Excellent story line which was gripping from start to finish. Great characters. I would highly recommend this book.

On a sunny day in Edinburgh Moira summers son Ryan walks into his college cafeteria and begins shooting. By the end of the spree thirteen young ladies and Ryan are dead. What follows is an agonising investigation into what would cause a seemingly ordinary quiet young man to become executioner. The three main women in the story are Moira , then there is ishbel hodgkiss mother of the first victim and di Helen birch the police officer tasked with investigating the why's and wherefores of an unspeakable horror. I felt like an observer within the story and became engrossed with the unfolding drama. At times I was frustrated by the men in the story especially Isabel's Louse of a husband. It begs the question how well do we really know those closest to us. The only bug bear I would have is that occasionally it felt a bit like the story had stalled but then it would begin to race along again.

A thought-provoking and tragic tale following the events of an all too familiar scenario of a school shooting. Told from the viewpoints of the investigator and the mothers of first victim and perpetrator, the ripples go far and wide. Slightly annoying format reflecting the social media norm of these days, but worth reading.

A heartbreaking and thought provoking read. I usually find it quite hard to read books about shootings (although I have read 11 minutes by Jodi Picoult and I loved it), particularly school shootings because I'm a teacher and I know that in America school shootings are a lot more common than they really should be. It has become one of my darkest fears. But I know deep down it is fairly unlikely to happen in the UK again. In this book it does and with devastating consequences.
This story follows the life (and death) of the shooter Ryan Summers, his first victim, Abigail, and their families. I suspected from the beginning of the story the motive of the shooter but this was still an enjoyable read. What really spoke to me was the part of the book where the detective says people want to know details about the shooter, want to know they had a troubled past or mental health issues to distance themselves from it and to know they could never be like the killer. There is so much truth in that, despite in this case the shooter being a normal teenager and not the psychopath stereotype.
Thanks to Netgalley for gifting me an ecopy in return for an honest review.

This was a fantastic book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Whilst the subject matter is a difficult one, in view of the frequent school shootings particularly in the USA, it was interesting to read a book set in this country based on such an event. The book was brilliantly written and whilst you knew the outcome from the start, the different viewpoints were interesting and the conclusion very satisfying. Highly recommended.

I thought that this was a good example of the genre - it was a bit slow to start but suddenly kicked off and became more interesting towards the end. There were some twists and surprises which I liked. There are faults in this which other reviewers have pointed out, but I forgave them and cheered the three women on in the satisfying ending!

A read that kept me on the edge of my seat. There are so many sides to the story not all of them unbelievable. Journalists who pray on the innocent, friends who keep secrets, parents who also keep secrets. Worth an afternoon curled up on the sofa to read end to end.

“All the Hidden Truths” may be a work of fiction. Yet with its realistic ‘live’ commentary, unnervingly it could be breaking news on our very own media feeds.

The magnitude of a tragic event is delivered with confidence, authenticity, and from the heart. In just a few pages I was transformed from reader to helpless bystander, powerless to affect the outcome. But while I remained safely cocooned the characters were exposed to all manner of trials, as the press and social scrutiny steals precious time from the bereaved and the investigation alike.

When a mass shooting has claimed a loved one it’s traumatic for the families concerned without the burden of these unnecessary and cruel distractions. But how could someone ever come to terms with the fact that their child was the one holding the gun? The story highlights difficult perspectives, reflecting on accountability and how easy it is to judge when we can’t comprehend.

The narration extracts an undiluted rawness from almost every scene and expresses distinctive viewpoints without sensationalism, or prejudice toward any party. Its date and time stamps not only break the story into digestible chunks, each interval reinforces the progress of the gruelling investigation and the characters’ wavering resolve.

It feels exceptionally human, focussing on the aftershocks that are felt by everyone.

There's always going to be the question of why? Why did Ryan Summers go into Three Rivers College and kill all those women before killing himself. What tipped him over the edge?
DI Birch and the team of officers certainly have their work cut out trying to get answers. There's not just shock of what Ryan did, but anger too. As the police investigate, the press are hot on their tails digging for answers.
As the story unfolds you begin to feel some of the frustrations and heartbreak the parents are going through. Not just those who lost their loved ones but Ryan's mother too. How can you live with yourself knowing what your son did? I won't say who, but one of the people in the book really got under my skin. I wanted to get between the pages and knocks their lights out. Yes this thriller really is that good. Not only would I recommend it but it gets five stars from me. This is my honest and unbiased review

I found this book to be a captivating read.

I found that the teenager was out of control and what he did in the end was to end what he did.

The emotions are run high Edinburgh in the book.

By reading from three points of views, it shows every detail from every chapter from each point of views.

This book was a very absorbing read and I would like to read this book again someday.

A moving novel that tackles a difficult subject, well explored from different angles and worth the read.
It’s DI Birch’s first day in a new role since her recent promotion and she is one of the first to arrive on campus at Three Rivers following reports of a shooting.
It’s worse than was feared - thirteen students are dead, all female and shot by a fellow student.
Why? That is the question everyone is asking. We hear different sides of the story, in particular from, from the shooters mother and from the mother of the first in victim. A particularly unpleasant journalist tries to present events from his angle and some unlikely alliances are made.
I found the book credible and easy to read. Kept me engaged to 5he end.

Oh dear. This is, I think the second time that I’ve poorly rated a book that I’ve read because of Netgalley. I did read the book to the end, and I did want to find out the ending but there were so many continuity errors that I just couldn’t quite suspend disbelief. I am sure that many readers less pendantic than I will enjoy this book and I did enjoy parts of it.
The book opens with Moira and there follows a miserable chapter about a miserable woman failing to enjoy a nice sunny day.
Chapter two, ah a new character! But, oh dear... it is DI Birch. Recently promoted and having recently bought her dream home Helen Birch is also a miserable woman.
Chapter 3, another new character, this time Ishbel who is waiting to collect her daughter from football practice. Ishbel does “not entirely approve of her daughters continuing interest in football” You’d be forgiven for thinking that her daughter Abigail was 16 and taking her GCSEs; Mum collecting her from school after an activity, that activity interfering with school work but no, it turns out that Abigail is a grown woman of 19! Ishbel enjoys passive aggressive sniping with both Abigail and her husband Aidan who is a similarly passive aggressive oaf.
The novel centres around the actions of Ryan Summers, Moira’s son as he commits the hideous crime of shooting multiple fellow students at the college he attended. I am hoping that the Scottish education system is different to the English one, because here the bulk of students at FE colleges are 16-18 rather than the 19-27 spread that the author focuses on. These are adults and yet their behaviour is infantilised by their parents, the police and the author. Having adult children of a similar age spread myself it just didn’t feel realistic at all. I think it lost some of the emotional impact because of this.
Turning to ‘the day’ itself, things start to get really silly. Ishbel is at work, for some reason the author is very evasive about what Ishbel does and when it is revealed it bears no relevance to the plot at all) and a colleague mentions that on Twitter there are reports of a shooting at the college and Ishbel panics, that is understandable but what happens next isn’t. She receives a phone call from a Dr friend at the A&E dept telling her that no victims have been brought in yet but that she should go there as it would be the best place to find out about Abigail. Even IF you can ignore the fact that no Dr would ever make such a call, especially when a major incident has been declared but the author tells us that there are 7000 students at the campus. So there is a 1 in 7000 chance that Abigail is involved yet a perfectly rational Dr suggests that a mother of a pupil drives straight to A&E. Okaaay then.
This could so easily have been made more likely if the Dr had phoned her after seeing Abigail or her name, indicating that she was involved.
The book is then largely devoted to the aftermath. This is interesting and emotional at times but ruined by the journalist covering the story. Sometimes he is referred to as a columnist but the pages that are written from his POV are displayed exactly how articles in local newspapers are displayed with hyperlinks to other relevant articles etc which is not at all like a column. As they are displayed as articles they grate as there is no way on earth that a journalist would be allowed to put such blatant opinion into the piece, accusing people of doing things etc. The tabloid press are terrible, but they are also clever enough to operate within the law and most of what he says is libellous.
On a positive note I did really enjoy how the author used Wikipedia pages, news articles, forum posts etc to break up the narrative. The comments on the news articles are brilliant and totally realistic.
The author introduces conspiracy theorists and the suggestion that Ryan was an ‘incel’ a mysoginistic group who refer to themselves as involuntarily celibate and blame women for this fact. While this has been recently found to be the reason behind a spree killing, the author doesn’t elaborate on this which is a shame.
The aftermath period of the novel is more enjoyable than the pre killing and it kept me reading to the end. While DI Birch becomes someone you a cheering on, both Moira and Ishbel remain mostly unlikeable until the final denouement. If only the author had shown the women as they were then for the entire novel.

The book opens with the reader being introduced to three women via their own voices. As one may guess, these women become entwined in the coming chapters. There has been a shooting at a local college and some students maybe hurt...... Enough said of the story as no review should give away the plot. The real interesting script of this novel is the way it covers the use of modern day media and how this dramatically effects not only the lives of those impacted by the tragic event, but also the police investigation of the case. For me the way a book concludes is always important to it's success. This novel deals with the issues well with a satisfactory conclusion drawn, even if it is not realistic or believable in the real world.

All The Hidden Truths is a depressingly timely novel about a mass shooting in a college. It delves into the lives of some of those affected - the family of the victims, the police officer heading up the investigation and the mother of the perpetrator. It asks questions like who is at fault in such an author scenario, and does so without being gratuitous in its subject matter. A really compelling read (and even more so because it was set in my home town of Edinburgh).

(Thanks to the publishers who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review)

A fascinating story of an unfortunately common occurrence in this day and age, with an in-depth look at the lives of the people left behind after the tragedy.a thoroughly good read for anyone.



All the Hidden Truths by Claire Askew

This is a book about a school shooting, a teenage boy walks into Three Rivers College and shoots 13 young women, dead. He then turns the gun on himself.

This shocking event happens at the start of All the Hidden Truths, and the remainder of the book tries to sort out the emotions and anguish surrounding the shooting as well as try to figure out why Ryan Summers was driven to do such a thing.

There are several female lead characters that play the key roles in the book:

Ishbel, Abigail's mother - Abigail was the first girl to be shot at Three Rivers College

Moira, the mother of the shooter, Ryan Summer

DI Birch, policewoman in charge of the case

They have very different roles in the book and consequently offer different aspects of the shooting. It is through these women that the story unfolds, until they finally meet at the conclusion of the book

Some of the story is told through the medium of social media such as tweets, emails or newspaper articles and it holds the press to account. It illuminates how the shooting has effected the community and in turn, how it has responded. I think this aspect adds to the edgy, harrowing feel of the book

I am not sure I would have chosen to read this book on the sunny Sunday morning, I did as it is fairly grim both in subject matter and narrative. However, it turned out to be a compelling read that I finished in one sitting.

All the Hidden truths

From the blurb, we know the subject matter of the story; a mass killing at a school campus. In this case, the setting is Edinburgh and that brings a relevance that shows how such tragedies can happen anywhere. I really enjoyed the location details and could visualise the action as it unfolded.

Claire Askew's story is a convincing exploration of motive. She's really into the psyche of each character. Whether it's a bereaved parent, a gutter press journalist, a DI with personal involvement or the mother of the killer, each twist of the tale reveals another secret. These are all ordinary people whose lives are blown apart. Every character reacts in a different way and bit by bit in a tense reveal, all the different threads of the story come together. It's very much a story about people, well plotted, gripping and I really enjoyed it.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book. I certainly wasn’t disappointed, it was a heartbreaking story for all involved. No parent wants to lose a child or be the parent of the child who done wrong. Most parents worst nightmare I would imagine, I know for me it would. It is a very well written and thought out book. Absolutely brilliant story I will be recommending.

An interesting novel examining the aftermath of a college shooting in Edinburgh by a teenage boy. The story is told from the viewpoint of the shooter's mother, the first victim's mother and the investigating detective.
A very interesting and thought provoking read - all the more so considering the author chose to set the book in the UK rather than the USA who see much more of this type of crime than us thankfully.
As a very current topic I found this captivating, honest and hard to forget and particularly liked that all three points of view were from strong female characters.
Highly recommended and thanks to Netgalley UK and publishers for ARC in exchange for honest review.

A brilliant story about a college shooting, weaving together the narratives of the police, the shooter’s mother and a victim’s mother. I couldn’t put this down. Set in Edinburgh, the novel examines why Ryan Summers shot his classmates but also suggests that people don’t always know what is going on in the lives of those supposedly closest to them.