Thank you so much! A great read and one to recommend. Having grown up during the dark days of the Moors Murders - this was an inspired piece of literature! I will most certainly be keeping an eye out for the next one by Rebecca Griffiths.

The Girl in the Red Coat

A thrilling mystery based on a true crime story. This story will draw you in and keep you reading from the first page to the last page.

The time is 1965, the place is Manchester, England. The settings are in a village and on a farm outside the village. It is a story of friendship and betrayal by friends. A family saga and secrets long held. Murder, mayhem and missing children. Two brothers with secrets between them. One secret known and kept and one secret not spoken.

Connie and Fred go out to the pub for an hour to have a drink with friends. Cathy, Connie's 7 year old daughter is told to stay in the car and wait for them. She sits in the car with her doll and waits. When Connie and Fred go back to the car Cathy is missing.

Ronnie and Thomas live on a secluded farm at the edge of the moors. The brother's have lived there after Thomas returned from the war, the death of their mother and the disappearance of their father over 24 years ago.

Ronnie has a run in with two young people that shoot two of his sheep and hold a gun to his head. These young people continue to taunt Ronnie. He does not tell his brother because he does not want to worry him and he cannot go to the police for reasons of his own.

Then one day a little girl shows up at the farm. Wet, dirty cold and exhausted they take her in and call her Gracie after their mother.

I loved the descriptions of the town, the moors and the lovely countryside. How the people lived, dressed and acted during this period. I love the character of Cathy, such an adorable and inquisitive child.

The narration was perfect. I really enjoyed how the book was narrated, they did a wonderful job of telling the story.

How all these events are interlinked, intertwined and the twist in it all makes for a wonderful mystery thriller. I think you will enjoy this story as much as I did.

Thanks to Rebecca Griffiths for writing a great story, to Sarah Durham and Richard Bunip for a wonderful job narrating it , to Bookouture audio for publishing it and to NetGalley for making it available to me.

Loved the plot. Did not enjoy the narrator (Audiobook) and it was distracting and took away the focus on the book.

The idea of this book was a new one for me, fiction based on a true crime. I love true crime so was keen to read this to see how it worked and I was surprisingly impressed at how much I enjoyed it.

Based in the 1960s around the true crimes of Myra Hindley and Ian Moore, this fictional story concerns little Kathy, the seven-year-old daughter of Connie, who goes missing after having been left in the car outside a pub where Connie was meeting with her best friend Myra and her new boyfriend Ian. Not the best idea anyway but even worse when children are going missing around the area over the past couple of years.

We also meet Ronald and Thomas, two brothers who live together on the moors. Hiding a big secret of his own Ronald isn’t keen to have anyone visit them, which isn’t an issue as nobody ever does. That is until he meets a young couple snooping around their land in the dark and they threaten him. He doesn’t want to report it and encourage more people who may discover his secret.

The characters were well developed. Surprisingly Ronald and his brother Thomas are really caring, loving people and I think they touched me more overall. Connie, who had Kathy at fifteen seems more than a little deluded, although she misses her daughter, she doesn’t seem overly bothered that she has gone. There is a romantic twist between Ronald and Pauline (Connie’s mother) thrown in for good measure and of course the main couple, Myra and Ian.

Interestingly, Connie, Ronald, Thomas, Connie’s boyfriend Fred and others are shown in a sympathetic light despite their mistakes and misdeeds. I didn’t feel very sympathetic for Connie but did for Ronald and Thomas.

Myra and Ian are, predictably, a very strange and chilling couple. Ian is particularly dark “Still moping around after your little bastard?” he says, showing no empathy for Connie at all. Myra is also a chilling character, best friends with Connie and besotted with Ian she is heinous.

Of course, no story concerning Hindley and Brady would be complete without mention of their victims.

This is a beautifully twisted story wrapped around real life, it takes you back to life at the time and leaves you feeling chilled by how normal Connie feels Myra is and how all of these relationships and people carry on. There is none so queer as folk comes to mind.

The brilliant dual narrators, Sarah Durham and Richard Burnip bring this story to life excellently through audiobook.

The narrator really brought this book to life, and it was gripping from the off. Based on the horrific true crimes of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, this book is shocking and cleverly mixes fact with fiction. A very compelling but sinister story. Thank you to Rebecca Griffiths, Net Galley and Bookouture Audio for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The use of the tragedy of the real life Moors Murders in a fictional book to me seems distasteful. Not only that, lazy, the author could have created characters of a similar nature to give a sense of foreboding, instead of plucking them from real life.

That being said, the actual plot was very cleverly written and the additional characters were believable, I cared about what happened to them. The historical parts were very well researched and I enjoyed the book much more than I thought I would.

(There were some weird edits in the audio, additions that obviously weren't recorded in the same environment so they sounded out of place and about halfway through there was a bit from a completely different chapter with a different narrator thrown in)

3/5 - 3 - I took a point off as had I not been given the book to review, I don't think I would have continued with it as the use of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley's victims in this made me uncomfortable. However I am in two minds about the book as it was genuinely riveting and well composed.

The narration of this audio book is captivating and I cannot praise the narrators enough. Their accents, intonation and passion shone through and brought the characters, Connie and Ronnie, to life. I will certainly look for these narrators again.

I have also read the book version of The Body on the Moor on NetGalley and have given this review.

Set in 1965, Rebecca Griffiths interweaves the real characters of 1965s Myra Hindley and Ian Brady with a fictitious story of a friend of Myra’s and her daughter. The author deals with the horrific real-life events delicately but by including references to children who were missing during this time, it was difficult for me to read, as I always returned to the thought – how would their families feel reading a story that they had to live through in reality.

Told in a dual narrative, this story centres around the story of Connie’s daughter, Kathy (who goes missing) and an aged farmer Ronnie, who lives on Saddleworth Moor. Events and their lives intertwine, and historic events have impacts on the present day. I enjoyed these characters and would have liked to read about them in isolation away from the references to the real missing children.

Thank you NetGalley and all publishers concerned for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Based on a true story, the author did a brilliant job of mixing fact and fiction. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and the story had me hooked. The narrators were very good and suited to the characters. I will definitely look out for more by this author in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre : inspired by a true story - crime thriller
My first ever audiobook (😯) thanks, @Netgalley ! It took a bit for me to get into it, but soon enough I was invested.
Manchester England 1965, left unattended, seven year old Kathy goes missing from the back seat of her mother Connie’s car. Adding one more to the list of children who have seemingly vanished from the area. Connie is out of her mind with guilt & worry she’ll never see Kathy again.
Saddleworth Moor : Black Fell Farm, Ronald has a precarious run in with a suspicious couple on his land, but is too scared of someone uncovering he & his brothers own buried secrets (and secret houseguest…) to get the police involved.
A back & forth narration by Connie & Ronald.
Children kidnapped & murdered. Child abuse. Long buried secrets. Evils of people you think you know, revealed. This book is a trip.
If you’re a fan of crime thrillers, you’ll like this fact woven with fiction, incredibly heartbreaking story.
Releases February 24th

What a rollercoaster of emotions and thoughts! I was really intrigued by the description of this book and the fact that it was inspired by a true story of murders. I had to do my research about the Moors Murders and, to find that they involved children and youth made me wonder how much detail may be incorporated into this story because thinking about violence towards children is horrifying.

I think giving this story multiple points of view really helped to expand the depth of the story and get into the minds of each character. It also keeps you hooked to see what the next tidbit of their story you get to find out about is.

This story to me brought about ideas of morality and the internal struggle to do what is right. But who is to say what is “right?” We all want to do what we believe is right, but sometimes the lines blur a bit and it is hard to see a truly straight and narrow path.

As the story builds and the emotions become stronger and more easily triggered, I found myself finding empathy with characters and hoping for certain happy endings. This is the kind of story that you may identify with certain characteristics of someone and find yourself feeling the same way; like the anxiety of losing a child and waiting for what seems like an endless hunt.

The descriptions of items and places also helped to paint a clear landscape of where the story happened, what these people looked and dressed like and even brought up scents.

Thank you to the author, Bookouture and NetGalley for the advanced audio version of this book!

A busy and highly chilling story.
As soon as myra Hindley gets mentioned, this ​book takes on a more sinister air.
This is based on true facts, its dark and gripping.
I felt it was well written and the characters well portrayed.



I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Book: The Body on the Moor 🎧
Author: Rebecca Griffiths
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Narrators: Sarah Durham & Richard Burnip
Publisher: Bookouture Audio, Bookouture
Date Read: 2/4
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was my first book by the author and I can gladly say that it wouldn’t be the last. It was a really good book inspired by the Moor Murders between 1963 - 1965 by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.

It’s very well articulated and the narrators were very good. The author merged fiction and facts seamlessly that kept me hooked onto every word.
Trigger warning as there is child abuse and neglect. The story is from 1965 and it sent frissons of chill down my back thinking of the true events. Some people are pure evil.

If you want a truly creepy and mysterious story then this book is for you. Author captures the essence of the villains. They are truly horrid and scary!

I got this audiobook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review on the book. The opinion is all mine.

My thanks to Netgalley for my audio copy of The Body on the Moor. The narrators were both perfect for this book.
Rebecca Griffiths' beautiful language and imagery was in stark contrast to a storyline which included the sinister and evil characters Brady and Hindley and it was this that kept me listening because, at times, the plot was just too much for me to deal with but that is only to be expected really when history has already taught us what they were capable of.

The Body on the Moor by Rebecca Griffiths
Narrated by Sarah Durham, Richard Burnip

I'd already been familiar with the Moor Murders, and real life killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, when I began this audiobook. Keeping intact much of the truth about Ian and Myra, the author builds a fictionalized world around them, The fiction relies on the facts but gives words and motivation to real and fictional people. I remember wondering how much, if anything, the real life owner of the moor land where Brady and Hindley hung out, took pictures, and buried bodies, might know about these two.

Ronald Cappleman, of Black Fell Farm on Saddleworth Moor, has secrets of his own. So when he notices this couple up to no good he wants them off his property but backs off when they pull a gun on him. He can't do anything about them though because his secrets could ruin his and his brother's lives. He also has more to think about then just these two troublemakers because his brother has adopted a stray and he can't convince his brother to give her up.

Along with Ronald's point of view, we have that of Connie, a woman who had her daughter, Kathy, when she was much too young to be a mother. Now Connie is feeling the deepest guilt for complaining about how little Kathy has ruined her life, keeping her from getting to have fun with her friends. While Connie and her boyfriend, Fred, spent hours in a bar, with Kathy sitting alone in their car, Kathy disappeared. Now Kathy's name is being mentioned along with the names of the missing children of the area and Connie is almost out of her mind with fear that she may never see Kathy again.

Despite their mistakes and misdeeds, Ronald, Connie, Fred, and many of the others people in this story are shown in a sympathetic light. No one deserved to cross paths with the murderous Brady and Hindley and it's scary that people like them exist to this day. The dual narrators did a very good job with the audio version of the book, helping each character to seem distinct from the others.

Thank you to Bookouture Audio and NetGalley for this ARC.

I was first attracted to this book because of the Moor Murders being a true crime. I wanted to see how fact and fiction could be woven together for a story.

I have to say I loved it! Kathy Openshaw age 7 goes missing from the backseat of a the family car. Her mother Connie leaves her in car as she goes into a pub to meet friends Myra and Ian for a drink. Connie is shocked to find her daughter missing and instantly starts beating herself up for being a bad mother and wishing she could go back in time and not make this mistake.

Ronald Cappleman doesn't like people snooping around his property as he has his own secrets he's hiding. Now there is an annoying couple poking around where they shouldn't be. Will his secret be discovered? Will Connie get Kathy back?

Thank you #NetGalley for my ARC this is my honest review. #bodyonthemoor

I received a free audio book from the publisher through netgalley.com in exchange for a honest review.

Wow there is a lot going on in this book and its hard to review without revealing some deep secrets that are slowly revealed. A young girl, left in a car, goes missing only to turn up at a farm where two brothers live. She is very sick and refuses to tell them her name so they take her in and nurse her back to health. Meanwhile her frantic mother is searching everywhere worried that she may be dead.

A couple is also stalking the farm, killing the sheep and threatening the brothers. They try to avoid them and don't call the police scared that they might find the body of their father which is buried out among the moors.

There are a lot of secret connections between the characters that are slowly revealed as the book progresses. The trauma of the mom of the missing girl was heart wrenching but may also be triggering to me due to the recent death of my step-daughter. The narrators were fantastic and the story while complex held my attention. The ending seemed a bit rushed and even a bit unbelievable but the characters all had their flaws and I could see how it could happen. When I found that this book is based on a true story I found it even more fascinating.

Female and Male narrator 5 stars
Loved the female voice the best! This narrator has the amazing ability to suck you right into the story

Story 4 stars

Was a really interesting story. Had me fully engaged the whole time, but the only down side is I feel like it concluded way to quick.

First time trying this author would definitely buy a book written by her.

3.5 Stars rounded up to 4 for originality

I was so excited to read this book when I found out it was a fiction book blended with facts and following the grisly murders committed by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady. It was the first time I have read/listened to a book done in this manner and think Rebecca Griffiths is genius for utilizing this format. I also really enjoyed the fact that it wasn’t done from the POV of the killers and they were just characters in the periphery although obviously played a huge role in the story even though the story wasn’t focused on the actual murders they committed or their crime spree. The story instead was from the POV of Connie- whose daughter went missing and who was not a very good mother but also was the fictional best friend of Myra Hindley and the POV of Ronald, a farmer who lives with his brother in a remote farm on the Moor. The story was just as gritty and dark as if we were hearing/reading it through the depraved minds of Hindley and Brady though so again kudos to the author for that.

I really liked Connie’s POV and I found it the most real and relatable as a mother of a missing and presumably dead child and the regret just oozed off of her. The constant punishment of herself for any joy or happiness that she started to feel and the grim realization that her daughter was missing and she didn’t deserve any happiness or goodness. The pushing and pulling away of Freddie and her gravitation to Myra who was cold and not comforting in any way.

Where the story fell flat for me was with the storyline of Ronald and his brother Thomas despite them being very likable characters, I found myself getting frustrated with decisions made- it’s hard to elaborate without giving away details of the story but all the way up to the ending, I was almost infuriated with just how implausible it all was and how it wrapped up so neatly.

Overall, it was a solid story despite the few flaws and I will definitely try another book by her especially if done in the same fiction with a bit of fact format.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audiobook.

This was an interesting read! I wasn't in love with any of the characters but it still did a good job at keeping my attention. The narrators were great.

I did not like a single character. With such horrible characters, it was really hard to stay invested in the story. While I finished listening to the audiobook, there were several times that I thought about just not finishing it. I think if there would have been one likable main character, it would have made the story better.