The Institution is a tense thriller set entirely inside a secure psychiatric facility. Nurse Tara Cameron has been murdered, her baby forcibly removed by caesarian section and a ransom demand made to the family. Desperate situations call for desperate measures, so Connie Woolwine goes in undercover to try and find baby Aurora before it is too late. Having previously met Connie in The Shadow Man, her unorthodox methods are just what is required here if she is to have any chance of success. Ex-Met detective Brodie Baarda is also there posing as a military prisoner that Connie has to evaluate. Unfortunately, this means he is restricted in what he can do to help her. All the staff and inmates are under suspicion. Connie is also triggered by an incident from her past and has to do battle with her inner demons.
The characters are well drawn but thoroughly devious and unlikeable, even the staff. There is the constant pressure of the clock ticking and time running out. The writing is superb and this variation on the ‘locked room’ mystery scared me half to death. I would suggest you don’t read this just before you go to sleep or you might not be able to. I have now read several books by Helen Fields and would not hesitate to recommend them. Thanks to Avon Books and NetGalley for a digital copy of The Institution to review.

Brilliant! I read this some time ago, thought I’d left my review but it can’t have posted. Such a great author.

Another gripping read by Helen Fields… This is my go-to author when I want to escape and get lost in a dark, twisting tale and her latest offering certainly didn’t disappoint!

Set on a nameless, secluded island, “The Institution” is a psychiatric unit, home to the worst offenders. When a staff member is killed and her unborn child removed, it’s up to Dr Connie Woolwich (a profiler, previously introduced in “The Shadow Man”) to go undercover to solve the crime.

What follows is a disturbing yet un-put- down-able novel full of unlikable characters and a captivating plot - this book cemented the love I have for this author and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read yet another fantastic novel from Fields that I had to read in one session- loved it.

A secluded institution where the criminally insane are sent to serve out their time. You would think there would be little opportunity for a murder and an unborn baby to be taken from her mother in this highly secure unit, but it happens and a ransom is requested for the safe return of the baby.
Dr Connie Woolwine goes in undercover as a pschologist with her colleague who goes in as a convicted criminal. She is a profiler and she uses her knowledge and instincts to work out how this could have happened, who could of killed the mother and removed the baby.
A gripping read with plenty of action and some unexpected reveals along the way.
Another great book from Helen Fields.
Thank you to Netgalley, Avon Books UK, Helen Fields for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Thanks must first go to the publisher, Netgalley and Helen Fields for the ARC of ‘The Institution’.

Helen continuously delivers shockingly thrilling writing and the Institution is another example of this. It encompasses the remote ‘locked in’ setting, with psychopaths, terrible weather and a roaming killer to create a tense, twisty, shocking read.

Highly recommended.

Helen Fields is one of my favourite authors and this book was no exception. I loved it. I also didn't realise, until the main characters seemed a bit familiar, that it is a standalone sequal to The Shadow Man, another fantastic read. Connie is such an interesting main character and I really enjoyed getting to know more about her and what she had to endure when she was younger.
The Institution is such a creepy setting, which paired with the risk of them being locked in, really amped up the tension. I also had no idea who could be trusted or who the killer was. If you enjoy crime thrillers which keep you on the edge of your seat then I highly recommend this one, as well as The Sadow Man.

I received a copy of the ebook via NetGalley in excvhange for an honest review

I absolutely loved the sound of this book, it sounded like the perfect set up for a thriller! I was hooked straight away and knew it would be a page turned. I really liked Connie’s character and I was rooting for her throughout.I absolutely loved all the psychological elements of it. The inmates history of the crimes followed by the profiling was just so interesting, it had me hooked! Also all the questions that Connie was asking, again I was just hooked by the whole psychoanalysis procedures of not just the prisoners but the staff too. It was really interesting to read and it kept you guessing throughout.

The setting was absolutely brilliant. It did have a really dark, creepy theme to it that worked really well. I always love the idea of storylines in isolated places but they rarely seem to work for various reasons but this one absolutely worked so well, especially when Connie’s character was beginning to get questioned, that turn was brilliant!

I did however become a bit frustrated towards the end, I found it to become a bit confusing because so many characters were being mentioned all the time & I started getting confused by who was who, it seemed a little bit far fetched too.

However, on the whole I did really enjoy it, I found it to be full of intense atmosphere, an interesting storyline that did keep me hooked, and the psychological aspects were gripping

The Institution is the sort of read, that will make you on the edge of your seat and definitely set your pulse racing. It follows Dr. Connie Woolwine, a forensic profiler, who goes undercover with her partner, at a high security prison. They have five days to find the culprits responsible for committing one of the most horrific crimes-fetal abduction.

Helen Fields has completely mastered the art of telling an engrossing and dark story, that I found very difficult to put down. The twists where crazy, and definitely didn’t help slow down my heart rate! I was often left reading this book behind a cushion, as it was hella scary at points. You’ll find yourself suspicious of everyone in the story.

A must read. It is so, so good!

The download date was unfortunately missed, I would be happy to re-review if it became available again. I have awarded stars for the book cover and description as they both appeal to me. I would be more than happy to re-read and review if a download becomes available. If you would like me to re-review please feel free to contact me at thesecretbookreview@gmail.com or via social media The_secret_bookreview (Instagram) or Secret_bookblog (Twitter). Thank you.

From start to finish I was hooked on the entire plot; so many unexpected twists and turns to keep everyone gripped and I was not expecting the ending!

Thank you to Netgalley, Harper Collins and Helen Fields for an ARC in return for an honest review.

One word - amazing. I'm a huge fan of Helen Fields but this blew her other books out of the water.
This is disturbing, dark and terrifying. It was an incredible read.
The audiobook version made it even more thrilling - the narrator was outstanding,

I bloomin LOVED this book! It was so well written, was thrilling, shocking and had lots of twists and turns. Really well written and so enjoyable. Thank you for the opportunity to read this!

This book although another stand alone did not disappoint. Great characters and a really good plot with unexpected twists and turns. Well worth a read.
Note to Helen Fields. Please keep them coming and could we have some more of the Perfect series please.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishing house and the author for the opportunity to read a complimentary copy of this book in return for a review based upon my honest opinion.

I love the way this author writes. Her characters are always so interesting and her books catch my attention right away. Dr Connie Woolwine, is a profiler who is called into a murder scene, a nurse at an instituion that houses insasne serial killers, is found dead, her baby cut from her womb. They suspect it had to be an inside job due to the security of the place and everyone is a suspect, the doctors, nurses, staff and the five serial killers who are in residence. The only way for Connie to try to figure out who is guilty is to go undercover as a psychologist but Connie's own past connection with an institution is on her mind and may make things more difficult for her. Connie is not alone undercover her partner Baarda, is brought in as a new possible inmate but is in danger from the moment he sets foot in the place. As we learn more about the killers and their crimes, Connie is more and more in danger.

The book is fast paced with great twists and turns. The storyline had me reading late into the night to find out who the real killers were. Great ending. Look forward to more books by this autor and hope that there are more Connie Woolwine books.

Unusual concept of a psychologist and a patient going undercover in a mental asylum. Their mission is to investigate the gruesome murder of a pregnant staff member and find out what happened to her baby. It is a bit far fetched with the typical maverick psychologicist breaking loads of rules but a gripping read nevertheless.

I was eager to read this having loved her previous novel The Last Girl To Die, so I’ve felt very lucky to be granted early access to it on NetGalley. Our heroine is Dr. Connie Woolwine, a behaviourist and profiler rather than a psychiatrist, she works privately alongside her investigator Brodie. She has access to The Institution to look for a killer within the high security wing. Housed in one of the towers, the wing is known as ‘heaven’ and has six inmates, all of whom are either serial or spree killers. Her cover story is an unusual one. Brodie will go deep undercover as a potential inmate, with Connie as his current therapist. Brodie has been in the millitary and suffers from PTSD amongst other issues, so Connie is there to assess the ward, meet the inmates and decide whether it’s the best place for Brodie to be treated. The truth is a lot more gruesome. A nurse from the ward has been found dead on one of it’s treatment rooms. Tara was restrained and had a rudimentary caesarean performed on her, but was then left to bleed to death. The baby has not been found and the killer could only have been on the unit. With a grieving family waiting for a ransom demand, staff and inmates at the unit have been given a different story about this well-liked member of staff. They are told that Tara will be resting at home for the final stages of her pregnancy. Now Connie is on the clock, desperately trying to find baby Aurora and which one of the killers could have murdered the ward’s most popular nurse in such a brutal way.

Connie seems maverick, with strange methods such as talking to, sniffing and touching Tara’s body. She’s an unusual narrator because I didn’t always feel sure of her. We find out that when she was a young woman she was admitted to a mental health unit after an accident left her mute and doctors couldn’t find a physical cause. She was given ECT and treated by psychiatrists until a new doctor decided to re-scan her brain and found a previously hidden blood clot. Once removed, Connie could speak again. This experience has left it’s mark and it seems very important to her, even when self-disclosing to a patient, that they know she wasn’t really mentally unwell. We’re mainly in Connie’s world with interspersed short chapters on an assessment session, each subject’s name as the title. These sections read like session notes and give us Connie’s views of each inmate. Rubio for example, acts like a baby and wants to be cuddled and nursed. He gave me the creeps, especially when he’s wearing a nappy. The Professor is more on Connie’s level intellectually, but acts very superior. I didn’t feel that the sessions were helping me understand who might have done this. In fact I think I learned more about Connie than the patients. In the meantime, poor Brodie is living with these inmates and has gone through being sedated and restrained by staff. The staff are incredibly suspicious, with orderlies who enjoy their power too much, nurses who seem to resent Connie’s presence and a male doctor who makes a pass at her almost immediately. I kept wondering who would choose to work here, in such a dangerous and bleak place?

I felt it was clever to keep the reader questioning Connie and it wasn’t just her inner world that worried me. There were points in the story where her instincts really concerned me, such as going off alone to very remote places in the building and on the grounds. There was also a major flaw in the plan, in that her investigator is so confined by his role as a patient he can only observe. This really does leave Connie to take on the more dangerous part of physically investigating, but as she’s untrained for this role and potentially more easily overpowered, it left me feeling on edge. Also someone who is thinking ahead of her could use her seemingly erratic behaviour and appearance to make her worst fears comes true. The tension is unrelenting and nowhere is safe, including rooms that have a lock! The claustrophobia is intense and works like a set of Chinese boxes: from the location and the effects of the storm, the compound, the locked building, the high security tower within the whole institution, all the way down to the treatment room and it’s restraints. These layers of confinement did make me uncomfortable and when a character is further confined with drugs or the threat of ECT, it brings it home how powerless patients and the murder victim were. These layers also emphasise the brutality about drugging someone and stealing a baby from the ultimate place of safety, their mother’s womb.


There is a strange fascination in hearing about the inmate’s crimes, mainly because they seem so at odds with the men we encounter through Connie. Her sessions feel slightly strange from a therapy perspective, but of course Connie is not really there to engage in a therapeutic relationship. Unknown to them and the staff, she’s using the session to assess whether they’re behind the crime and I was interested in the ethics of this approach. As disaster strikes and the ward has to be evacuated, the tension jumps up a level with men who are usually in their cells now roaming free. For those left on the ward it becomes a fight for survival, with only a basic knowledge of the inmates to inform them about which ones can be trusted and those who must be avoided. This was an exciting end to the novel and really did keep me gripped to the bitter end, waiting for the perpetrator to admit their role in the murder and kidnap plot. I was biting my nails, worried that Connie wouldn’t find baby Aurora before it was too late. This was an intelligent thriller, full of tension and unexpected twists and turns. It’s cemented my suspicion that Helen Fields really is a must-buy author.

A fantastic, gripping, scary and emotional read.
We read of different serial killers and the workings of their minds. We read of two profilers who are taken on to act as a psychologist and a patient in the toughest and most secure ward in a mental asylum. They are to go undercover to find out who killed a pregnant woman and to try and save the baby who was taken from her in a horrific way of a performed caesarean against her will and her death followed. Then a ransom asked for the baby.
We read of the goings on in a mental institution.

We read a clever and enthralling plot with an emotional end.

I do recommend!

Helen Fields is one of the best in her field and does not shy away from the gore and stomach turning moments some other writers avoid. Her stories are always gritty and dark and filled with twist after twist.

The Institution takes place at an undisclosed location on an island where a psychiatric hospital is home to a select few of the darkest murderers known to man. And then one of the staff is brutally killed and her unborn child is taken from her. Time is obviously of the essence and there is an entire hospital full of suspects. This is the first story I almost didn’t like a single character. Baarda is probably my favorite and he barely speaks because of his part is the story. I wasn’t a huge fan of Connie and her approach, but she definitely gets the job done and has more guts than I do. I loved how I was literally suspicious of every single person the entire time I was reading this story. It wasn’t until the end where I started to slowly weed out the people I thought might not be involved. I mean, how do you not suspect an entire floor of crazed serial killers?

Fields has a great way of building her characters back stories so well that it explains a lot about why they are the way they are and how they function. I think it makes the reading more interesting as you are reading a character and can flash back to a description of their past and understand why they may handle something a completely different way than you would. Fields characters are deep and twisty and can catch you off guard at any time. Connie, in this case, had me feeling all her feelings. Her character had an intriguing backstory for the case she was being put on and I felt her anxiety, I felt her fear, I felt her annoyance. It was a like Connie’s conscious was inside me as I was reading along with her. Not many authors can do that.


My only issue, and I am not sure I can even call it a real issue, is that this book had no location. Meaning, Helen Fields purposefully doesn’t tell us where it takes place. Usually you hear her mention Edinburgh or France or something of that nature, but this one did not and I even reached out to her and she said she purposefully left it off. It does not affect the story AT ALL and it is fantastic in itself, but for me, I love to have a visual in my head of where this is. I still feel this would be off the coast of Scotland or Ireland just by the weather and terrain, but honestly it could be anywhere. I just really felt strongly about wanting to know where it was.

Otherwise, this book was fantastic. If you love thrillers and suspense, any Helen Fields book will be great, but pick up The Institution and let me know if you agree with me. A real nail biter!

I loved this latest book by Helen. So different from her others. A slow start but, it builds and then it takes off and you can’t stop reading it. Quite creepy at times, being centered on a secluded island with terrible weather and alone with a building full of lunatics and murders. I always know I’m going to enjoy books by Helen Fields and so far she hasn’t disappointed me. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

#TheInstitution #NetGalley This was a very dark and gruesome thriller that hit the ground running with the horrific murder in the first chapter. I have met the character of Dr Connie Woolwine in the Luc Callanach series by this author and it was nice to see her take centre stage in this thriller. Lots and lots of action and plot twists, with the final quarter of the book being an emotional rollercoaster! Although it horrified me frequently, as a thriller I couldn't put it down. I kook forward to more by this author.