Into the Dark by Fiona Cummins

I’ve read and enjoyed all of Fiona Cummins’ previous novels but this one is definitely her best yet, I loved it! It follows what happens when a local family is discovered to have disappeared one morning with no clue as to why or where they’ve gone. The only thing to be seen is a message on the teenage daughter’s mirror saying ‘make them stop’! This novel goes back and forth in time as we find out what led up to the family’s disappearance and what has happened to them. We also follow the police as they investigate the missing family. This novel is so dark, with lots of twists and turns that genuinely caught me off guard over and over again. I loved that I didn’t know what was going on and I couldn’t figure out how it would end. This is a brilliant read and I highly recommend it!

Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton

Local Gone Missing is a slow-paced mystery novel that follows Detective Elise King as she gets ready to return to work following illness. She lives in a small town and when two teenagers become ill at a festival she is curious to dig around into what is going on. She’s not yet back at work but she starts to investigate the people in this small town and she uncovers connections she hadn’t known existed between some of the residents and before she knows it she’s fully investigating again. This novel becomes darker as it goes along and whilst the pace is slower it’s none-the-less gripping and I found it hard to put down. I read it in just two sittings because I simply had to know what was going on and who was involved. I recommend this one.

It Ends at Midnight by Harriet Tyce

I read and loved Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce when it came out so I was very keen to get my hands on this book and I’m so pleased to say that I loved it. It opens with a dramatic scene where someone is seriously injured and then we slowly find out who it is and what led up to this moment. The novel follows Sylvie and Tess who were best friends at school but have drifted apart as their lives moved in different directions. Then one day Tess calls Sylvie with awful news and the two meet up again. Sylvie slowly starts to lose control on her life as Tess becomes a bigger part of it and we slowly get to see how these women are friends and what keeps them connected. There are secrets and lies and a very toxic friendship, with history to be uncovered! The novel is building to a big finale and I couldn’t read it quick enough to find out how it was all going to end. I read this whole novel in one sitting because I just didn’t want to put it down. I loved it and I highly recommend it!

The Patient by Jane Shemilt

I devoured this novel in just a couple of sittings! The Patient follows Rachel, a GP, who one day has a new patient, Luc, who is very depressed and needs a refill of his medication. Rachel gives it to him and goes on with her evening but she can’t stop thinking about him, and what she doesn’t know is that not everything is as it seemed to her. There is an attraction there and when she later meets him at a house party the infatuation grows. Then a colleague of hers is found murdered and life begins to unravel for Rachel. This is a novel that went places I wasn’t expecting it to but I was absolutely hooked and so keen to find out what was going to happen next and how Rachel was going to get out of the situations she found herself in. I really enjoyed this novel and definitely recommend it.