The Harper Family disappeared from Ivy Cottage ten years ago. When from journalist Naomi sees the house is for sale, she convinces her husband to buy it with a view to solving the case. However after moving there with stepdaughter Morgan, it appears they are unwelcome in the village. This is a boom of secrets, lies and a sleepy village with a dark past. This book will grip you and entertain to the end. Thank you to NetGalley, Amazon Publishing and the author for the chance to review.

5 stars
Not at all what I expected. I do feel there is a audience for this book. It is not for me. Thanks for the ARC of this book.

As a fan of the DI Amy Winter series I was looking forward to The Village which is a stand-alone by Caroline Mitchell, however, I was disappointed as the story was unbelievable and at times almost comical with the numerous twists in the last few pages only adding to this feeling.

Sorry not really one for me.

Fairly obvious little thriller from Caroline Mitchell.

I am a fan of her series but her stand-alones are usually pretty hit or miss. This one is a miss.

Family goes missing, years later a crime journalist moves to the village to research. The townspeople sniff her out and don't let her into any secrets.

Eh, it was just okay.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity.

Crime journalist Naomi, with her new husband and stepdaughter, buy a house, Ivy Cottage, in the village of Nightbrook. It's the former home of the Harper family that disappeared without a trace ten years ago. Naomi is determined to solve the mystery. The villagers of Nightbrook do not wish them a warm welcome. Instead they seem to be doing their best to drive them away.
This book has a creepy vibe from the very beginning. The truth is revealed so slowly and gradually, that I could not stop reading as I wanted to know what happens next. There are so many twists and turns. I thought I had everything figured out, but the story took a turn into something completely unexpected.
Most of the characters felt very real. The family dynamics and Morgan's struggles to accept her new stepmother were portrayed so well. As well as the downward spiral of the Harper family. Great reading.

Naomi is an investigative journalist who recently quit her job to get married and join her new husband and (reluctant) stepdaughter in a new life in the countryside. But she's hiding something important from her new family: the house she picked out in the small village of Nighbrook to start over in is the same house from which the Harper family disappeared 10 years prior. She's been obsessed by the strange case for years. The family of three vanished seemingly into thin air and the village has kept their mouths shut about it since, shunning outsiders. But Naomi is determined to solve the case once and for all. But it soon becomes apparent that people in the village are also determined - to keep things quiet, at any cost.

This book had a great mystery at the heart of it - with an entire family simply vanishing into thin air, with almost no leads. So what happened? And the story gets almost strangers ad stranger as the story reveals itself more and more - I loved that part of it. It was super interesting. The narrative moves between the present and the events of ten years ago, leading up to the Harper family's disappearance, so we get to see the actual events play out and the learn about them through Naomi's investigation.

The characters are also the big stars of this book - Naomi, Morgan and Grace, to name a few. There's several that are real standouts and make you really question which side they're on and what their motives are. It keep you on your toes. Overall This book was just full of suspense, top to bottom!

When the dust finally settled my jaw was left hanging open with all the twists and turns that went on. The author does a really good job of bringing everything together and wrapping things up nicely - I was really satisfied with the ending. This book is one you have to read until the very end too, things keep being revealed until the last few pages, so don't skip anything!

Overall, if you like suspense and mysteries that will keep you turning pages - don't sleep on this one!

I was really intrigued by this and excited to start it. I was not disappointed. It was very easy to read and kept me gripped. There were a few surprises mixed in with a few mysteries that I got just before the clincher happened. All in all I would definitely recommend this to fans of crime thrillers.

This book is Caroline Mitchell at her best, this book was amazing, I loved it. Thrilling, tense and twisty it kept me engaged and interested right from page one to the finish. A great read that I don’t hesitate in recommending. A big fat five stars from me. Loved it!

Not my kind of read and I should’ve known this book wasn’t going to be for me. I could appreciate what the other did, but unfortunately I couldn’t get into the book.

Fast paced thriller with lots of twists and turns. A sleepy village with lots of secrets,a family who disappeared and a gutsy determined journalist. A good read.

Sadly, this was a DNF for me. After trying a few times, I still felt I could neither relate to any of the characters, nor understand their motivations. Perhaps this is due to some domestic thriller fatigue on my part as I am finding it difficult at the moment to buy into far fetched premises and get very annoyed with plot holes. So I am conceding that this book just isn't a good match at this time.

I consider myself a fan of Caroline Mitchell's detective thrillers, and there was just something about The Village that caught my eye immediately. The family missing without a trace, the whole village somehow hiding something... Spending time in Nighbrook sounded very much intriguing indeed. Now that I've had the chance to read this newest stand-alone, I'm surprised I found myself having mixed thoughts instead... Although it might just have been simply the wrong time for me to read this story.

The fact is: psychological thrillers and me somehow don't tend to see eye to eye anymore, or at least when the story has a noticable domestic/family focus. I was hoping the whole mystery around the missing family would be enough to keep me intrigued, but while I still love the premise behind The Village, the execution was a bit lacking for me personally. I'm struggling to put my finger on the why, but it's possible that these feelings had to do with my lack of connection to the characters. I wasn't able to warm up to any of them, and I'm not sure some of their actions are all that credible... Especially Naomi was hard to like with her moving her new family into a house that is both falling apart and has a dark past; only thinking of herself and her obsession with the missing family case and the village. The story is mostly character-driven, so being unable to connect to any of them made it harder to stay invested in what was happening in Nighbrook.

The writing itself is solid, and makes it still easy to keep turning those pages despite a slower pace during most of the story. Some of the plot twists were very easy to guess, which was a bit of a disappointment... Although things did improve towards the ending both in pacing, plot and entertainment level. I'm not sure if how everything wrapped up was exactly credible, but it made for a surprise at least I guess... It took a long time for things to pick up though, and with the slower pace, unlikeable characters and lack of credibility I don't think The Village is my favorite of her work. That said, part of the problem is most likely me as most (partly) domestic focused psychological thrillers and me don't seem to get along all that well right now.

I’m a big fan of Caroline Mitchell’s series, but I have a more hit or miss relationship with her stand alones. This one was more miss than hit. I wanted to like Naomi. Like her, I was a custodial stepmother to teenage girls as a newlywed. I remember how difficult it was, especially when one daughter went out of her way to cause trouble. But Naomi, a crime journalist, is so obsessed about the Harpers, a family that went missing ten years ago, I just struggled to relate. I mean, she was so obsessed she bought the house they lived in. And this was a house in need of serious repair, but she moved her family in anyway. She didn’t even arrange for the house to be cleaned first or the mold to be removed from the ceiling. And not for lack of money, her husband is a wealthy movie director. It just seemed stupid and unbelievable. So, even though Mitchell painted Naomi as a decent human being and a really good stepmom, I just couldn’t get over her lack of clear thinking.
The reader gets to see what Naomi initially cannot. This is a village that doesn’t want outsiders, let alone nosy outsiders. We’re not privy to what happened with the missing family, but whatever it was the villagers are covering it up.
I just could never get into the story. Clichéd villagers, unbelievable plot points. The ending was pretty good, as it threw my expectations out the window. But the ending couldn’t make up for the first ¾ of the book.
My thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Publishing UK for an advance copy of this book.

This was a good read that I enjoyed I did feel it was a bit far fetched but that in no way spoiled my enjoyment of it. It’s a creepy read in many ways and also disturbing set in a very closed community of villagers who all seem to have something to hide and there were plenty of twists along the way some of which I guessed. It’s a quick read that held my interest throughout and the writing was excellent but that was no surprise as Caroline Mitchell knows how to tell a good tale and that’s just what this book is. The characters were good most of them I disliked but I quite like that in a book, plenty of suspense in the story and overall for me it was a three star read that I can recommend.
My thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK,Thomas and Mercer for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book is brilliant! I can say nothing negative about this one!! Absolutely brilliant from beginning to end.

The Harper family went missing without trace from their family home 10 years ago in the little village of Nighbrook. Naomi and her husband, Ed and her stepdaughter Morgan buy that very house, Naomi is obsessed with the case and has been for years so where better to continue her investigation, she is determined to find out what happened to the Harpers. With a teenage angst stepdaughter to contend with and villagers who are not so welcoming, is she safe in her new home! This book creeped me out, I read it alone one night at home which clearly I shouldn’t have done! It’s a great thriller with plenty of twists, turns and psychological drama, kept me guessing throughout, highly recommend

The Village by Caroline Mitchell is another fabulous book from the author. She never seems to disappoint.
Ten years ago, the Harper family lived a happy life in the village of Nighbrook in the New Forest. But one night the family seemed to just vanish.
Ten years later, Naomi a crime reporter has just married to Ed a film director and Ed’s daughter from a previous marriage Morgan. Morgan thinks that Naomi married her father for this money, and they don’t really get on. But it was impossible to stay with her mother who had mental health problems.
Naomi brought the old Harper house while Ed was on location working so he is not aware of went on in the house. But Naomi is determined to find out what happened ten years ago the Harpers family and so obsessed. Which is the real reason she brought the house. But the villagers of Nighbrook are not the welcoming kind and they want to keep secrets of what happened to the Harpers kept secret. Naomi must deal with the villagers but also the things going wrong in the house. She thinks it is her stepdaughter Morgan getting up to mischief. But things are not always as they seem.
Thank you, Amazon, for a copy of The Village by Caroline Mitchell. The author has once again written thrilling, tense thriller. I also found it quite spooky with the strange things going on in the house. Quite apt for this time of year. This had a great storyline and characters and a surprising ending. 5 stars from me.

Naomi is recently married to a millionaire, with a teenage step daughter who hates her - so far so normal! But Naomi has bought a cottage in the New Forest from which an entire family disappeared overnight with no trace of them a decade later. Her husband Ed has no idea of the provenance of the cottage, but once they have moved in, step daughter Morgan makes it clear that she does.
There are all sorts of warnings about the village - no one stays for long, and the neighbours are not very friendly. But someone must know what happened at the cottage - why won’t anyway say anything? And the Police officer Lloyd Thomas definitely has something to hide - with his monthly meetings with the villagers.
Naomi is determined to find out what happened, except when things start happening to her and Morgan whilst Ed is away.
An easy holiday read in a few hours.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book doesnt just have twists in it. Theres full blown backflips and cartwheels. I dont think more than 10 pages would go by without me going Woah/Whaaaaaa? but in a good way. Definitely deserves more that just 5/5 stars.

I have ever read any books in this series. But "The Village" was great! There are suspenseful parts and it excites me. When i finished already, i very surprise.
Maybe i'll to read the books in this series.
Thank you for the ARC, netgalley! I received this in exchange for an honest review