Just finished reading the psychological thriller The Birthday by Carol Wyer. It all starts out with a class of 5 year olds going to a birthday party and one of the girls disappearing. After an extensive search with no results the case is declared a cold case. Two years later her body is found while excavating a field which turns out to be the exact place she disappeared. A day later another little girl is found dead and then another.

The book is written in the same format of a lot of the books I have read lately jumping between the past and the present. This is not a style I particularly like not only because it can become confusing but also seems a little lazy on the author’s part. No offense intended to Carol Wyer.

The story is a bit repetitive with all of the girls being almost identical and unfortunately the ending is so so. All in all not very exciting.

I probably wouldn’t recommend the book and give it 3 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and the author for allowing me to read the book in advance of publication and in exchange for my unbiased review.

Just when I thought I knew who the killer was, the plot takes another turn and changes my suspicions. A great read with plenty of suspense to keep your heart pounding. Thanks #netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book> #thebirthday #carolwyer

This was the first in what will hopefully be a new series of police procedural/thriller/mystery books. Good characters and a rather bizarre case, perhaps too bizarre to be 100% credible. Some of the dialogue felt a little more like the writer 'educating' or lecturing the readers and was therefore a tad unrealistic for the conversations to feel altogether genuine, hence 4* rather than 5*.

Powiem wam, że z "The Birthday" Carol Wyer spędziłam bardzo przyjemny weekend. Książka jest szybka w czytaniu i ciekawa. Głowiłam się nad rozwiązaniem zagadki zniknięcia dziewczynek razem z Natalie Ward, bohaterką-detektywem i miałam podobne, silne przeczucie, że w miarę postępu śledztwa trzymamy w rękach wszystkie kawałki układani, tylko nie bardzo jeszcze wiemy jak je do siebie dopasować.

Główna bohaterka, Natalie Ward jest nie tylko detektywem, ale także żoną i mamą. Wraz z mężem, Davidem wychowują dwójkę nastolatków, chłopca i dziewczynkę, i Natalie bardzo się stara połączyć w jakąś funkcjonalną całość swoje życie prywatne z zawodowym. Długie godziny pracy nas śledztwem nie ułatwiają jednak stosunków z mężem i Natalie czuje się ciągle rozdarta pomiędzy misją odnalezienia zaginionych dziewczynek a potrzeba spędzania czasu z rodzina. Jest przy tym świetnym detektywem. Jest konkretna, rzeczowa i inteligentna i w taki tez sposób prowadzi swoje śledztwo. Praca jej zespołu jest metodyczna, przemyślana i konsekwentna i pomimo tego, że sprawca przewija się raz po raz przez ich dochodzenie i nie zostaje przez detektywów wychwycony, to ma to swoje dobre uzasadnienie. Jest logicznym działaniem zespołu a nie karygodnym zaniedbaniem. Akcja jest szybka, nie rozwleka się bezsensowanie w czasie i z każdym rozdziałem otrzymujemy kolejny ważny kawałek do naszej układanki.
Co do tożsamości samego przestępcy, to można się dość szybko domyślić kto nim będzie, co jednak wcale nie przeszkadza w czerpaniu przyjemności z czytania książki. Jest w niej wystraczająco dużo niewiadomych, aby trzymać nas w napięciu aż do ostatniej strony. Mnie historia wciągnęła tak bardzo, że przeczytałam ją w dwa dni.

"The Birthday" to bardzo fajna lektura, w sam raz na weekend. Polecam!

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book.
A little girl disappears during a birthday party and the mystery begins. What happened to her? This book will keep you guessing until the end. This is a fast paced mystery with lots of twists and turns. I recommend to all mystery lovers. It is very well written and will grab you right from the beginning.

I thought I’d never drag myself through to the end of this book. It wasn’t that it was particularly long, it just felt never-ending. The perpetrator was easy to guess and the fact the cops didn’t figure it out in such a long time made the climax take forever to begin to unfold. That fact paired with the redundant writing made for a long, dragging book. I’m sorry, maybe it was a one off bad job and in editing the final copy will be better. I received an advance copy of the book for my honest opinion.

I absolutely loved The Birthday by Carol Wyer. It’s the first in the Detective Natalie Ward series and I’m excited to see how this character progresses.

The Birthday starts with a hot summers afternoon. Five year old Ava Sawyer went to a birthday party at a garden centre but went missing and never came home. The police had no leads, however two years later, Ava’s body is found. Then Audrey Briggs goes missing. Audrey attended the same birthday party as Ava. Is there a connection? It’s down to Natalie to find out.

This book is a gripping and pacy read from the first page. I really liked the main character and thought the whole plot line flowed well.

A great read and I look forward to the next instalment. Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and the author for the chance to review.

Ok, so its official--Carol Wyer is a must-read for me!! I love her DI Robyn Carter series, so I was thrilled to see that she started a new one. Judging by the first book, I know I'm going to love this series as well.

This one begins with a birthday party for kids when a young girl goes missing, she's never found. Flash forward two years and the bones of a child is discovered. This starts a new killing spree that sees children being killed. In comes a new detective in the area, Natalie Ward, that heads the investigation. Not only is she dealing with personal problems but, she also feels she has to prove to herself that she can solve this before more children are killed. I liked the character of Natalie. She's tough but isn't perfect. I really enjoy Carol's writing. Its feels like watching an episode of a crime series. Her books are solid as far as thrillers go. I can't wait to see more of Natalie in the future.

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is great read. There is a lot of suspense and a lot happening. The characters are good and the plot kept me reading. I have read some of Carol Wyers other books and enjoyed them all.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I really loved the main characters and the brilliant plot. I read this book in one sitting and could not put it down. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

This story begins with every parent's biggest fear; a child goes missing from a birthday party & isn't found. Fast forward abt 2yrs and an excavation company find the body of the missing child, Ava. Her case is reopened and DI Natalie Ward is in charge. This case brings up a past failure for Natalie, along with current troubles from her home life. Without giving anything away, this definitely had me thinking. I had a few suspicions but did figure it out. This was a 3.75-4 stars for me. Look forward to more books involving DI Ward & her team.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for allowing me to read this ARC book, The Birthday by Carol Wyer and giving my opinion.
**spoiler alert**
This is my 1st book from this author and I can say I was pretty happy with it. DI Natalie Ward is called in on a case of a childs body being uncovered on a construction site, as she is trying to find out the circumstances of how this child got there another little girl goes missing ...now Natalie needs to find out who is killing little girls and it all seems to stem from a little missing girl that disappeared from a birthday party just a few years back....
There are alot of good, well fleshed out characters to sink your teeth into, story moves along at a pretty good pace am looking forward to the next book.

I have really enjoyed Carol Wyer’s books so far, so of course I knew I had to try out her new detective series as soon as I heard about it. And who can resist that cover and blurb?! I was looking forward to reading The Birthday and while not perfect, it was without doubt a good start of a new series. Of course the writing is just as strong as ever, with a quality I have become used to and a way to charm you into flipping page after page without putting the book down. The case in The Birthday is both intriguing and will chill you to the bone... Child kidnappings are always so hard to read about, especially if there are multiple lives on the line. The things that happen in this detective thriller will give any parent nightmares, and even childless readers will be emotionally invested. There is definitely a lot to love in The Birthday, so why didn't I rate it higher? Well, this mostly has to do with the new main character we meet. Sadly, I wasn't able to connect to the new detective or most of her team. Instead of refreshing and interesting, I found especially Natalie Ward to be mostly cliche and I really do hate cheating characters. There was nothing 'new' this team added to the genre for me, nothing original to cause a spark. I am willing to give detective Natalie Ward and her team a second chance though, mostly because the writing, plot development and suspense are spot on. And there are without doubt a few twists hidden in there that will manage to surprise you!

As I said before, there is a lot to love in The Birthday. The writing is solid and engaging, making you fly through the pages. The plot is interesting, suspenseful and has just the right amount of twists for me. I did guess part of the ending, but overall you are left in the dark most of the time. My only problem was with the new detective and her team; I simply wasn't able to warm up to her and found both her personal life and way of investigating to be mostly cliche or at least not that original. I'm still curious about the sequel though.

Sadly, this book did nothing for me. Detective Natalie Ward is one of those characters that is flawed. She has personal issues that a little bit creep into her work life; yet she does try her hardest to find that balance. I wanted to point this out as I do like "flawed" characters. It shows they are vulnerable and can make them more relatable as well. Which Natalie was for me. Yet, my issue was not with her but more about the story as a whole package.

The story was uninteresting with most of the other characters being just as uninteresting. Even the voice of the killer was muted down. Thus the storyline dragged on and on. It was hard for me to keep finding interest in this book. However, I was determined to finish it as I wanted to see how it would end. Which, I was left unsatisfied by the ending. This is the worst. To read a whole book; only to come to the ending and be left unsatisfied. Plus, I can't really remember any of the other characters names in the story. I will not be continuing this series.

Another stunning story from Carol Wyer. This is the first book in a new series featuring DI Natalie Ward and her team. This is a really good police procedural with great characters. Although I guessed the murderer, it was still gripping.

I was very glad to be able to read this first in a new series by Carol Wyer. Unfortunately, I was not as enthousiastic about this as all the other reviewers. It must be me, because it was very well written. I just could not remember all the names and kept mixing everyone up. Must be the old age! I hope this will not keep people from reading it because the story line is really good

Although I really wanted to love this book, it was just meh for me. The story drew me in very quickly but the ending failed to deliver the unexpected twist I so desire in a mystery/thriller type of book.

The story starts with a little girl named Ava disappearing from a birthday party. Two years later and her body has not been found. Then little girls who attended the same party start showing up dead in random places of the town wearing yellow dresses just like Ava had been wearing the day she disappeared. Enter Detective Natalie Ward, mother of two. Detective Ward does her best to ignore the distractions at home and dives into the case. Like, I said the story was very entertaining and had some great characters in it, both reliable and unreliable, but the ending just fell flat. There were several chapters in the book told from the point of view of the killer and it was clear he was very disturbed, but there were no clues to lead the reader to the aha moment in the end. 

Thank you to Netgalley, Carol Wyer, and Bookouture for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Reading this book gave me chills as I can only imagine what the family of a missing child goes through.

The story was absorbing and had a really great new lead is Natalie Ward. Let's just say that while I think she is a great detective I think she needs to learn to prioritize.

Her life is not easy and she made mistakes which could have ended her marriage and her family life.

I really enjoyed this character and can see her grow with each book that will be released. It is nice to really see a character that stands out from the beginning.

Wonderful book

I was excited to read this new book from Carol Wyer as I love her Robyn Carter series so much. I thought I hope i won't be disappointed and boy I wasn't .Great story, love the detective I was hooked from the start. I thought i had worked out who the killer was but i was wrong lol Still love the other series as they are set where I live but can't wait to see what happens in the next in this series.

This is the first in a series centred around DI Natalie Ward and her team.

2015. 5 year old Ava Sawyer goes missing at a birthday party. Two years later, her body is found, wearing a yellow dress. When two more girls are murdered and found wearing yellow dresses, it is up to DI Ward and her team to ascertain if the murders are copycat killings or if the girls are victims to the same killer.

I really enjoyed this book. We learn a little about the detectives throughout the story, but it is very skilfully done, with the main emphasis being on the murders.

The characters come across as very human and are well written. There are plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing - I couldn’t work out the murderer until near the end of the book

This is the first book I have read by this author, but it certainly won’t be my last. I certainly look forward to reading more about Natalie and her team.

Thank you to the author, Bookouture and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this story in exchange for my unpaid, honest review.