absences are caused for different reasons, but still, the gap is there.

The void is filled by people who peddle this false reality. Really, in my opinion, social media influencers are nothing more than modern day snake oil salesmen. They’re also narcissistic, some to a point of psychosis.

I think that’s part of what the author was getting at as this was clearly illustrated – at least to me.

Nathan gets it also. He is portrayed as decidedly old school and certainly uncool in his daughters’ eyes. But he is from a generation that understand substance over style and flash.

He sees the manipulation even before he is dragged into the middle of it.

There were some minor things that caught my eye. A few passages were repetitive (ie Nathan wanting to put his arms around Marie and hug her) Nathan’s conversation with a homeless person had promise but then was dropped. I expected more of that but understand why the author used the tactic.  

The ending felt rushed. There was fantastic build-up but then everything came to a head and was over very quickly. Although, this is when my brain really started yelling “karma!”

That being said, the final chapter was a great way to wrap everything up and was extremely illustrative of the manipulation that narcissists employ to keep people under their control. If it weren’t for the last chapter, I would have felt a bit of a let-down.

I definitely recommend this book for its commentary both on homelessness and social media influence.

And really, it’s a cautionary tale of both.  

About Miranda Rijks:

Miranda Rijks is a writer of psychological thrillers and suspense novels. She has an eclectic background ranging from law to running a garden centre. She’s been writing all of her life and has a Masters in writing. A couple of years ago she decided to ditch the business plans and press releases and now she’s living the dream, writing suspense novels full time. She lives in Sussex, England with her Dutch husband, musician daughter and black Labrador.

Miranda is the author of The Arrangement, Roses are Red and many other psychological thrillers. THE INFLUENCER will be her eleventh novel published with Inkubator Books.

This was a challenging read for me. On the one hand there was a lot of spooky build up, but it started so slowly that I almost gave up on it.

I guess the first thing that I can say is to stick with it, because it does eventually start to all make sense and ended up being a suspenseful psych thriller.

Let’s get the so-so out of the way (because none of it was actually bad). There is a lot of set-up in the first few chapters, and it took me quite a while to start putting the pieces together.

In addition to the family moving to a new area, there seemed to be tension between various family members. This was another thing that was not totally clear to me at the onset but made more sense further on in the book.

In a way, that was really the only challenge – getting through the set-up to where everything took off and it became more interesting.

Because it did get very interesting.

There are enough reviews out there that detail the things that happen to the family – even the blurb tells you some of them.

I’m just here to say that the author does a very good job of building the tension as these “tricks” get more sinister and Bram tries to keep his family together even as he realizes there are things he doesn’t know.

When this started to happen, I almost felt claustrophobic because I knew that the terror was building but couldn’t figure out where it was all going to break.

It ended up with a few surprises, and I’m glad I stuck with it.

About Jane Renshaw:

As a child, Jane spent a lot of time in elaborate Lego worlds populated by tiny plastic animals and people. Crime levels were high, especially after the Dragon brothers set themselves up as vets and started murdering the animals in their ‘care’. (They got away with it by propping the victims up with Plasticine and pretending they were still alive…)

As an adult, she is still playing in imaginary worlds and putting her characters through hell – but now she can call it ‘writing’ and convince herself that she is doing something sensible. In real life, she has a PhD in genetics and copy-edits scientific and medical journals.
Jane is the author of Watch Over Me. NO PLACE LIKE HOME will be her third novel published with Inkubator Books.

This book was absolutely nothing that I expected it to be. In spite of that, it turned out to be one of the best books I’ve read so far this year.

Right from the beginning, the author drew me in with switching time frames. It created intrigue as it was unclear as to what the “before” and “after” actually were.

When I first started reading, I thought it was going to be a typical “friends hide secrets” from each other. I think that’s what the author was going for? It definitely made the major event come as much more of a surprise.

And it was quite a gut-wrencher as well.

Regardless of the author’s intention at the outset, this was ultimately an amazing look at the aftermath of a tragedy that has become all too commonplace in today’s world.

(Seriously, I don’t want to give away more than the blurb does – and for once a blurb keeps important details hidden (thankfully)).

But the harrowing event is described in such agonizing detail, I began to wonder if the author had actually experienced it or talked to survivors of real-life events. It was that gut-wrenching and frankly, difficult to read. But extremely well-done.

One thing I wasn’t too keen on, because I didn’t see the purpose at first, was how awful Laura’s mother was. I mean, in the pantheon of bad moms of main characters, this one is a doozy. But as the story progressed, I realized how vital that was to the plot and the main conceit of the story.

I also thought the author did a great job of keeping another important piece of information hidden in plain sight. Again, not to give anything away, but…names matter. In fact, there were a lot of little details that seemed innocuous but became important.

Again, the attention and thought given to this plot was apparent.

I was a little incredulous that Sandy and Sam did not see what was right in front of them especially later in the book when history begins to repeat. But I think (again) the author chose this viewpoint to illustrate how easy it is to get wrapped up in one’s own sorrows and worries.

Sometimes we can’t see what’s plainly right in front of this.

All in all, this was an extremely well-written book that also teaches some real-life lessons. In a world where hate and radicalization can be prevalent and easily consume people, forgiveness can be a powerful weapon.

Pick this one up – you won’t be sorry.

About Diane Jeffrey:

Diane Jeffrey is a USA Today bestselling author. She grew up in North Devon and Northern Ireland. She now lives in Lyon, France, with her husband and their three children, Labrador and cat.

Diane is the author of four psychological thrillers, all of which were Kindle bestsellers in the UK, the USA, Canada and Australia. THE GUILTY MOTHER, Diane’s third book, was a USA Today bestseller and spent several weeks in the top 100 Kindle books in the UK.

Her latest psychological thriller, THE SILENT FRIEND, is set in Belfast and Lyon. It was published in ebook in November 2020 with the paperback and audiobook to follow in 2021. She is currently working on her fifth psychological thriller.

Diane is an English teacher. When she’s not working or writing, she likes swimming, running and reading. She loves chocolate, beer and holidays. Above all, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends.