YOUR DAUGHTER IS MISSING. HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO FIND HER? ‘The ending was nothing short of brilliant!’ Amazon reviewer ‘An ending that left me gasping’ Amazon reviewer ‘An explosive ending’ Amazon reviewer ‘The end left me with my jaw on the floor’ Amazon reviewer ********** When Jo’s teenage daughter goes missing, she feels like the world is collapsing around her. The police believe Grace is … teenage daughter goes missing, she feels like the world is collapsing around her.
The police believe Grace is just an angry teenager, punishing her parents by hiding out at a friend’s house, but Jo is terrified that her daughter is in grave danger. With so little urgency from the police, Jo decides to take matters into her own hands.
But, as Jo gets closer to discovering what has happened to her daughter, a devastating secret is uncovered that threatens to destroy the family she has been trying so very hard to protect…
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An addictive psychological thriller, perfect for fans of Rachel Abbott, Erin Kelly and Claire McGowan’s What You Did.
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A well-written, good story with surprises and twisted justice, that was more realistic than comfortable.
Wow, what a gripping storyline. This kept me entertained from beginning to end. This is the first I have read by this author but certainly won’t be the last. The characters are well developed and I instantly felt sorry for Jo. There were so many twists and turns this book will keep you guessing till the very end.
Deceive Me by author Karen Cole delivers a powerful twist at the ending! Oh My Goodness, the conclusion was unexpected! As I read about Jo’s life as a teenager, trying to care for her Mom and then the courage it took for her to get away and make a new start, I felt compassion for her. Jo’s world falls apart when her moody teenage daughter, Grace goes missing. Jo watched Grace go into the school but later finds out she did not attend any classes and she can not be found or traced. Could there be a link to a secret in Jo’s past which caused Grace to go missing? Jo soon discovers she is not the only person in her family with secrets. Deceive Me is a powerful thriller!
Publication Date: July 1, 2019
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Grace is 16 years ago, and as a typical teenager hates, her mother. She’s seeing a guy that’s a little older and her mom and stepfather don’t approve.
Grace and mother, Jo, have a very noisy confrontation ending with harsh words and slamming doors. Come Monday morning, Jo drives Grace to school .. in mostly silence… and watches as she walks into the building.
When Jo arrives to pick her up after school, she learns that Grace did not attend any of her classes that day. So where is she?
After many hours, the police believe that Grace is a run away, probably staying with a friend to punish her parents. But Jo thinks otherwise.
Jo starts questioning Grace’s friends … who all seem to know something but will not share any information that they may have. The community starts participating with some people thinking the stepfather knows more than he’s telling.
But as Jo gets closer to the truth, she finds that Grace knows the secret that Jo has kept hidden for many years .. and uncovering the secret will destroy the very family that she has tried to protect all these years.
Jo remembers her own home life in detail .. those things that have brought her to this day. She wants desperately to find her child.
Suspenseful from the get-go, the intensity increases and maintains a steady level until the shocking conclusion. Read in 2 sittings, I couldn’t seem to tear my eyes away as the twists and turns kept knocking me sideways. I never saw the ending coming … highly recommended reading!
Many thanks to the author / Mobius Books / Netgalley for the digital copy of this psychological thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
Simmering, intricate, and sinister!
Deceive Me is a menacing, addictive thrill ride that takes you to the beautiful island of Cyprus and into the lives of the Appleton family as their worlds get turned upside down when their teenage daughter goes missing without a trace, and everyone seems to have something, past or present, they’re willing to do anything to hide.
The prose is tense and tight. The characters are anxious, tormented, and volatile. And the plot told using a back-and-forth, past/present style is an unsettling tale of twists, turns, familial drama, secrets, lies, deception, relationship dynamics, mayhem, and swirling emotions.
Overall, Deceive Me was so much better than I ever expected. It’s a tragic, compulsive, well-executed tale by Cole that highlights the desperate, selfish side of human nature and reminds us that secrets almost always find their way to the surface no matter how well they are hidden or buried.
Hope doesn’t happen in real life, I can’t imagine what she did, poor girl
I love this author. This series keeps you waiting for the next book. It was a page turner, suspenseful. I would definitely recommend this book.
Loved the locale of Cyprus and how its civil war was woven into the story background. This one had twists and turns that kept me turning those pages. Really fun summer read.
This was a very good book! Twisted at the end not what I expected! This story is about Jo and her teenage daughter Grace who goes missing. the book goes back and forth in Jo’s life gradually bringing you to the present day. I found this to be a smooth reading but with an ending you never see coming!! Very well written storyline and characters. Kept my attention all the way through. would recommend this book .
Deceive Me
Karen Cole
Publication Date: July 1, 2019
4
DECEIVE ME is a story full of secrets and a mothers worst nightmare.( their child is missing) It is told from two perspectives Jo ( Grace’s mother) in the present day and Jo seventeen years ago. However, the story is mostly set in the present day of 2017
( surrounding Grace’s disappearance) we do get flashbacks of the past through Jo as she started work as a Nanny . I loved the fact that the story is told by the mother completely leaving us in the dark as to the whereabouts of Grace. Is she alive and in danger ? Dead ? Or did she simply ran away ?
To me the book is very slow paced and it took me awhile to get into it. I was almost to the point of giving up (about 50 % into the book )when it really got my attention . So dont give up , I promise it gets better. There are many twists ,turns and secrets throughout this book. It’s hard to pick who to believe. All of the characters are well developed and they all had a secret that they were keeping . None of them wanted their secret exposed. The biggest twist however came at the end . It totally blew me away .
And as always if you read a book please leave a reviews. Reviews are important to authors.
I’ve read hundreds (possibly thousands) of thrillers/mysteries, and I’ve written several of them as well. In other words, it takes a lot for a thriller to truly shock me, but Deceive Me did exactly that. And I don’t just mean in a ‘that was a great twist,’ kind of way, but in a jaw hanging open, ‘wow, I can’t believe the author went there’ kind of way. Not just once, either. The last portion of this book is full of several twists and turns that I defy anyone to honestly say they saw coming.
The basic setup is this: Grace, a 16-year-old living in Cyprus with her mother, step-father, and brother, disappears from school one day. Her family launches an exhaustive search to try to find her, but their efforts only seem to make things murkier. Grace’s friends and boyfriend are evasive and, in some cases, flat out hostile. The authorities take a much closer look at the family than either parent is comfortable with. And soon, Grace’s mother can’t help but cast a suspicious eye on pretty much everyone.
What happened to Grace? And why? These are questions that set off an explosive chain reaction of stunning revelations. Most of the book flows in a way that’s easily familiar to thriller fans and could have gone down any of a long list of easily guessable, mundane solutions. Karen Cole’s ending gives readers so much more than the norm, though, and that makes this one of 2019’s must-read thrillers.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.