BlogTour stop for this mystery laden family thriller
"A drowned child. Estranged sisters. A once-perfect home. "
Synopsis
A drowned child. Estranged sisters. A once-perfect home.
Silence echoes louder than truth.
When seventeen-year-old Rachel’s baby brother drowns and her older sister, Imogen, escapes to live abroad with Simon, her musician boyfriend, Rachel must face the family’s grief and disintegration alone.
Twenty years later, Rachel is a successful businesswoman, with a daughter of her own, supporting her parents and their elegant Georgian home, The Old Rectory, that shackles them to the past.
Simon’s sudden death in Ibiza brings Imogen back, impoverished and resentful. Her family owes her, and she will stop at nothing to reclaim what she believes is rightly hers.
The rift between the sisters seems permanent. While Imogen has lived a nomadic life, filled with intrigue, in Spain and Tunisia, Rachel’s has appeared stable and successful but, behind the veneer, cracks are appearing. Now, she is vulnerable.
As the wall of silence and secrecy crumbles, danger stalks Rachel’s family. She must re-examine her baby brother’s death, find out what happened in Tunisia, and fight to hold onto everything she’s achieved –or risk losing it all.
Façade is a gripping tale of loss, guilt and danger.
My Review
This read had me hooked from the start a dark and atmospheric family thriller, this story is packed with twists and turns.
When Imogen returns to her family home, after the death of her husband, there are so many haunting reasons that this is a big mistake.
From the bitterness over her treatments as a child and young adult mixed with the grief of her lost love she is now determined to come home and face her parents and sister and get what is rightfully hers at any cost.
This was a fantastic slow burn of a read packed with twists and revelations, this is one of these stories that stays with you long after you finish reading the characters who all had there grief to deal with all swayed between villain and victim, just as you made you mind up who was a fault you through sideways again by another twist.
thrilling and mysterious all at once this is a read that will keep you hooked and guessing right to the last page.
Author Bio
Helen Matthews writes page-turning psychological suspense novels and is fascinated by the darker side of human nature and how a life can change in an instant.
Her first novel, suspense thriller After Leaving the Village, won first prize in the opening pages category at Winchester Writers’ Festival, and was followed by Lies Behind the Ruin, domestic noir set in France, published by Hashtag Press. Her third novel Façade will be published by Darkstroke in September 2020.
Born in Cardiff, Helen read English at the University of Liverpool and worked in international development, consultancy, human resources and pensions management. She fled corporate life to work freelance while studying for a Creative Writing MA at Oxford Brookes University. Her stories and flash fiction have been shortlisted and published by Flash 500, 1000K Story, Reflex Press, Artificium and Love Sunday magazine.
She is a keen cyclist, covering long distances if there aren’t any hills, sings in a choir and once appeared on stage at Carnegie Hall, New York in a multi-choir performance. She loves spending time in France. Helen is an Ambassador for the charity, Unseen, which works towards a world without slavery and donates her author talk fees, and a percentage of royalties, to the charity.
Social Media Links –
Twitter - @HelenMK7
Instagram - @helen.matthews7
Website – https://www.helenmatthewswriter.com
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Thank you to the Publisher and Author for sending me an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this novel and for the opportunity to review these works.
All reviews are my own unbiased opinion.