Would you know if someone was watching you?
In the dark days since the sudden death of her surgeon husband, Julia’s main worry has always been Tash. Her student daughter was broken—she worshipped her father. But six months on, Julia thinks the light is returning. She is about to find out that she’s wrong.
When she saves the life of a boy who’s been hanging around her beach cottage, the … beach cottage, the questions start. All she has to go on is the butterfly tattoo on his wrist, but who is he? What was he doing there? And why was her late husband’s watch in his bag? Julia wants to believe it’s a casual theft, but an ominous arrival in the post confirms her suspicion that there is more to it than meets the eye.
As Tash remembers a string of strange incidents she had previously brushed off, Julia realises they are both being watched. Someone’s been toying with them, trying to frighten them, but why?
Determined to protect her daughter, Julia races to discover the boy’s identity. But what she doesn’t realise is that the truth is right in front of her. Will she see it before it’s too late?
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I highly recommend.
Julia’s husband is dead. It was unexpected, leaving her reeling and her daughter, Tash, broken. She had always been a daddy’s girl. What the daughter doesn’t know is that Julia and her husband had planned on divorcing before his untimely death.
Beginning to see the light, the two spend some time at their beach cottage. That’s when things begin to happen.
Julia spots a young boy peeking into their cottage. When she approaches him, he takes off running, and falls leaving him with serious injuries. Being a doctor, she saves his life. But what she discovers leads to a lot of questions.
Why was he watching them? Why does he have her husband’s watch in his bag? Julia wants to believe it must have been a simple theft …. but an ominous arrival in the post confirms her suspicion that there is more to it than meets the eye.
The storyline is mysterious, a little scary, with deftly drawn characters. There are chapters told by an unknown person, leaving one to wonder what was really happening.
Many thanks to the author / Amazon Publishing UK / Netgalley for the digital copy of this psychological thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
I really enjoyed the writing. I’m a great fan of American author John Williams (“Stoner”) and that ability to carry a story almost on the strength of the writing itself. This isn’t quite the same, of course – but almost. A decent psychological thriller with credible characters and, I thought, an interesting theme around which to build the tension. Mysteries and moths!
Julia Young is a doctor and is staying for a few days at her beach home in Wales. Her professor husband, David, died from a stroke about six months ago. Shortly before his death, they had been planning to get a divorce. However, their daughter, Tash, is now a freshman at university and they didn’t want to upset her so they had been holding off telling her.
Coming up from the beach, Julia sees a young boy hanging around her cottage. When he spots her, he starts running and she chases him. She wants to know what he is doing on her property. At the top of a cliff, he falls and tears his femoral artery. Julia stops the bleeding and is soon rescued by a helicopter to take the boy to the hospital. The boy is in critical condition for severals days as they try to locate his family.
The police finally find that the young boy is Kane whose single mother has multiple sclerosis and will have difficulty caring for him. But Julia remains concerned for Kane and can’t stop wondering why he was hanging around her house.
When some creepy events occur, Julia is unsure if someone is playing games with her or truly trying to frighten her.
The book has separate chapters written by an unknown person or thing about moths. This totally gave me the creeps because I cannot stand moths! They freak me out! Of course, I’m sure it was written to that way to frighten the reader. Well done at that, author.
As creepy as it was for me, the moth chapters seemed to be the most compelling and informative parts of the book which is why it earned 4 stars. Julia didn’t necessarily appeal to me and I found a lot of the book to be not that great. Crazy people do crazy things.
Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.