This is a really tight thriller, it zips along at pace. You really can't help but feel sorry for Maggie's situation as it unfolds and I found the description of the icu experience and the subsequent helplessness once released really compelling. A perfect summer read guaranteed to keep you entertained.

What a read! 5 stars.

This book hooks you from the get go and keeps you guessing throughout. It is full of mystery, secrets, twists and reveals to keep you gripped - thoroughly captivating.

This will no doubt be featuring on top thriller lists of 2018.

Thanks to NetGalley, Nuala Ellwood and Penguin Random House for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Maggie wakes from a coma to find that her young daughter has drowned and her husband has left her. She needs to piece together the little information she has to find out what happened. Although the premise is interesting, there are an awful lot of books like this out just now and as a result they're trying to be more and more shocking with unbelievable twists. I found that this book got a bit silly at points and was trying far too hard. It was a reasonably enjoyable nonsense read but I wouldn't really recommend it.

I found this a little difficult to get into go start but I persevered and then the pace gathered speed.
A compelling read, heartbreaking, thought provoking and sad characters of all descriptions and plenty of plot twists.

Brilliant read.

The novel begins with Margaret Allan, Maggie, entering a plea to a crime of manslaughter. The story itself then begins with Maggie waking up from a coma, which she has been in for six weeks since the day of the accident.

She is told that her daughter, Elspeth, was killed in the accident and her husband has since disappeared. To add to her trauma she discovers that he sold their family home some years back and they have been renting it from a property company ever since. He gave notice to the company after their daughter had been buried and she has nowhere to live. Devastated, she tries to recall what happened the night her car went into the river with her daughter locked inside.

Struggling with memory loss Maggie begins to hear and see certain things from that night. Gradually throughout the novel snippets from her past are fed into the plot providing numerous twists and turns.

During the course of the novel there are heart wrenching letters from a child to her mother which plead for her mother to collect her and take her home.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Books UK and Nuala Ellwood for my ARC in return for my honest review.

Highly recommended.

A slow fumbling suspenseful start that cascades so fast into a nigh-terror so deep, dark and soul destroying it has you fighting hard to get out of it.
A violating, fearsome and mind challenging read with a complex plot and a mother lost in it all just doing what any mother would - everything!

I was scared going into this read as I am a huge advocate for Nuala’s debut novel My Sisters Bones, but luckily with a skill, precision and mind of absolute horror she has done it again. Clever. Original. Inventive. Exhilarating.

5/5

Two careless mistakes and Maggie Allan causes a lifetime of heart ache for herself and those around her. We find Maggie in a 10 week coma after a car accident. There are lots of mysteries surrounding the accident including why she was where she was, how her daughter drowned (if she did) and why her husband Sean suddenly did a runner not long afterwards. The past had caught up with her and it's a complex matter trying to unravel the complex factors of truth, action, glaring omissions, strange happenings and blame. A very compelling read; neatly executed. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK.

Thanks to publishers and NetGalley for ARC.
First publication I have read by this author and wouldn't hesitate to read another.
Felt that it took a little while to get going, but once it did it gathered pace.
Saw through a couple of the twists of which there were many.
Remember things are not always as they may first appear.

Thank you for letting me read this book. An intriguing read and it took me a while to figure out the twist! Recommend this book.

I found this difficult to get into but as the story progressed it became more interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and definitely recommend it.

Great book that I ended up reading in just a few sittings. The story had me gripped from the beginning, there were a lot of mysteries to be solved and I really didn't see the ending coming, despite the signposting that makes it all the more satisfying. New information about past events get drip fed at just the right pace to not be frustrating, but not too fast to ruin the mystery.

Oh this is a fabulous book! It was full of suspense and I never guessed the ending even though I invariably do. Great writing style by this author, and it kept my interest all the way. Highly recommended.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Maggie wakes up from a coma with no recollection of wahat has happened. The police inform her that she was involved in a car accident and her daughter died. She is devastated and tries desperately to remember what happened and whether she was at fault. Her world is falling apart before her eyes, her husband Sean has disappeared and she discovers the house they lived in is no longer theirs. Her road to recovery is slow and tortuous. She begins to discover some things about her past which are upsetting and people whom she meets or once knew are not necessarily who they seem.
I found this compelling reading with some interesting twists, I’d really recommend giving it a go.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book and thought it would be a standard thriller.

A child dies in an accident and her mother wakes up from a coma without being able to remember what happened and whether she caused her childs death or not.

WOW! I was so surprised! I was drawn in straight away and the shocks (no spoilers in this review) genuinely DID shock me. Usually I find these kind of books pretty predictable but on this occasion I really didn't see it coming. Really enjoyed this book and it's the first I have read by this author - I would definitely read more.

All in all, recommended for any fans of crime and thrillers.

WOW and WOW again,I was so hooked in by this twist packed,roller coaster ride that I read the whole book in one day.

In the opening prologue Maggie is being led into a court room and we witness her enter her plea to a unknown crime.After that we slip back in time to the ICU of a hospital where we find Maggie just waking up after being in a coma.She eventually learns that she was involved in a accident,her ten year old daughter Elspeth is dead and Maggie's husband Sean has not been seen since the day of their daughter's funeral.Maggie is devastated by the news that her beloved daughter is dead but as time passes and contrary to what everyone else is insisting and the fact that Sean officially identified Elspeth`s body,Maggie starts to wonder if she is being lied to,that her daughter is still alive.After all Maggie is a mother and mothers can sense these things....right.As soon as she is released from the hospital Maggie begins a desperate search for the truth of what happened on that horrifying day.Maggie was a vivid,complex character who suffered from severe anxiety,a condition that I understand all too well.Throughout the story she takes the reader back into the past and tells us about her relashionships with Sean and Elspeth and her younger years.Although I felt a lot of sympathy for Maggie because of what she was going through and her anxiety issues,I also found some of her character traits frustrating,she occasionally came across as not very likeable.Interspersed throughout the book where italicized letters written by a young girl who was telling her mother how lonely and frightened she was and begging her mummy to please come and take her home.These letters where heart breaking and it was shocking how as the time passed,the tone of the letters and the child`s attitude towards her mummy changed.I loved the descriptions of Larkfields where Maggie,Sean and Elspeth used to live,the old gothic lodge house,the old mill stones and the peace,solitude and beauty of the downs.It was a lovely tranquil contrast to Maggie's chaotic,messed up feelings and thoughts.

This is a emotionally charged,twist packed tale of revenge,secrets,lies,manipulation and the sad fact that people don't really appreciate what they have got until it's gone.My anxiety levels went through the roof,I think I even forgot to breath at times as this well written,riveting story unfolded.This is definitely going to be one of my favourite reads of this year.

This was a story about a mother’s love for her children. A bad move one evening cost her daughters her life, and a grandmother who stood by and could have helped her grandchild but let her die.
The letters written to her mother by her daughter were very touching and quite moving, not realising her daughter had written them while in care, Maggie never knew what had happened to her first daughter as she was taken away from her at birth.

A brilliantly fascinating, multi-layered mystery that kept me hooked and guessing within a chapter.
Maggie has woken up from intensive care to find that her daughter, Elspeth, has drowned in the car that she had left her locked in but she can't remember a thing. Something isn't right - she was devoted to her daughter and Maggie is left with tantalising flashbacks that leave her confused and desperate.
I found this to be a captivating read. At first, I thought it was in a similar vein to The Girl on the Train, which I wasn't keen on, and others but it was much better in terms of plot and writing style. The author includes a multitude of twists and turns but never too much that they leave you in a muddle. The character of Maggie is so fleshed out that I felt sorry for her and was willing her to get well so she could remember what happened. The best part of reading this book was just as I thought I had something pinned down and was a bit irritated (and surprised) that I'd managed to figure it out, it turned out to be completely wrong! The author was so clever with the layers of this book that it just keeps you guessing. It alludes to all sorts of puzzling things that you want the answers to but you need to read the whole book to really understand and enjoy the ride! A really well-written, pacy mystery thriller. I'll definitely read more books by this author and recommend this one highly!

This book has more twisty moments in it than those country lanes in Lewes where it's set! Links to Virginia Woolf and her home in Rodmell? This is not your average thriller that's for sure.
It was compelling from the start - a woman wakesup from a coma to be told her daugher is dead and her husband gone. There's two reasons to keep reading right away, but then things take an altogether darker tone if that's possible and when you include links to a famous writer who committed suicide in a lake...and the daughter in the present day who is said to have died in water as well...this makes the claustrophobia of that hospitalroom spread across the Lewes countryside.

A study of the mind, what it means to recover memories and thoughts and work out what is real and what is not. It's an interesting take on a patient recovering their memory and working out what is going on!

And Rodmell's historical literary interest gets a modern twist

A thriller with a twist.
Maggie has been in a coma following an accident. When she wakes, her world has dramatically changed. She must now adjust to her new life by piecing together her old.
A very enjoyable read.

I loved this author's first book so couldn't wait to read this one. It's a gripping thriller with twists and mystery and I really felt for Maggie as she tried to piece together what happened the night her daughter lost her life.
I don't want to give too much away but this is highly recommended.