Shallow Grave meets The Secret History in this quirky psychological thrillerWhen you’re bound together by secrets and lies who do you trust? Bristol, 1988.Five young graduates on the threshold of their careers buy a house together in order to get a foot on the property ladder before prices spiral out of their reach. But it soon becomes the house share from hell. After their New Year’s Eve party, …
After their New Year’s Eve party, they discover a body – and it’s clear they’ll be the first suspects. As each of them has a good reason from their past not to trust the police, they come up with a solution – one which forces them into a life of secrets and lies.
But can they trust each other?
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I’d been looking forward to reading this for a while, and it didn’t disappoint! It pulls you in from the first page, and keeps your attention to the end.
When five young adults decide to buy a house together in the 1980s, it seems like a good idea at first. But cracks soon start to appear in their relationships, until they are forced to stay together after finding a body and disposing of it in their own way.
The author has created wonderful, flawed characters, each with something to hide from their past, and shows how easily the perfect friendship can quickly disintegrate, with disastrous results. The dynamics within the group are spot on, and very believable.
A great thriller, with a few twists that will surprise you and keep you guessing until everything is revealed! Highly recommend.
The Suspects has made it to my favorite reads of 2019! It is compelling, gripping and kept me guessing all the way through. My first read by Katherine Johnson and it definitely won’t be my last.
This novel hits you with tension from the beginning and keeps it tense all the way through. It felt terrifyingly real. I’ll be honest, I’ve been thinking about it since I put it down.
I don’t want to give anything away. Check this one out!!
*I read this book as part of a blog tour with Rachel’s Random Resources. All opinions are my own.*
The Suspects is one of my favourite books. I don’t often re-read books, but I did so with this one. Highly recommended.
The suspects: by Katharine Johnson
“The Suspects” starts out with three of four flatmates attending the funeral of Xante, the fourth quirky member of the house share. During the funeral, one of the others is taken away by the police, accused of murder.
The book then goes back in time as Emily, narrates the story of the four interns just starting out on their working journey when the worst possible thing happens. There is a murder, but who did it?
As they stand together to find a quick solution to the horrifying problem, their resolve soon crumbles as each character begins to wonder which one among them has committed the crime. The reader is thrown from left to right as subtle clues and red herrings throw you this way and that, and you find yourself changing your opinion and changing sides throughout the book, not wanting to believe that the latest suspect could have done it.
The author cleverly covers every possible thought process of each character as they analyse one another and slowly drift apart. This is a new author to me and I enjoyed the book immensely. In my opinion, the ending didn’t seem quite as strong as the rest of the book, but I still enjoyed it and would still recommend it and for that reason, I give it five stars.
This was an intriguing novel with many twist and turns. Plenty to keep you guessing. The characters were well drawn. The novel’s view point gives the readers a different point of view on a crime as the suspects point fingers while the readers guess who has really committed the crime. A great read.
Set in Bristol in the late eighties, it is impossible not to be addicted to this psychological thriller which is filled with flashbacks from my youth: Fine Young Cannibals, calling from a phone box, watching Blind Date, and hands up if you remember Callanetics?
The novel begins with the housemates, all journalist students, attending the funeral of fellow housemate, Xanthe. There’s lots of dark humour: when Em panics that they’ve turned up to the wrong funeral; how they come up with the name for the John Doe. At the end of the funeral service, one of the group is taken away by the police and the story goes back to the start, building up to the disastrous New Year’s Eve party whereupon, already grappling with personality clashes, unwelcome other halves and missed mortgage payments, they stumble across a body in the basement. How they deal with this discovery provides the backdrop to the novel. This story will have you on edge – putting your hands over your eyes and screaming at the bad choices the young graduates make. Mistakes which, once set in motion, only lead to further chaos and deception.
Johnson is great at making you squirm as events gradually spiral out of control. My stomach was constantly sinking with despair at each ‘bad choice’. This is a real whodunnit with lots of things to unravel besides the identity of the murderer; who is Fitz? And what bombshell did Stuart confess to Em? I was kept guessing right until the end as I jumped from suspect to suspect, not sure what or who to believe, racing through the last chapters to get to the truth. There are lots of twists and turns, but it is very cleverly plotted so that, with hindsight, the clues are there from the start. The portrayal of life as a trainee journalist feels very real, and I love the description of the Birmingham trade show. Johnson nails the difficulties and dilemmas the young twenty somethings face as they try to get on in the real world. Compelling, edgy and deliciously dark – it left my nerves in shreds.
I couldn’t stop reading this tale of deceit and it’s ever-increasing repercussions. A twisted, dark, and compelling novel.
The Suspects by Katherine Johnson is one of the more inventive thrillers I’ve read. The author is at her best getting her characters into tight spots that get tighter by the moment. Her complications are as inventive as the overall situation, and Johnson keeps us in touch with the thoughts and feelings of her characters. They seem real.
The Suspects is the third novel I’ve read by Katharine Johnson and she keeps getting better and better. Johnson is a master at depicting flawed and guilt-ridden characters and putting them in high stress situations that bring out the absolute worst in themselves and in the people around them.
In The Suspects, we have a group of graduate trainee journalists who know each other only slightly when they take out a joint mortgage to buy a shared house in Bristol. It’s a small detail but an important one because the mortgage shackles them with a joint responsibility at a time many of us will remember when interest rates were spiralling out of control. Anyone who has lived in similar house shares and experienced the niggles of communal living will, at first, find the characters very relatable. We soon find out they are anything but – all of them are concealing guilty secrets from their past so, when they find a body in the basement a week after their New Year’s Eve party they don’t react as you might expect. The consequences take the characters and the reader on a rollercoaster ride of twists and high tension.
There are so many things I loved about this novel – the unreliable narrator, Emily; the period detail – Scruples, Blind Date, AIDS, kilims, the 2CV and Opium perfume and the plot that piles twist upon twist until I was thinking OK, enough now – this rollercoaster ride is too much but then it is all worth it because, shortly before the end, is a heart-in-mouth scene that packs an emotional punch. As always, the quality of the writing is excellent. The Suspects deserves a wide-audience and to be Johnson’s breakthrough book.
It was mildly entertaining.
When I picked up this book, I don’t know what I was hoping for. I knew I wanted some suspense and jaw dropping twists. I would like to say that is what I got, but I really can’t say that.
This book moved really slow. It didn’t make much sense to me in many parts. It felt like a big jumbled mess. The author wanted to accomplish too many things at once in this book, which made everything that happened completely out of the realm of possibility.
The overall plot in this book was good. I just wasn’t impressed with how it was written. I figured a lot out. Some things were completely out in left field that left me perplexed and shaking my head. I can’t say that the characters were likeable. They were all daft and selfish. I found it really hard to connect to them.
On the flip side… Even though I wasn’t impressed, I can admit the author had some really great ideas. The book did have some good parts throughout it. Those parts kept me reading. By the time I got to the end of the book, I was curious to see how everything was going to play out.
Between all the crappy decisions and the consequences for those decisions, this book would be enjoyable to some. It just didn’t hit the mark for me.
Good tead
Kept me guessing until the end.
I liked the book just not the way it ended.
I liked the book but it had some very strange ideas in it Like each person did things which they lied about and then what they really did was something else
Loved it!
Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart moves to 1980s Bristol.
Five trainee journalists decide to get on the housing ladder by buying a house together. Sharing a mortgage with relative strangers sounds like a precarious plan at the best of times but it gets a whole lot more unhinged when they find a body in their basement after a New Year’s Eve party. They decide to conceal the death instead of going to the police. (It seemed like a reasonable idea at the time – and they even convinced this reader!) Most of the novel is about narrator Emily’s constant dread of being found out. My heart was racing at times as I shared her guilt – and I was only reading the pages.
4.5 Stars
They number 5 … 3 young ladies and 2 young men … who have been chosen to participate in a program for budding reporters. They do not know each other, but for financial reasons, they decide to buy a house together.
All goes well for awhile ….. until
New Year’s Eve they threw a party and fun was had by all. Until they discover a body in the basement.
No one seems to know who this man is .. but one thing is sudden, they will all be under suspicion if the police are notified. As each of them has a good reason not to trust the police, they come up with a solution – one which forces them into a life of secrets and lies.
This is a roller-coaster ride of friendships, loves, secrets, lies, twist and turns that boggle the mind. Not only are these people suspects in the murder of an unidentified man, boyfriends, girlfriends, and guests all come under the eagle eyes of the law.
This is an extremely well written story featuring finely drawn characters. As the story progresses, tensions soar amid the rising panic and uncertainty among the main players. From the first page through the surprising ending, this is one the reader will not put down easily.
Many thanks to the author / TBC Reviewer Request Group (FB) for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
This is a gripping read
An amazing psychological suspense thriller that had me on the edge of my seat!!!
Five university graduates who all work at the same place decide to buy a house together. At first, it seems like a great idea. Emily, Xanthe, Stuart, Zak, and Imogene are on their best behavior with one another, but it doesn’t take long before the cracks in their arrangement begin to appear. Finding a dead body in their basement on New Year’s Eve doesn’t make it any better. That night would have far-reaching consequences for the five housemates.
Secrets, lies, and betrayals are at this heart of this book. There are so many twists and turns, but all will be revealed by the end. I know I’m not revealing much, but I can’t! I wouldn’t want to spoil a thing for those who haven’t read this one! Once you start, you won’t come up for air until the last page is finished.
The author has an amazing talent in building the suspense. By the end of every chapter, she would add some foreshadowing that would be another twist in the story! If you are looking for a nail-biter of a book, The Suspects is not to be missed!!!!