This was a pretty good thriller. It checked off almost everything a thriller is supposed to do, however it just fell a little flat for me. I saw the twist coming, and predicted a lot of the book. I will say the writing wasn’t bad, and it was enjoyable, just predictable in my opinion.

Superb! Zoe, an artist, is murdered in her bath. Aiden had been on-line waiting to face chat with Zoe. Instead, he witnesses a person coming in quietly and Zoe in distress. When Zoe is quiet, Aiden sees the person leave .but nothing to identify him/her. Aiden is afraid to alert the police - EVERYTHING would "come out" if he did. He calls the police about an hour later, reporting to the police yet not leaving his name. The following day his guilt at not reporting what he had heard and seen on his computer impels him send a police report online.

As the story progresses we find that a number of people could be responsible for this murder. Jonah and his police squad have a lot of people to interview. It seems as if the list gets longer as the plot deepens.

Great characterization and an excellent plot! I, as probably some of the other readers, kept changing my mind as to who is guilty of this crime; made to look somewhat as a suicide.

Many Thanks to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for a suspenseful and enjoyable read.

A twisty turning thriller a video chat that goes wrong or has it.A book that had me racing through the pages.Part two in a series characters that come alive highly recommend.#randomhouse#netgalley

A man watches in helpless horror as his girlfriend is attacked during their video chat session. He immediately calls the police to report the crime, but he fails to provide the woman's address. Flashbacks from the victim's perspective combined with the present-day experiences of multiple other players slowly reveal the truth of what's happened. Twisty and suspenseful.

Okay, it’s another fast and intriguing reading burned a lot of my grey cells. (Dunking my head in icy bucket to put down the fire) I have to admit I had a great time ( Even though my grey cells packed their bags and want to abandon my head forever)

The book is starting fast. We’re quickly introduced (actually we are not! Correction: We just see a random guy name Aidan who sits in front of his computer and we are not sure if he is pervert or a normal human being! He may be soul twin of Joe Goldberg! I have to stop binge watching second season of YOU) Aidan Poople staring his computer screen. Nope, he doesn’t watch something inappropriate, at least not at first. He got a Skype call from his girlfriend and accepts it but she is nowhere to be seen. He can only see her empty living room and hear water splashing so he realizes she is in the bath. Is it some kind of sick fantasy? Well, he gets intrigued and waits for more patiently. But what the hell, he sees that the front door slowly opens. Somebody is in the house. Does his girlfriend have an affair with someone?

He hears the footsteps and opening of the bathroom door, more water splashing and… few minutes later, the front door slowly closes again. What the hell happened? Breaking and entering? Is his girlfriend okay? Should he call 999?

Quiet a great opening, what do you think? Like a thrilling opening of your favorite crime series! Let’s move on and see how this incident will connect us with our crime team. (If you already read the first book: “She lies in wait”, you already know the members and get ready to welcome them with open arms.)
DCI Jonah Sheens receives Aidan’s weird message: a guy is worried about his girlfriend’s well-being! He thinks she might be in big trouble!So he makes his Google research, gathering pieces, finding the name and address to check out the girlfriend’s situation. Her name is Zoe Swardadine. Yes, she is definitely dead!

It’s time to suit up and put his team into play. Domnall O’Malley: experienced, elder member of the team, smart, analytic, Juliette: enthusiastic member of the team, also smart, suffering some issues with her past and Ben is most secretive member of the team, he is so quiet and gives me a little creeps.

So this book gave me mind spinning because I changed my mind so many times to decide who the killer is. Angelina, Maeve, Victor, anyone from her past? My spider senses gave me their resignation letter because they thought they were useless.

At the end I finally found whodunit but I felt really exhausted and left my body hit the couch to take a long nap to ease my nerves.

I loved the first book and this one is also quite remarkable sequel. I’m so ready to read more adventures of this team.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for sharing this ARC COPY with me in exchange my honest review.

Didn't realize this was a sequel, and not interested in reading the first. Passing on this one (too many books to read too little time!)

The story was fine, but the threads that tie it to the other books in the series were whisper thin and felt like afterthoughts. Also, and I'm pretty sure this is just me being weird, some of the names were too similar - I got characters mixed up through the whole thing (where this usually diminishes in the first 20 pages or so).

Thank you to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of Watching from the Dark.

I love police procedurals and I read the first book in this series so I was happy when my request was approved.

In the second book of the Jonah Sheens series, a young woman named Zoe is murdered off-camera as her lover, Aidan, watches on Skype.

As Sheens and his team probe into the case, he discovers Aidan and Zoe's coterie of friends all have something to hide, but who was angry enough to murder her?

Watching from the Dark is my type of mystery; a detective and his team sussing out clues, interviewing suspects and witnesses and pounding the pavement to get to the truth of the case and the real story behind the victim.

Unfortunately, I found it hard to get invested in the story.

First, there were too many suspects and too much filler; who they were, what they were hiding, who was sleeping with whom, what they were wearing, how much makeup they had on, etc.

This needed a hard edit of 50 pages, at least, and nothing of the story would be lost.

Second, Zoe and her witless friends were unlikable. The women possessed no self esteem and desperately sought men to validate their self worth and identity; the men were portrayed as jealous, possessive creatures with little to no character development.

Third, I figured out whodunit early on, and the perp gives a tutorial on how he/she did it, which I enjoyed but wished we had arrived at that point sooner rather than slogging through all the unnecessary filler in the beginning.

I loved the premise of Watching from the Dark, and though the writing was good, the pace dragged, and there was a lack of urgency and suspense.

Starting off this book I didn't notice that it was part of a series and while there were some references to the previous, I do believe that you can read this as a stand alone, though I plan to go and read the first book as well.
Aidan is skyping his girlfriend Zoe as normal, late one night and then he hears through the video chat a violent struggle off screen when she gets up to use the bathroom. Most people would immediately call 999, but he doesn't, why?
As we delve into who murdered her and why Aidan does not do things that someone normally would in his situation, the story takes many twists and turns, It is an excellent psychological thriller rolled into a police procedural.
Dive into this book and be sure to grab the first one and the ones forthcoming.

I loved the cover and the premise of Watching from the Dark. Unfortunately, I didn't care for the book. While I did finish reading it, it was a slog for me. Thank you for the advanced copy even though I personally did not enjoy the story.

Watching From the Dark, despite the bright colorful science-fiction-like cover, is a British police procedural. The investigation follows after an online video chat reveals what appears to be a murder in the background. Aidan thinks he’ll chat with Zoe, but he hears her in the bath, then the sound of someone quickly attacking her. Or at least he thinks she does.

It probably would have been more interesting if Aidan didn’t know Zoe in real life. Because then you’d have him trying to prove it was true and trying to prove Zoe really existed and was not some prank played on him. Hell, you could have had Aidan questioning his own sanity. Or. Ring locked away cause the authorities think he’s half outta his brain. Alas, the novel failed to take us in these interesting directions and was filled with banter about what eyeliner to wear and Aidan just being a louse (and not a very interesting one at that).

All in all, for my tastes, just a trip down to Dullsville with the dedicated scent of stale rotting air.

I received an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review

Generally not a police procedural series kinda gal but I loved this one even more than the first one, which was phenomenal. You can really get caught up in all the characters as well as the twists and I tore through it. Easy five

Feeling powerless to help someone you love has got to be one of the most awful feelings there is. Aiden Poole surely knows that feeling all too well after he logs in to Skype with his girlfriend one night . He can’t see what’s happening in her apartment, but he can hear the sounds of a violent struggle occurring off camera. But then why does he not contact the police right away? By the time police arrive at Zoe’s apartment, it’s too late. As DCI Jonah Sheens dig into the victim’s life, they can’t find anyone with anything bad to say about the young artist. She does have a rather unconventional circle of friends, could one of them be to blame, or is Aidan more involved than he alludes. This is a visceral thriller that kept me glued and up way past my bedtime

This book was received as an ARC from Random House Publishing Group - Random House in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I did not know what to expect from this book and I was shockingly intrigued from each page I have read throughout this book. I am a fan of mysteries but I am not a fan of murder stories and this one was very intense for my liking and on the creepy side too. Aidan skypes his girlfriend Zoe but finds her caught in the middle of a argument and then it goes dead silent with Aidan hesitating to call the police. He sends codes to the police server and then detective chief Jonah Sheens and his team take on the case and when they find the body, there is more than meets the eye including a long kept secret that only Aidan could tell. My jaw dropped so much when I read this book and found out the truth about the murder. Just when you thought you knew who did it, the case takes a new turn and information presented does not add up and its now vital for the case. A lot of our patrons love books such as this so it will do very well at our library.

We will consider adding this title to our Mystery collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

So imagine this. You’re on the computer late one night, waiting for your girlfriend to appear on your Skype feed. You can see her empty living room & it sounds like she’s in the bath. Suddenly, in the corner of the screen, you see the edge of her front door slowly open. Soft foot steps echo down the hallway. The next thing you hear is the sound of splashing water. Minutes later, you watch in horror as the front door quietly closes. Silence.

Aidan Poole doesn’t have to imagine it. He’s left staring at the screen, terrified by what he just witnessed. Clearly Zoe needs help ASAP. So then why is he strangely reluctant to call 999?


Now THAT’s how it’s done, folks. If this prologue doesn’t grab you, you’re…ungrabbable. Or possibly in a coma. If you read “She Lies in Wait”, you’ll be familiar with the returning cast.

DCI Jonah Sheens is back & as the story begins he receives a weird message at the Hampshire Constabulary: some guy called about some girl somewhere in the area who might be in trouble. Or dead. Huh? After consulting the records (and Google) he finally comes up with a name & address. A quick visit confirms that yes, Zoe Swardadine is in fact very dead. Time to gather the team.

Domnall O’Malley, Juliette Hanson & Ben Lightman make up his close knit squad & they waste no time assembling a list of Zoe’s nearest & dearest. Let’s see….there’s Aidan, the boyfriend with everything to lose. Angeline is a close friend who clearly has some issues. Maeve is her former room mate with a complicated love life. Victor is the co-worker who quietly carried a torch for her. And then there’s Felix, the older man who was her landlord.

What follows is a layered story full of people with something to hide. The challenge for the squad is figuring out which of their secrets are related to the murder. As little snippets of information surface, each of the people in Zoe’s life will top the list of suspects at one time or another.

Alternating with the present day investigation are chapters that begin 20 months before her death. Here we get the history of how Zoe & Aidan met & the complex relationships between the gang. As these progress, they begin to inform the present & change how you view each of the characters. You’ll find yourself giving one of them the side-eye & thinking Aha!. Then you read the next chapter & suddenly someone else becomes your prime suspect.

This is not an action packed, shoot-em-up kind of procedural. It’s a twisty psychological suspense story that touches on the darker sides of human nature such as obsession, jealousy, deception & the damage people do to each other. The middle section showcases the grunt work cops endure that makes or breaks a case. It’s also where they (and the reader) pick up the clues that ultimately point them in the direction of Zoe’s killer.

By the end of book #1, I knew the regulars were characters I wanted to meet again so I really enjoyed this. It’s a pleasure to come across a police force portrayed in a way that avoids the usual tropes of office politics & backstabbing. Instead you have distinct characters who actually get along & each brings something different to the table. Domnall is the elder statesman of the squad with a dry wit. Juliette is smart, keen & there are hints of a developing subplot concerning her past. Ben is a quiet guy who is bit of an enigma. And holding them all together is Jonah. He’s a likeable man who’s only really comfortable when he’s on the job. As for his personal life…well, that needs a little work.

All in all, a creepy & intricate story with an ending that may surprise many readers. Job done.