Do Not Disturb

Claire Douglas writes with conviction; she turns the ordinary into something chillingly dark and different once the surface is scratched. Do Not Disturb starts with a dramatic bump in the night scene and then rewinds to explain how a young, successful couple end up leaving London to start a new life running a B&B in Wales. There's a sense of mystery around the husband's illness and Kirsty, his wife, has a complex family background.

The plotting is full of twists and tension. It's skilful in that the reader is never sure where the truth lies and there are numerous red herrings. I found it easy to buy into each of the characters; they're well developed and most have something to hide or explain. I enjoyed the way the layers are peeled back, bit by bit, as the dark corners of past events and secrets are exposed. Complex and satisfying.

My thanks to Penguin for a review copy via Netgalley.

I feel like if Selena came to stay in my guest house The thought of getting rid of her would ply on my mind. Either that or her Aunt (the narrator’s mother). So I could see why everyone in the whole B&B ended up with a fairly convincing motive, which is why the ending felt like a bit of anti climax. The first half was really good, hurtling towards the event teased early on in the first pages of the novel. After that it slowed down and I skimmed the last quarter just trying to get to the resolution. Generally ok with some very good parts.

Another fantastic read by Claire Douglas.

Kirsty and her family are trying to get over a traumatic period in their lives and have moved from London to Wales where there buy an old property they renovate and open as a Bed & Breakfast. Kirsty’s Mum comes to join them, followed by her cousin and her daughter and then her brother and his wife who all come for a visit. There are also other paying guests who have booked rooms.

The book begins with a chilling start where Kirsty hears a noise in the middle of the night and on going to investigate finds her mother at the bottom of the stairs next to a body.

The story then goes back to months before the incident, weeks before it and finally days before it. The start of the book is then repeated and then the chapters thereafter relate to the period of time after the incident. I don’t want to say to much more for fear of giving anything away but I found myself doubting all of the characters at some point.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of the book.

I received an advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved it. It was batshit crazy in the way you really want thrillers to be. Not Orange Prize material but a heckuva way to spend a rainy afternoon. Four stars

What can I say about this book? Well, I finished it a week ago and have been mulling it over ever since. Was it predictable, spooky, mystifying? Yes, but also well written and grips you from the first page. You can feel the tension in your stomach after the first few chapters and it is like a rabbit in the headlights, you are just waiting for the worst thing to happen.

A cleverly planned book about a disjointed family trying to escape the past, but being forced to confront it by the end. A good beach read that will see you through the night too. I still haven't decided whether it was really good or just really predictable, but the fact that I'm still thinking on it says it made an impact!

I enjoyed this book. It grabbed me straight away and I was thinking about getting back to it when I wasn’t reading it! The story was good, but I felt like a lot of characters and a lot of issues were crammed in. The main theme was enough and I think I would have rated it higher if there was less going on as it sometimes made it hard to keep track of.

I very much enjoyed reading this book .The story centres around the Guest House Kirsty and her Family have bought in Wales .The characters are very well written I especially liked "Mystic Meg".there is a murder ,red herrings thrown in and secrets and lies to unravel oh and maybe ghosts ?Everything to keep the reader riveted to this murder mystery thriller .The ending made me think twice and question what would I do .... Many thanks to the Publisher ,the Author and Net Galley for the review copy in return for an honest review .

Do Not Disturb by Claire Douglas a four-star read that may disturb. This was a difficult one to rate as yes the phycological thriller aspect was very well done, the family drama well done. But something was missing overall to the story. But that being said I did enjoy the story and was hooked. The characters all felt well rounded, they had flaws as well as feelings, Kirsty was someone you could feel for, but may not always like, there was something about her character that rubbed me the wrong way. I must say I will be reading more from this author as I feel that she has a talent for writing that I want to see more of.

I was looking forward to reading this as I have read the author's previous books but found it rather slow to get going. However I did persevere and did enjoy it and didn't guess the ending. Not as enthralling as Claire Douglas's other books but maybe that's just me!

I’m new to this author so wasn’t sure what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised. A good storyline that had a few twists and I certainly didn’t expect the ending. A good read which I recommend you try.

I really wanted to like this book. The plot sounded interesting and I’m a sucker for a thriller/whodunnit. Unfortunately by the last third of the book I was just skimming some paragraphs to just get it finished. The paragraphs I did just skim were all for the secondary storylines that, in my opinion, made the book far more busy and complex than it needed to be. I feel like this would have been a solid four stars but the author was too ambitious with the overly long list of different themes she wanted to incorporate.

I was gripped with this book from page one and read it until the early hours. A lovely family set up a B&B in the Brecon Beacons which has always been Kirstys dream . The dream becomes a nightmare when her cousin Selena arrives who she's not spoken to since they were teenagers after a big fall out.
A murder takes place and there's no shortage of suspects!
I liked Kirstys character and watching the back story evolve of her and Selenas fall out.
I didn't guess who the murderer was which was good so kept in suspense.

I have given it 5 stars!

Well Do Not Disturb is a big fat book of "who dunit"! Absolutely top class writing from an author who does an amazing job at creating a tense and chilling atmosphere in her latest offering.

The sinister atmosphere begins from the very first word and is continued throughout the entire story making it deliciously spine tingling! I was on the edge of my seat as this story took on lots of twists and turns, many I didn't see coming. There were so many secrets to be revealed I was left reeling and still catching my breath when the author gave us another shocking revelation!
I loved every single word, The author kept me absolutely enthralled and set against a beautiful backdrop that set the tone for this book perfectly.

If you love a well thought out, thought provoking, claustrophobic thriller this is for you! One click it immediately!

This is the story of Kirsty who moves with her husband and two children back to her hometown in Wales to persue her dream of running a B&B. Her mother is part owner and she allows Kirsty’s cousin, Selena who Kirsty fell out with many years ago along with her daughter who suffers with various illnesses. There is a spooky doll, a murder and rumours of ghosts.

I did not enjoy this quite as much as I was expecting to. The book starts with the murder and then goes back to what happened in the days before it happened. I was really intrigued but unfortunately it wasn’t as fast paced as I would have liked. I thought that I knew exactly where this story was going but it did surprise me in going in a totally different direction. I always like it when a book surprises me.

Spoiler Ahead. It's always disappointing when I struggle to finish a book, but this one became a chore. I felt that the author spent so much time trying ineptly to weave a whodunnit situation with the old 'everyone's a suspect' trope that the storytelling suffered badly. The twists and turns as written were mostly duds, and this was only compounded by the disjointed 'reveals' later in the story that aren't nearly as impactful as I imagine they should have been since they also go nowhere. The storyline with the neighbours hardly makes any sense and was barely explained. Also, being a mother, an aunt or a grandmother aside, the 'secrets' alluded to in the book simply don't play out well. Except to keep the plot plodding forwards, I can't think of anyone who would simply keep these kinds of things to themselves. Ignoring the series of events that allow an innocent man to take a murder charge, Munchausen by proxy is rarely used well and this also did the book no favours. In the end, the motivations and actions of these tissue thin characters just had no basis in reality so they were hard to swallow even for the sake of light reading.

Who never dreamed of owning their own Bread & Breakfast? This book will make you think twice about that idea!

Claire Douglas wrote multiple great thrillers before and with ‘Do not Disturb‘ she did it again. The writing style is beautiful, the story build up well done and the giveaways of clues towards the end is well balanced. At one point in the story it reaches a Agatha Christie feeling of “whodunit”.

This is a thriller how you want a thriller to be!

There’s one thing which annoys me though: this book is promoted as “women’s fiction” implying it is written by and aimed at women which it is not IMHO, it’s selling this book short. “Women’s writing” is a better term in this case! But that’s a publishers fault I think.

Kirsty has nursed her husband through a sudden attack of depression and they decide to leave London with their two young daughters to run a guesthouse in Wales along with her mother Carol.
When their first "guest" appears, the past comes back to haunt Kirsty and their lives are turned upside down when the guest is found dead. Was she murdered or was it an accident and who is responsible.
Loved this book with its twists and turns leaving the biggest twist to the very end!

Loved it. Twisty-turny and as dark as you’d expect. Constantly kept me guessing, easy to read and gripping.

I really enjoyed this book about a dysfunctional family ooening a BnB amd how their lives are flipped by the various guests.

The worst of the guests is a blast from the past and brings along a suitcase full of issues they couldve done without.

I loved the progression of characters and stories and Clare Douglas didnt disappoint.

A young family moving from London to Wales to start a new life... It's not exactly dynamic and exciting, is it? But that's where we start. And those first few pages did fill me with a sense of dread far from what you'd hope in a juicy thriller. However, soon the book came to life... with a limp body and a pool of blood. Yes, for such a pedestrian introduction it didn't take long for the tone to shift and the tension to build. So much so that when I was about halfway through a friend asked what I was reading and I actually described it as a horror story. The plot and characters are so spooky in themselves that I kept forgetting they were in an old house next to a graveyard - something that, when first introduced, felt laboured and transparent.

As you may realise, I got over my concerns about the slow start. With hindsight, it was a subtle way of amplifying the story that followed. It became compulsive. The writing is elegant, with careful usage of things like chapter breaks that remind you to breathe - handy given it did have me holding my breath more than once. The plot is tight, unfolding only ever as much as is needed to unsettle you. That measured delivery is where this book shines. Characters rarely show more than they need to, which does result in some odd flags for things that aren't delivered instantly before being used, but no matter how two-dimensional they may seem there is often a flourish involved when the pieces all slot together.

By the second half of this book, I was thinking twice about picking it up because I knew I would be reluctant to put it down again. It delivers a truly accomplished story that goes far beyond expectations. There is a spooky side to it all, but more than anything it's a twisting and turning thriller. It manages stomach churning shifts without feeling convoluted. And in the end, it's draining in a satisfying way. I'm relieved it's finished now, I'm sad I'll never get that same suspense again. I'm curious how this will feel a second time, knowing what I know now. And it's only by mercy of having too big a pile of books to read I'm not going back to the start immediately.

A chilly and luxurious thriller that delivers a powerful punch. Absolutely splendid!