Oh wow, what an amazing read!

It has been quite a while since a book has kept me up late into the night. Flowers for the Dead did not let me sleep last night. It got under my skin and held me captive to the last page.

Adam lives in his mind where he constantly falls in love with women who don’t even know that he exists. Worse still, he goes ahead and starts dating them. Yeah, the women are still oblivious of this ‘boyfriend’. His latest obsession is Laura, a young woman lost in grief after having lost her whole family. Adam sets his eyes on her convinced that she is ‘The One’. The events that follow almost had me sleeping with the nights on.

This story was super addictive. It had multiple narrators but still maintained an easy flow so I never got lost. I also like the fact that all the narrations were equally enthralling. Adam’s dark mind is a scary, twisted place to be. However, I was fascinated and repulsed in equal measure by him. The different timelines were also so cleverly brought together in an explosive, jaw -dropping ending.

What a creepy, dark, cracking read! Well-written, stellar character development, descriptive, everything worked out great in this one. I absolutely loved this book. I am also impressed by the amount of research on flowers and their meanings. I will never look at flowers the way same again. Next time I receive flowers, I’ll wonder what they mean.

I highly recommend this book to fans of serial killer /dark thrillers!

This was an enjoyable read and I liked the characters. Laura is being stalked and no one takes her seriously. Mike is the police officer who is trying to get over the death of his wife.
This was written from the POV of Laura, Mike and Laura’s stalker, Adam. Adam’s story is told in present day and the past to explain how he has become who he is which was the best part of the book.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#FlowersfortheDead #NetGalley

4.5 stars rounded up to 5

All Adam Bourne wants to do is to find love and he is prepared to do anything to find it. He has endured a childhood of abuse from his mother. The only person who showed him love was his grandma. She taught him all about flowers and read fairytales to him. We follow Adam as he searches for unhappy women, all he wants to do is make them happy.

The story is told in the past and present day format. Each chapter is named after a flower and its meaning. This is a disturbing but cleverly crafted story. I actually felt sorry for Adam and the way he had been treated whilst growing up. There are some great characters in this creepy read. The symbolic connection with the flowers was cleverly done. Its told from the perpetrators (Adam) perspective which is quite unusual. Getting into the mind of a serial killer was fascinating. I was on tender hooks all the way through this tense psychological thriller.

I would like to thank #NetGalley, #Bookouture and the author #BarbaraCopperthwaite for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Laura lost her family in a tragic accident and is still engulfed in grief. Adam is drawn to Laura when he first sees her and he knows that Laura is the one for him. Laura doesn't know Adam, in fact they have never met, but that won't stop him being the perfect boyfriend.

The synopsis to this book looked intriguing but I found it quite heavy going to read. The story line moves slowly and none of the characters held any appeal. Judging by other reviews though, I am in the minority as many people seemed to enjoy it.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Bookouture, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

This is a gripping crime thriller that well and truly had me hooked right from the beginning.
We learn about Adam’s childhood from some flashback chapters and whilst his gran cared for him, his mother damaged him and his father wasn’t really there much.
It’s interesting how the experiences he has change him gradually from a sensitive boy into a killer.
Adam targets women who he sees out alone and the starts to follow them and let himself into their homes.
He sends them flowers and leaves other presents for them before showing his love by killing them.
Flowers play a big part in his life so he honours the women by leaving flowers next to them after he’s killed them.
Laura knows something is not right as she’s been receiving flowers and food is being left in her fridge with no explanation. She even came home to a cooked meal laid out on the table for her.
She goes to the Police but at first they laugh it off and don’t take it seriously but Laura is determined to make them listen. After the final straw of the camera she installs to catch the stalker is stolen, she asks for someone senior and won’t take no for an answer.
There are other women that Adam has killed and Mike pieces it all together and realises that Laura is in danger.
This book has a nail biting conclusion that I got totally drawn into and I’m not sure I took a breath throughout it!
This is a great crime thriller that I can highly recommend.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

A serial killer love story?

So many mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, Copperthwaite is really talented. She does a good job getting into the heads of her characters and building suspense, and her dialogue is tight.

But at its core, this book just didn’t work for me, largely because of its theme and tone. Adam is a serial killer who is in love with his victims and thinks he’s taking care of them when he kills them. Nothing new in this theme...right down to his evil mother, it’s all stuff I’ve read before, and enjoyed on some occasions. The difference here is that everything from Adam’s perspective is written like a romance novel. I understand that’s how he thinks of his victims but the tone of the book, to me, really sought to make you “understand” his perspective as this lovelorn, misunderstood serial killer with the terrible mother and sexual dysfunctions. This was not a character I particularly wanted to empathize with or emote with and there was not too much psychologically interesting about this or him. As the book got closer to the end, we saw more of the victim perspective, but I’d already had too much creepy incel romanticization by that point. I was mostly sticking around to see him hopefully get knocked off by his victim but has developed a lot of frustration with the perspective on him by that point. (And ultimately didn’t find the ending all that satisfying.)

I much prefer books with tone and themes like Catherine Ryan Howard’s Nothing Man to this one. In that book, Howard makes the point about how much our society romanticizes male serial killers when in actuality they are pretty weak, damaged individuals who are primarily seeking power in their own sad lives.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the theme the author used here can work, but it needed a different tone. In this instance I felt the writer was a little too into the romantic perspective of the lonely serial killer who just wanted to be loved, and that turned me way off.

Four stars for the writing quality, two stars for the theme and tone, so three stars overall from me.

Thanks very much to Bookouture and NetGalley for the advance copy.

There are clearly influences here from some of the great gothic romance writers of the past: Daphne du Maurier and Victoria Holt to name but two. I also felt the ghost of the late, great Ruth Rendell (particularly when she was wearing her Barbara Vine disguise) reading alongside me. Barbara Copperthwaite combines the talent of all the above into her own stylish skill.
As the story in the present day progresses, so we are given glimpses of the story in the past unfolding. Adam could be quite a catch but sadly he is a sociopath, combining a love of flowers with a skill for human mutilation. He could be one of Patricia Highsmith's deliciously evil anti-heroes.
Dark, dramatic, incredible and utterly believable. I loved it.

I love this authors stories and this was fabulous I loved it so much. It really had me engaged, I was glued to the pages unable to put it down. I got totally sucked into the story, and read it in one sitting. It really was totally unputdownable. Full of tension and suspense it had me sitting on the edge of my seat almost holding my breath. A big thumbs up for Barbara Copperthwaite you knocked it out of the park with this one.

A really good compelling read. This story looks at 3 sides, the victims and the perpetrator and the police. Adam’s life is told a piece at a time so that the reader can try to work out what happened to him that made him want to murder people. It is an intriguing memorable thriller.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Flowers for the Dead by Barbara Copperthwaite follows protocol for the all-too-familiar thriller/police procedural plot, but still manages to create a very unique and terrifying serial killer.
The novel bounces back and forth between multiple characters, including Mike who is a recently widowed police detective. Nothing stands out about Mike. He's the typical damaged detective trying to balance his life as a single father with his career hunting the bad guys. He may be a little rough around the edges, but it's a given that he has a heart of gold. Laura is a young woman trying to bring herself out of the pits of depression after being the sole survivor in a horrific car accident that killed her entire family. There's nothing too memorable about her, but I did enjoy watching her evolve from a victim to a proactive and confident woman.

While dealing with her grief, Laura unknowingly catches the attention of Adam, the psychotic serial killer and star of the story. Adam is unusual because he spends a significant amount of time wooing his victims. When he finds a woman who seems perfect for him, he falls fast and he falls hard. He sends these unlucky ladies messages via the types of flowers he sets on their doorsteps. He buys them groceries and tidies up their homes for them while they're sleeping. He puts their every need in front of his own. Sounds like a catch, right? The only problem is he does all of this in complete secrecy, using hidden surveillance systems to spy on the women who have no clue who Adam is. They all react to his attention differently. Some start to believe they're going crazy, while others just assume an ex is pulling out all the stops to get back together. One thing that stays the same, however, is that Adam eventually feels unappreciated, hurt, angry, etc. That doesn't bode well for the current recipient of his affections.

What I found to be unique about this novel was that the reader spends much of his/her time watching the story unfold through Adam's perspective. Most thrillers I read either ignore the serial killer's POV entirely as a way of keeping the mystery and fear factor high or they only give brief glimpses into the bad guy's thought process. In Flowers for the Dead, the author uses flashbacks to show the reader Adam's entire life, beginning with his childhood as a young boy and up to the present time. His younger years are not simply glossed over. While this does make the story's presentation stand out from a lot of the other novels in the same genre, I'm not sure if it was the best use of the reader's time. In fact, one of my complaints is that I feel there was far too much time spent on Adam's backstory. His experiences are quite heavy and if the point was to show how he evolved into becoming the monster he is later in life, that could have been accomplished in about half the number of pages. The extra background slowed the momentum of the story and caused me to feel like I was slogging through at a glacial pace.

Overall, the writing was great and the storyline was definitely very creepy. Readers with sensitivities should be aware that there were grotesque descriptions as well as disturbing child sexual abuse in the novel. Had I known about the latter, I probably would have skipped this read altogether, but that is my personal preference. If you're looking for a scary thriller to keep you up at night, this would definitely do the trick!

*Thanks to the author, Bookouture, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

i so enjoyed .Adam has no look with women so he think he can save women he becomes a serial killer . but i kind of felt sorry for Adam he is quite loveable .the love the policeman and his daughter in the book highly recommend very good story .

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exhange for an honest review.
I thought the book was an addictive, disturbing and chilling psychological thriller.
I found interesting to see how the character became a killer.
I would definitely read another book by this author.

What a crazy book !

You won't look at flowers the same way after reading this book.

From the front cover to the last page I loved it.

Adam is desperate not to be alone , so he has a bit of a stalking issue.

Laura has survived a horrible family crash but it quick to think someone is coming in to her flat

Adam , well he had the worst childhood (other than his Grandma but even her)

I found myself afraid of Adam and yet I had a bit of sympathy for him , he was almost made into what he is today.

Its gruesome, you will hold your breath, you will scream at the police to listen and most of all you will be turning the pages so fast.

I can't wait to check out Barbara Copperthwaite's other books.

Thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture for a nail biting read. Don't miss this one!

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Adam is basically a stalker. He does nice things for women he thinks he is in love with but they literally don’t know he exists. His latest “love interest” is Laura, who is still recovering from losing her family in a car accident 4 years ago. This book alternates between Adam’s time stalking Laura and his life as a child up until the present.

I am sorry to say this book was just ok for me. I think I skimmed the synopsis and somehow missed this was a stalker book. They aren’t really my thing because I feel like there are no real surprises or mysteries that unfold, it is just a story. This is my second novel from this author and since I enjoyed the previous one I will likely read more from her.

‘Flowers for the Dead’ is an amazing chiller. With every passing chapter I felt the hairs on my neck prickling with an uneasy itch. I loved that a lot of this book was written from the stalkers POV. This gave it a creepy edge, one in which I really enjoyed reading.

I quite often say ‘wow’ after devouring a book at speed. This took me a few days longer to read but it’s a mega wow. The story was epic as it spanned the years and took me on a journey. I felt that I wanted to take in every sentence as I didn’t want to miss out on the characterisation that was being built. I enjoyed savouring it all and taking my time.

Laura’s chapters gave me the shivers and it was great seeing Adam’s story unfolding, from childhood to present. I loved the symbolic use of flowers throughout, very cleverly used and researched.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves an absolutely chilling psychological thriller, one which will have you hearing things that aren’t there in the night and one that will shock and sadden at the same time. I’m still thinking about it now. It will give you the heebie jeebies - eek!

We've read many suspense or crime thrillers which are often based from the victims' perspective but rarely from the perpetrators'. "Flowers for the Dead" surprised me not only it is a story about the perpetrator but also, I've learnt quite a few things about flowers and their meanings at the beginning of each chapter.

Adam Bourne is a serial killer who has murdered a few women whom he thinks they're his lovers. Adam would set his eyes on a particular woman, then he'd start to "serenade" her by leaving them flowers, doing their chores without her knowing that she is being stalked. Adam's initial thoughts is to find love through these gestures but what he's done has crossed the line and sent a danger signal to the woman. But eventually the woman always has no chance for saving herself, because Adam is always one step ahead of her and the police as well. Laura Weir is his latest target, and he intends to make hers his and this time around, he'd make sure that Laura would begin to see his sincerity behind his every moves.

Adam's sinister mind and acts began to take a turn when the reader read about his past as a boy. Unlike the monster he is at present, young Adam was actually a shy boy who had utter admiration and love for his grandmother. Growing up with a father who was always at work and a mother who always belittle and abuse him, Adam sought solace in his grandmother's fairy tales and learning the language of flowers since she loved gardening so much. Through her grandmother's love and attention, Adam was able to endure all the nonsense and abuse inflicted by his mother but his tolerance and his mind eventually snapped after a love confession to a girl gone wrong and that his grandmother passed from a terminal illness.

In many ways, this book read as a crime thriller. But, Adam's sad past also made this an intriguing case of character study as we watch how little, shy, eager-to-please Adam gradually becomes an obsessive and a frightening serial killer. Adam was, no doubt, a perpetrator but before that, he was also a victim so the reaction towards him wasn't only one-sided. On the other end, Laura Weir and Detective Sergeant Michael Bishop have their own stories as well so overall this was quite an engaging read and of course the best thing is, knowing the language of flowers.

This was a disturbing, creepy but addictive read! Adam just wants to be loved but goes about it in a strange way by stalking women. He suffers from delusion and believes he is in a relationship with them.

A high standard twisted thriller which was unsettling and gruesome but still I couldn't put it down!

Some moving moments full of complex compelling characters, a fantastic gripping read with some breath holding moments.

I enjoyed this book and the concept of it. It was quite original knowing the perpetrator from the beginning of the book. The murderer is portrayed in a way that makes you feel sorry for him right up until the end. But rather strangely I found he was the only character that I connected with in the story.

The downside to this book is that there are so many characters involved from the beginning that it is hard to keep track. I feel that it could have benefitted from the character jumps within chapters to be made clearer etc rather than just with dates. As there are so any timelines and storylines to follow.

But regardless of this, it is a good book. And I love a stalker themed book. Always gives me chills.

I will add that this book does involve some difficult storylines including abuse. Which i found difficult to read and perhaps may not have chosen this book had I of known in advance.

Oh my word! A horrifying and thoroughly entertaining read which has you gasping out warnings to the characters in the book. So well written you are living in the story. An excellent and thoroughly engrossing read.