I’ve been a big fan of M J Arlidge for years and try to read everything he writes, so I was excited about the release of Your Child Next, co-written with Andy Maslen.
The story begins with a woman called Annie. Her daughter Isla, 15, suffered from anxiety in lockdown and after Annie separated from her husband Grant, Isla got worse. Now Annie’s received a terrifying faked video of her daughter’s funeral. Who did it? Was it Grant? But then she receives a phone call demanding she pay £1000 a month into a bank account in the Cayman Islands. If she fails to do this, or tells the police, her daughter will die.
Meanwhile, Michael is now a single father to adopted son Aaron, 18, after his wife Lucy died. Sorting out all her paperwork, he finds something surprising in Lucy’s bank statements. She was sending £1000 a month to a bank account in the Cayman Islands. He goes to the bank and demands the payment is immediately cancelled…
Can Annie and Michael protect their children from this threat?
Well, I was straight into the story, wanting to know more, the writing hooks you in straight away. As always with M J Arlidge’s novels, there is so much tension building and intrigue, that you immediately want to know what’s going on.
You learn about characters and events quickly, each perfectly-sized chapter opening another layer of the story. You’ll certainly never become bored, as twists and turns come along, one on top of another.
I’m a huge fan of Matthew’s Helen Grace series, but really enjoyed this collaborative novel. Another exciting read and a real page turner.

Thank you, NetGalley and Orion Publishing, for the ARC of this psychological thriller 'Your Child Next.' The book was a collaboration between writers Andy Masler and MJ Aldridge. I was pleased to learn about Master, an author new to me. Arlidge has long been a favourite with his Helen Grace series. The writing was smooth, seamless, and engaging, with plenty of suspense and increasing tension.

The story warns against sharing too much personal information on social media, such as photos, addresses, and everyday routines. Criminals, predators, and blackmailers are lurking online and may use such information for criminal acts.

Annie is emotionally and financially struggling as a newly single mother. Her husband recently left her and their teenage daughter, Isla. There was a custody dispute that caused bitter feelings between both parents. Annie has always been a strict, protective mother who wants the best for Isla, and things are about to worsen. Isla seems to become emotionally distant from her mother and suffers from anxiety attacks. She has missed her more lenient father but resents that his new girlfriend is close to her age and is replacing her time spent with him.

Annie watches a video that is panicking her. She is horrified to view herself crying at Islas's funeral and is puzzled as to why the deepfake video was made and sent to her. She blames her ex-husband as she does not know anyone else who dislikes her enough to do such a thing. After reassuring herself that her daughter is unharmed, Annie receives a phone call demanding 1,000 pounds to be sent monthly to an account in the Cayman Islands. If she misses a payment or notifies the police, Isla will die, and the video will become a reality.

In another household, Michael lives with son Aaron. His wife and Aaron's mother has died. He finds records that show she has been secretly transferring 1000 per month to the Cayman Islands. He stops the payments, which puzzled him, and his son is struck and seriously wounded by a hit-and-run driver. Annie believes the driver was the same man who terrified Isla by following her. Annie and Michael decide to team up and hunt down the blackmailers and stop the extortion.

The identity of the blackmailers is known early in the story. They are a couple of ruthless, cold-hearted, deranged, and probably psychopath villains. They kill without remorse. They force a homeless veteran with PTSD to work for them.

Michael and Annie are in jeopardy, and some actions and events seem farfetched. This was not a deterrent, as I was highly entertained. The book is due for publication today, January 16, 2025.

This is a tense and chilling thriller that will tap into your parental anxiety and send it soaring!

Annie is recently divorced and trying to balance keeping her teenage daughter, Isla, safe, while giving her enough freedom to spread her wings and fly. When Annie receives an email with a faked video of herself sobbing at Isla's funeral, she is terrified. She soon discovers that some seriously psychotic blackmailers are behind the video and they know everything about Annie, Isla and their lives. That alone made me think about social media and how much of our lives we reveal on there - yikes!

Annie simply doesn't have the money to meet their demands and so she chooses to fight back, but she may have underestimated the lengths the blackmailers will go to to keep their secret safe. The plot is excellent and very well executed, with lots of fast paced action.

4 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, M. J. Arlidge, Andy Maslen and Orion for an ARC in return for an honest review.

This is a great thriller.
Annie can’t believe her eyes when she opens an attachment which shows her crying at her teenage daughter’s funeral. She races to Isla’s room and she is fine but she starts to panic. Worse is to come when a demand is received for £1,000 to be paid a month, or else her daughter will be killed.
The two people targeting Annie are cold, heartless people and have no qualms in arranging for people to be killed.
Michael and his son Aaron have also been targeted and when Annie contacts him, they decide to try and stop these people.
This is a great read.
Thanks to Orion Publishing Group for the opportunity to read this book.

When two heavyweights get together to co-write a book, it can go one of two ways. Either their egos get in the way of a successful collaboration, or their geniuses spark off each other to produce fireworks. Happily, the latter is the case with this pacey thriller chiller from MJ Arlidge and Andy Maslen, whose writing is so seamless, it’s impossible to spot the joins.

Imagine being a single mum and receiving a deep fake video showing you crying at your teenage daughter’s funeral. Accompanying the video is an ultimatum: set up a £1,000 monthly transfer to a bank in the Cayman Islands or your daughter will be killed. Such will also be her fate if you involve the police.

I may have struggled a bit with this initially, as there are a lot of characters, and it’s not clear at first how they are all connected. However, once everything fell into place, I was quickly sucked into Annie’s living nightmare and the impossible choice she faced: either meet the blackmailer’s demands or try to unmask them on your own.

There are three things that really made this book stand out for me: the characterization, the plotting, and the spotlight the authors shine upon the perils of social media culture.

The two scammers, especially, are brilliantly portrayed: cold-blooded psychopaths who will stop at nothing to keep the money rolling in. They felt scarily real. Equally convincing were distraught mother Annie and recently widowed Michael, a fellow ‘mark’, whose son Aaron is also targeted. It was impossible not to feel their spiraling anguish and panic. Nor can I forget war veteran, John. Dishonorably discharged, suffering from PTSD, and reduced to living on the streets, he’s the blackmailers’ puppet.

Once it takes off, the plot is propulsive, unfolding at a scorching pace. Dark, gritty and twisted, and definitely not for the squeamish, it builds to the kind of frantic, explosive denouement that has you flipping pages like a demon. I couldn’t have second guessed it if I’d tried.

How far would you go to protect your child? The blackmailers who are threatening the parents of young children are about to find out. When one mother receives a video thru her email of her daughter's supposed funeral, she thinks it's a scare tactic from her ex husband who doesn't like the custody agreement. But she soon learns that is not the case. Then a man learns that his deceased wife was being blackmailed. Soon this pair of parents team up to find and take down the blackmailers. But they find it is not so easy since they cannot call the police and when it is all over, they find that there were lots more families being mentally tortured and extorted. And they also learn that the reason the blackmailers had the information for the blackmail was due to all the on line posting the parents themselves did about their children.

The fear of not doing enough to protect your child is very scary, this added with the suspense and tension had me hooked throughout.

Your Child Next is a gripping psychological thriller set in Birmingham. Parents are being blackmailed for money in exchange for keeping their child safe. Annie and Michael join forces to identify the perpetrators. The book raises current concerns regarding the dangers of sharing information on social media and the use of deep fake videos. A well-written, fast-paced story with strong characters. Highly recommended.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Very enjoyable read. I have enjoyed books by M J Arlidge before and this was another great read. Interesting characters and a satisfying conclusion. Recommended.

Since Annie and Grant split up things have been difficult between her and their teenage daughter Isla and Annie is worried about her. Then Annie receives a video of her crying at a funeral which appears to be Isla's, she doesn't know what to make of it as Isla is upstairs in her bedroom, but she runs up to check anyway, relieved to see she's alive and well. She soon realises the video is a deep fake and, after receiving a call from an unknown number, discovers that it will become a reality if she doesn't comply with their demands and she's not the only parent that's being blackmailed. They've been warned what will happen if they involve the police, so do they give them what they want or do they do a little detective work of their own?

Your Child Next is the third in a five project collaboration by M J Arlidge and other authors and this time it's the turn of Andy Maslen. I've read most of the Helen Grace series by Arlidge and the first in the Kat Ballantyne series by Maslen, so when I saw they were doing this one together I was looking forward to seeing how it would pan out. It's every parents nightmare, the thought that someone is out to harm your child and will do anything for money. It also highlights the harm that oversharing on social media can lead to. This story starts off right in the action with the video that Annie receives and just keeps on building throughout the book. It's a fast paced read that, at times, requires you to suspend belief at where it's all heading, but fiction wouldn't be fiction if it was always plausible now would it? This is a great read by Arlidge and Maslen that is seamlessly written and keeps you on the edge of your seat willing the parents to outsmart the blackmailers.

I'd like to thank Orion and Netgalley for the auto approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

I enjoyed this novel. It had plenty of suspense to keep me guessing. Great characters.. Intriguing storyline. Enjoyed the style of writing. All round great book. Look forward to the next one. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it

This is the third book I have read in this "series" of books that have been co-authored by MJ Arlidge and a selection of other authors. The first two introduced me to authors I had previously not read - Julia Crouch, and Stephanie Broadbribb - and I have added both to my ever growing TBR. This one does exactly the same with Andy Maslen, another prolific author with another more than healthy back catalogue... sigh!
More exciting that that though, and I will get on with my review in a bit, honest, but I had a look and see that there are 2 more such books expected this year with Lisa Hall (I love this author already) and Alex Khan (more to add to my tbh sigh) I blooming love this whole concept!
Right... We start with Annie who is struggling a bit since her husband left her. Her daughter Isla is also suffering and withdrawing into herself and Annie is scared she will lose her too. So it is with shock that Annie receives a video which appears to show her at a funeral, crying. A funeral that turns out to be that of Isla. Who is alive and upstairs from her, as she finds out when she races up and bursts in on her. Obviously the video is faked but who could have done such a thing and why...?
Long story short and it turns out that Annie is being blackmailed with the threat that Isla will suffer if she doesn't pay up. But, and it's no spoiler, it'll be a very short book if she just puts up and pays up, Annie is determined to fight back... but how?
Ooo this was a bit juicy and a breath of fresh air as it is a concept I haven't ever come close to coming across in any book I have read before. And it's actually quite a simple idea all told, but it is in the execution that this book really shines.
The characters are all very well drawn and all play their parts very well indeed. Plotting is excellent and very well executed. Pacing is good and matches the narrative all the way through. And with no additional waffle or padding, the book gets on with itself very well indeed. It's addictive, it's thrilling, hitting the ground running, holding me captive throughout, holding on and then spitting me out at the end wholly satisfied.
It also contains quite an important message wrt what we all share online in social media and the like. I myself have got a bit complacent in that regard, and I did have a bit of a think about what I use and how I use it, especially these days, and I don't have to spell out what I mean there!
All in all, a cracking book that I thoroughly recommend. I'm off now to add yet another author to my out of control TBR. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I really enjoyed this book. I’ve read most of M J Arlidge’s books but none by Andy Maslen. I wasn’t sure how I felt about a joint effort but I needn’t have worried. The premise of the story was very clever. The majority of the book was fast paced and you just kept wanting to read more. Loved it.

This is an enjoyable read and unfolds from several points of view with a focus on newly-divorced Annie and her anxious and vulnerable teenage daughter Isla and a newly-widowed Michael who is grappling with the death of his wife and grief of his stepson.

Michael discovers his wife had been paying money into a Cayman's bank account every month, and cancels the transfer, not realising she was paying a blackmailer and now his son's life is at risk. And the same blackmailer makes threats against Isla's life, forcing Annie to pay up... even though she cannot afford it.

Through fortuitous circumstances (made possible thanks to an unreliable thug hired by the blackmailer), Annie and Michael meet and decide to ferret out the perpetrators... not really realising who they're up against.

I liked that the authors introduce the pair quickly and get them playing offense instead of defense given one of the perpetrator/s is also a narrator so we already know what they're thinking and planning.

I enjoyed the cat and mouse game but the main thing I struggled with here was the lack of motivation or complete randomness with which the perpetrator/s choose victims. (And yes, there's a lesson here about how much of our lives we share online.)

I found myself taken aback with the callousness of those involved and wasn't sure there was enough background or backstory for us to completely understand that degree of socio/psychopathy.

That said, I whipped through this in a sitting keen to see how it played out.

3.5 stars

Annie receives a video of her daughter’s funeral. She rushes to check her daughter and upon finding her safe, deletes the offed in email. Not long and she’s getting a call from two people threatening to eliminate her daughter if she doesn’t pay up. She finds an alliance with another friend and they rush to try and protect their children.
Overall I enjoyed this book. The middle slowed down a bit but then picked back up in the end. I have to say that a lot of the book was unbelievable though. I was frustrated with the main character when she refused to get the clearly needed professional help.

A unique and gripping read!
The main character is Annie who is fiercely protective over her daughter Isla , especially since the break up of her marriage.
Isla is an anxious girl, but wants to do things like a teenage girls do such as clubbing and having a boyfriend so resents her mothers overbearing attitude.
Annie is sent a deep fake video of her crying at her daughter’s funeral , and rushes upstairs to check Isla is ok .
Who can have sent the video , and why are they asking for money in order to keep Isla safe?
Annie is a strong character and the story is an interesting read and it makes you think about how much information is shared online , and who could be looking at it .
I enjoy the work of both writers and together they make a formidable duo.
An excellent thriller!
Highly recommended!
Thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group.

This did not disappoint!!
I loved it especially as it was set close to where I live
Definitely a unique storyline with brilliant characters
Literally couldn’t put it down it was fantastic full review coming soon

This was a tense novel and worked well as something that kept the reader engaged. I was hooked from the first page and thought the characters worked overall in the story. M. J. Arlidge and Andy Maslen wrote this well and had that feel that I was looking for. It was a strong concept and had a scary concept.

I've read many of this author's books, but this is the first one I've read as a co-write with Andy Maslen. The book began well, with a good pace following the storyline of Annie and her daughter Isla. As the book went on however, it felt like the pace slowed and I found myself getting a little bored with the story. I did though liked how it was based in Birmingham, and could picture places as I read. For me, it wasn't the best from an author who I normally really like, and perhaps shows that it is co-written. It did have some enjoyable parts though with a good start and ending.

Im a big fan of M J Arlidge and have been enjoying his collaborations with other authors,I've not read anything by Andy Maslen, so I was eager to start reading this one.
A unique storyline that definitely makes you stop and think how much personal information can be shared on social media and just who is out there reading your inner thoughts.
It is an enjoyable psychological read with strong characters, especially the bad guys with loads of drama. Yes, some is a bit over the top, but isn't that what we need sometimes something to lose ourselves in for a few hours?
A recommended read with an unexpected ending.
Thanks to Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for the ARC.