I’m going to cut right to the chase, The Islanders, needs to be read by all.

Caroline Mitchell, is a magician when it comes to weaving together the perfect suspenseful thriller.

What started out as a slow burn quickly transformed into a complex thriller with major shock factor and an ending so twisted it will have your jaw on the floor.

Check out this teaser :

She thinks the island will keep her safe―she is wrong.

Traumatised by the death of a child in her care, top London paediatrician Claire seeks refuge on remote Selkie Island in the wilds of the Irish Sea with her husband Daniel and their baby daughter Kitty. Hidden away in Daniel’s old family home, Claire hopes to be as cut off from her guilt as she is from the mainland, but can she find peace in a place so full of its own secrets?

Twenty years earlier, Daniel’s parents left the island in a boat and never made it to the mainland. Mystery surrounds their deaths―and their lives. Why did they set out late at night in a storm? What had really been going on at the house? Even as Claire begins to recover her sense of self amid the island’s rugged beauty, she can’t shake off a chilling suspicion that Selkie Island has a dark history that the locals just can’t face―and that it somehow has a connection to her own life.

When baby Kitty suddenly disappears, Claire’s fragile world falls apart. The only way to secure her future is to uncover the past, but the closer she gets to answers, the more danger she finds herself in. Will she be able to save her family or will the island’s dark secrets take another life?

A tremendously tense and atmospheric novel from the excellent and prolific Caroline Mitchell. The characters are well portrayed, the Irish community well described and the plot is fascinating. Is anything really as it seems? Who can be believed? Very enjoyable.

Having suffered a breakdown and having tried to end her life, Claire's husband Daniel persuaded to go and live on a remote island that he had grown up on. However the island itslef had it's own story to tell.
There really was a big heart wrenching twist in this book that i did not see coming.
I enjoyed reading this book and have read several others by Caroline Mitchell and they are always good.
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Thank you to Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer and Caroline Mitchell for an ARC in return for an honest review.

omg! this! book!!! very interesting. it was soo fun reading this book, i wanna read more books by this author!!

Wow this one will really grab from the get go. After a quick prologue that teases you some past events, we jump forward and are introduced to Claire. Now I won’t say exactly how we are introduced to her (though if this scene doesn’t hook you into the story I don’t know what will) but she’s a brilliant pediatrician who is riddled with guilt. A change of scenery is needed, and the family ends up going to her husband’s childhood home on beautiful Selkie Island. But rather than find peace and serenity Claire’s world is further turned upside down. This is an eerie, twisty tale that will keep you up late into the night. I’d like to thank Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of Caroline Mitchell’s The Islanders.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R32R1JRMGOD0O2/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

A very unusual plot. Set on a remote island in Ireland once the home to ‘wayward’ women, the house Àrd Na Mara, is as much in need of some TLC as are the characters that call it home. In fact the entire small population of the island are what you might call ‘odd’. The characters are all a bit unlikeable but this only leads to their intrigue.
An interesting read

Claire is a paediatrician & was devastated when a child in her care died & she felt she had missed the signs. In an effort to help her regain her mental health her husband Daniel takes her & their baby daughter Kitty to the house where he grew up. It is in need of extensive restoration & he hopes the project might help her. But the house on Selkie Island off the Irish coast is a place of memories & secrets- most of which Daniel seems to want to keep. Claire begins to wonder if she & her baby are safe.

This book was probably one of the few where the twists totally floored me. Told from various viewpoints I thought I was beginning to understand what was going one- no- couldn't have been more wrong! One of the best reads this year. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book. I loved it!

My first book by Caroline Mitchell and wow, I think it's safe to say I am a fan! I managed to read this book in one setting because it had everything - a clever plot, an atmospheric and eerie setting and characters with their own secrets. The ending was so unexpected and with all those twists, I was impressed. I'm already searching through the author's backlist. Can't wait to read more by her!

Well, this was a book that kept me guessing, and which also was the gift that kept on giving...
We first meet Claire as she, along with husband Daniel, and their baby daughter, move to Daniel's old family home on a remote island in the Irish Sea. She is on a hiatus from her job as a top paediatrician after the death of a child in her care which has left her traumatised and questioning her ability.
What she is after is a break, a safe space to heal. What she gets, however, is more secrets and lies from Daniel's past. About the history of the previous use of the old family home as a women's detention centre. About the spurious nature of his parents' running of it. And about his sister, Isla, currently living in the house, and his estranged brother.
This, like all of the author's other books that I have read, was a good solid read that I thoroughly enjoyed. Yes I have a few niggles about certain things along the way. Sadly non of which I can mention here for fear of spoilers and, although I did read the afterward, I was still a tad unconvinced about the complete credibility of what I had read. There were also a few things unresolved, and other which weren't quite completed to my satisfaction. I was left with questions.
The characters were interesting, although some were easier to get to grips with than others, I think that was mainly due to the nature of their true characters, which didn't completely come out until the end of the book. It's hard to explain.
Pacing was good and with no superfluous waffle or padding, the story got on with itself very well. It was also quite emotional, and horrifying so I do admit to having to take a wee break every now and again. But there was also a lot of good things to be found herein which kept the balance straight.
All in all a good solid read that I did enjoy and would recommend with reservations. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Despondent after losing a young child in her care, pediatrician Claire, her husband Daniel, and their baby girl head to the remote remote island off the Irish coast where he grew up. His childhood home has been working as an AirBnB, overseen by Daniel's sister, but it has seen better days and Daniel hopes that dealing with renovations will distract Claire and help her get over the loss. But the home has a dark past, when it was basically used as a low-security women's prison run by Daniel's parents, and secrets from those days still linger and threaten Claire and her daughter. The stormy Irish Sea battering Selkie Island sets the perfect backdrop for the story, which alternates between the present and the past, told from the perspectives of Daniel, Claire, and Daniel's mother. A psychological thriller with gothic undertones and a jaw-dropping twist, this was my first book by Caroline Mitchell but it won't be my last!

Following a tragic event where her sister's child died in her care, paediatrician Claire decides to travel with husband Daniel & their baby daughter Kitty, to Selkie Island across the Irish sea. They will be helping to renovate Daniel's childhood home, 'Ard Na Mara' where his sister still lives. Daniel hasn't been home ever since his parents drowned trying to cross the mainland years before. Claire hopes that this could be something of a new start for them, but on the ferry over there, a strange old man tells Claire to keep her daughter away from 'Ard Na Mara' if she wants to keep her safe. Daniel tells her that the man has always been on the strange side & plays down his warning, but subsequent events on the island & the mysterious history of the forbidding house make Claire suspicious that everyone is hiding the truth about the island from her - even her husband.

First of all I must say that the story is well-written with some subtle misdirection. The narration in the present is split between Claire & Daniel, whilst we hear from Daniel's mother, Mary, in the past. The reader also hears from a mysterious 'Islander' every so often & their identity is not revealed until the end. I did guess the twist. I feel terrible giving this a low rating but I really did not like the subject matter at all (check out the trigger warnings below) & the characters were mostly awful people so I didn't enjoy reading it. I'm definitely in the minority though going by other reviews, so please don't let me put you off.

TWs: infidelity, adult/minor relationship, pregnancy, childbirth, death of a child, death of parents, mental health, confinement, depression, suicide attempts.

My thanks to NetGalley & publisher, Thomas & Mercer, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

Paediatrician Claire, along with her husband Daniel and baby Kitty arrived at Selkie Island, where Daniel was born and his family members remained. The old home, which used to be an institution, was a project for them both, as they prepared to renovate and bring it back to its former glory. But the island had secrets - many of them - and Daniel hid most, never explaining his past to Claire.

Part of the deepening mystery was the death of Daniel's parents twenty years prior. Isla, Daniel's sister, was happy to see her brother return home, while the estrangement with his brother Louis continued. But Claire frequently felt uneasy, needing answers. The night Kitty disappeared, everything came to a head...

The Islanders is my first by Caroline Mitchell and wow! What a book! With the opening pages creating immediate tension, it barely lifted until the end. And the twists were incredible - I certainly didn't expect THAT!! Ms Mitchell has a love of Ireland, and it seems most, if not all, of her books are set - in part - somewhere in or around Ireland. I'll be checking out more of her titles now. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

This is my 6th Mitchell novel and I loved her Slayton Thriller series.
But The Islanders by Caroline Mitchell is a fantastic mystery and with intrigue, characters who are interesting and the mystery which makes this a page turner. The mystery is solid which kept me reading.
This was well written, well paced, and completely engrossing.
Seriously grabs you from the very first page and you just won't be able to put it down... I couldn't at least!
A great psychological thriller. It is also a very realistic portrayal of the emotional turmoil and determination experienced here in the story.
Incredibly well written, with many twists and turns.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read this ahead of its publication date in return for my honest review.

Totally floored! THAT TWIST! I could never, ever have predicted that one coming 😲

This book is different to the usual psychological and domestic thriller, which definitely sets it apart from the rest. London couple Claire and Daniel move to a small close knit island where Daniel grew up and it’s super creepy! The islanders behave strangely around Claire and her baby girl, Kitty, Daniel won’t engage with Kitty and the house has a disturbing history.

So many layers to peel away and some shocking twists. I did find it slow going in parts, which for me, lost it that fifth star.

4 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Caroline Mitchell and Thomas and Mercer, for an ARC in return for an honest review.

An intriguing premise that gave a spooky, twisty read. The characters were pretty annoying which made me struggle to root for them, but a solid thriller all round.

Claire, a top London paediatrician is still traumatised by the death of a child in her care, so her husband Daniel thinks it would good for them to go and stay at his family home, Ard Na Mara on Selkie Island with their daughter Kitty, but how can she seek refuge in a place that has so many secrets of its own? Twenty years earlier Daniel's parents, Mary and Gabriel died in a storm whilst trying to cross to the mainland, but why were they crossing late at night, what was really going on at Ard Na Mara and what is Claire about to discover about her husband's past? Then Kitty disappears and Claire's world falls apart again, what has happened to her daughter and how will uncovering the past give her the answers she needs to find peace and move on?

Told across a dual timeline of twenty years ago and the present day and from the perspectives of Daniel, Claire, Mary, Teresa and the mystery islander, this is a well crafted tale of folklore and secrets which kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. This authors writing is so descriptive and the characters so realistic it sends chills down my spine every time I read one of her books and this latest one is bone chilling at its best, especially the creepy setting of the house and what happened there in the past. The twist, when it came in true Mitchell style, was an absolute belter and so unexpected, I was floored! I don't often cry when reading a thriller but this one had me shedding a tear or two a couple of times. The Islanders is Mitchell's twentieth novel and they just keep getting better, if you love a suspenseful story this is one for you.

I'd like to thank Thomas & Mercer for the approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

I started this one and I couldn't put it down. It was a good distraction from this C19 I am suffering with.
So our Claire is a doctor and she loses a patient. The patient is her niece so it sends her spiraling. That is the first chapter and it had me.
Daniel is her husband and he is desperately in love with her. He grew up on this creepy Irish Island. His parents and some random babies died while trying to get to the mainland one night. His house was a care home for wayward girls who were sent by the government, so his childhood was really unconventional. He has seen some shiz.
He is an artist.
And his sister Isla was with his parents when they died. She was able to swim back to the Island. She still lives there in the house but now it is an Air BnB. I love her.
I can't reveal anything else at all without revealing too much, Read this one for sure. It is beautiful.

Caroline Mitchell is one of my goes to authors and I have read most of her books. The islanders, by the author is different to her other books.
Claire and Daniel return to his childhood home on Selkie Island after tragedy struck while Claire was doing her job as a doctor. Ard Na mara is the biggest building on the island and was used as an institution for troubled young women. This is spooky tale that goes back and forwards in time, revealing the secrets of what happened to them women all of them years ago and present day and why some of the locals avoid the area due to what happened there and a lot of superstition and folklore.
I thank Netgalley and Thomas and Mercer for a copy of the author’s latest offering. For me personally, although I was intrigued at the premise of this story, I found it to be really slow. I didn’t quite care for either of the characters and only fully invested in the last third of the book. I do like these type of storylines but this one just didn’t resonate with me. 3 stars from me.

Great storytelling with such a great beginning and all the way through pace that kept me wanting to keep reading like crazy and it also had an unforgettable ending.

I normally love Caroline Mitchell's work but I really struggled to get into this one. It was pretty slow to get going and I couldn't motivate myself to pick it up. I also didn't really gel with the characters and I ended up DNF'ing