Nikki and Ethan had two daughter, Grace and Bella. three years ago Grace was killed in a tragic accident and Bella hasn't spoken since.
They have moved from the house where it happened into a modern state of the art house including a robot.
Can they keep Bella safe there?
But what if the house has other ideas!!

This is a great thriller, a brilliant plot and I connected with the characters. Really enjoyed it.

Many thanks to Netgalley and James Carol for the advanced copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

An interesting storyline, plenty of twists to keep the pages turning, great characters. Has made me think about the future of Artificial Intelligence!

I wavered between 4 and 5 stars for this book, ideally I would give it 4.5. However ,as I thoroughly enjoyed it and looked forward to picking it up to read, I went for 5.
I loved the present day scenario and found it a real page turner. I was disappointed when it changed to the past with ‘Father’, only because I wanted to keep on reading about the Rhodes family.
Nikki had anxiety issues and was still recovering from the tragedy that befell the family before but you just knew that that was not going to be the end of their troubles. The build up was brilliantly done, the sense of unease made you wary of everything but you just didn’t know where the danger would come from.
A book that was big on suspense, twists, original storyline and a real page turner.
I would like to read more from this author.
Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

Nikki, Ethan and their daughter Bella have moved house. This is a traumatic move for them. Three years previously, Grace, Bella's twin was killed in an accident outside their home. Since then, Bella hasn't spoken and now they feel it is time to move on.

The house they have chosen is a 'smart' house. Everything is controlled by Alice, a much improved version of Alexa. Alice is an electronic personal assistant extraordinaire. She (it?) opens doors, makes coffee, measures your biometrics, orders pizza and does other things most people are happy to do for themselves. Very quickly things start to go wrong. Lights go out, doors lock and it all becomes just a little frightening.

I enjoyed this book very much. It is real page turner and I swear my heart was racing towards the end. For me the characters could have been better portrayed. Nikki is well done; she has anxiety issues and most of the novel is focalised through her so we get to know her quite well. Ethan, not so much. He doesn't come to life at all. Other characters such as Catherine seem to be there as plot devices more than anything else. But the plot is good. Make no mistake, this novel is terrifying at times. Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

If you enjoy thinking about the future and what might be- sit down and enjoy the ride- but hold on! Nikki and Ethan have just moved into their new house 17 Church Row with their daughter. She was one of twins but unfortunately her sister Grace died when they got out of the door. since that time Bella hasn;t spoken a word and only speaks through her electronic pad. 17 Church row has Alice an artificial intelligence system (think a super version of Alexa) which controls everything from power on phone down to doors, light heating and even ordering takeaways and making the coffee. Of course a system is only as good as it’s programme and occasional things go wrong. For me there was a glaring mistake in that Bella told Alice not to tell her parents where she was hiding. After losing a child I would have thought that they would specifically asked Alice only to take certain, if any, instructions from Bella. But then again this is not real life. We get intermittent chapters about Katy whose Father tried to kill her. We don’t know where she fits into the story just glimpses of the relationship she had with her Father. Omg! This drew me in and kept me there. After reading books about automated cars and now houses I really don’t feel comfortable going there. A book to keep you turning and one perhaps to make you think in part of what is not in reality that far away. Stunning.
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Artificial Intelligence is a recurrent theme in science fiction with the possibility always present that the creation will over time have the potential to cross the boundary between artificial and human and thereby gain emotions and feelings like love, envy and perhaps even revenge. Here James Carol has combined elements of the thriller, sci fi and horror genre to produce a book that takes a look at some pretty profound questions concerning what makes a human and can this be recreated.

The story concerns the Rhodes family who following three years earlier of the tragic death of one of their twin daughters decide to move into a newly designed unique house at 17 Church Row in affluent Kensington. Here they hope to put the past behind them and start a new life in a house like no other in terms of the technology to be found there. Instead of the Rhodes choosing this ostensibly dream house perhaps Ethan Rhodes fame as a radio DJ was instrumental in them being chosen to live there?

We know from the start that apart from the third person narration there is also a first person narrator and it is not long before the reader works out who this might be and what the deadly consequences this implies. At the start I was a little unsure how the story would develop but as it unfolds the pace increases to provide a gripping edge of the seat finale. An enjoyable and certainly a thought provoking read that blurs the boundary between science fact and science fiction.

A gripping novel full of suspense. Would you move to a house which basically runs itself and to a certain extent its residents, through a highly developed artificial intelligence system called Alice? That is what Nikki and Ethan, with their daughter Bella, do three years after the tragic loss of Bella’s twin sister, Grace in a traffic accident. Ethan thinks that a move away from the home outside which the collision took place will be good for the family. Nikki is not totally convinced she wants to move but hopes that it will help Bella who has not spoken since the accident and communicates via a tablet.

At first everything seem to be going well but after a couple of unsettling events Nikki begins to wonder if the house really has its resident’s well-being in mind or is there another agenda? The tension increases as Alice starts to adopt different voices and attitudes. You feel that she is developing her own agenda. Nikki begins to fear for her family’s lives. How can she battle an all-seeing, all-knowing computer system?

The sense of apprehension and malice jumps off the pages of this well written and deftly paced thriller. Alice is a really creepy ‘character’ and the battles with and against her are very well crafted. If I had had a virtual assistant in the house at the time of reading, it would most definitely have been set to ‘Off’.

Thank you to NetGalley and Zaffre Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Nikki and Ethan Rhodes are grieving the loss of their four year old daughter, Grace, who was tragically killed in a car accident two years prior to the beginning of the story. In an attempt to put the past behind them and start the process of moving on, the couple and their six year old daughter, Bella, Grace's twin, decide to start over in a new home. But 17 Church Row isn't just any home. It's a state of the art modern house run by a Virtual Assistant, Alice; and Alice, it is promised, will anticipate the family's needs before they have them.

At first it's a happy novelty - doors and drawers that open themselves, a coffee machine that knows the family's preferences, and biometric monitoring to advise the family when they are overtired or stressed. But soon it begins to seem that the house is working against them not for them. All Nikki and Ethan wanted was a safe haven for their family. But it seems they've found exactly the opposite....

I was so torn on this book! I loved the premise, and I'm always a fan of well-told stories where A.I goes wrong. But it lacked something for me.

Positive points: I loved the premise, and I always find the idea of artificial intelligence kind of chilling. I liked that the first instances of things going wrong were little ones, which made the reader wonder if it wasn't just teething problems. I thought I had it all worked out by the end, and I definitely didn't - I really loved the twist around Alice (no spoilers, but I thought it was really clever), and I loved the sort of postscript at the end of the story, which gave me a real shiver.

HOWEVER. This book was not without it's problems. All of the characters bar Nikki were just unbelievable to me. They were either so cartoonishly mad/different, or else so cardboard cut-out boring, I just didn't care about what happened to them, and the dialogue fell very flat in a lot of places. I thought Bella's selective mutism was going to be an interesting part of the narrative, but it led nowhere and took up a huge chunk of the story with only one real useful plot point, which was to get a particular character into the house - I felt that could have been done much more easily (and without taking up so much of the story). It also suffered from pacing issues. For me, a good thriller has peaks and troughs. The build up is as important as the action, and when I get to a thrilling part of the story, I want to feel...well, thrilled. I feel that the pacing affected that in this book - there was a ton of scene setting in the first half of the book, and then just one long rollicking ride to the end (although rollicking perhaps implies more of a thrill ride than there actually was - a lot of the action was repetitive and went on way too long).

So I'm up in the air on this one. There were definitely elements I enjoyed, but I felt the repetition and pacing took away some of the enjoyment for you. I'd love to have seen this with a different edit, with perhaps more fleshing out of some of the characters, and a little less textbook villain behaviour from others. On the whole, it was an interesting slant on a thriller, with the A.I angle, and I liked the plot twist, but I wouldn't be in a rush to read it again.

Thank you to NetGalley, who provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is about Nikki and Ethan. One of their twins died in a tragic accident outside their house. Nikki in particular has found it really hard to move on. They decided that the best thing to do was to move house. It takes three years to find somewhere they like. The house is a smart house operated by an Alexa type device which can anticipate your needs. Everything is going well to start with until everything goes wrong.

I was so excited by this book as it has a trope that I love which is people living in a smart house. It also had one of the most intriguing beginnings to a book that I have read in a long time. When I requested this I did so because it was marketed as mystery and thriller. Although there is both of these in this book I would say that there is also a good amount of sci-fi within this book. I really did enjoy the first half of this book but in the second half the sci-fi element takes over and I really did not enjoy it and got bored with it. It is such a shame as I had such high hopes for this one.

Wow.... just wow!

An amazingly thought provoking novel that in this day and age of "big brother is watching you" feels poignantly relevant and scarily believable!

A superbly crafted storyline that had my heart going out to Nikki, Ethan and Bella, a family that have already suffered such unimaginable loss and are then thrust into a complete nightmare where the life they know and everything around them seems to be dissolving.

A completely enticing, gripping, dramatic storyline which is so full of twists and turns you wont be able to put it down.

Massive thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

I’m a huge fan of James Carols writing but I must admit I was expecting so much more, for me this book lacked the suspense and fast paced scenes I’ve come to expect from his books. The premise is an intriguing one but for me I found the story dragged in parts taking a while to get to the crux of the plot. The author explores advanced technology in this book, so in parts it felt more sci-fi than a crime or psychological thriller. Although I found it to be an enjoyable read it I can’t say I loved it. Although this may have been a case of me picking up the book at the wrong time for me. So definitely one you should check out for yourself.

I really enjoy the Jefferson Winter series so was looking forward to reading this stand alone from James Carol . Unfortunately- it just didn't grab me .
Ethan -a radio presenter -and Nikki have recently lost a daughter -Grace -in an accident
.She was a twin and her sister Bella is distraught and has been struck by mutism ..
They decide on a fresh start and buy a fabulous ultra modern home -more or less run by a computer named Alice- who panders to their every need .
You just know it's all going to end in tears and it does just that .!
The problem for me is that the plot was just too unbelievable -I know it was science fiction but some parts were just a bit over the top and that took all the fun away .

Thankyou Net Galley for an ARC in return for an honest review

What an amazing read which is so believable.
I was hooked from the first page. It has many unexpected twists which keeps you guessing what will happen next. The ending was intense and chilling

When I requested this I was under the assumption (wrongly it seems) that this was part of his series and not a standalone. Had I read a synopsis of this book I would not have requested it, it's too sci fi for my liking. The first half dragged so much and the second half was just unbelievable.
Not my cup of tea at all.

** spoiler alert ** 3.5 stars


I was expecting bad things to happen in this book from the start,you don't have that much tech in your home and not expect it to go wrong.
I found the switch in narration a little abrupt,but this may have been due to advance copy lay out of book.
Happily read in one sitting,confident I knew who was doing what,then a huge curve ball was thrown in,and the pace of the book,and my reading picked up.
Raced through to the end,and thoroughly enjoyed it.
It's put me off owning an alexa for a good while.

My heart went out Nikki, Ethan and Bella, they have suffered a huge loss and have made the hard decision to move house for a brand new start. The new house on 17 Church Row is state of the art. I could easily envision how stunning this house was with all clean lines and space it offers.

The system in the house is pretty revolutionary but something we are probably not that far off having. A system that answers to every beck and call. A house that has no door handles as it knows when to open and close them. Will pop the oven or kettle on when asked. It would make us quite lazy but with how busy a lifestyles most of us have now a days, it certainly held an attraction.

This is a story very much about the bond between parent and child. Through NikkI, we see just how far a parent would go for their child. There are also darker chapters from a voice who we don’t know who it belongs to, showing the other side of a child’s love for their father. These are quite creepy to start with, getting downright scary!

17 Church Row was such a compelling read that I couldn’t put it down. It’s quite futuristic and does make you worry about how much trust we put in technology. A guaranteed page turner of a novel that picks up in pace the further into the story we go. This is an author who seem to always manage to take his stories to another level and make them very different to the vast amount of books out there in the same genre. Another great read.

This is a really well crafted storyline that has lots of twists to keep you on your toes with good characters and a plot that is something a bit different. The premise of the story is a house with an artificial intelligence system that seems to be just too good to be true and as the book progresses and the plot thickens it’s not hard to imagine just what can happen when things go wrong and everything goes crazy. It’s definitely a book that grabs you and all in all I enjoyed it a lot, I guess my only niggle was I didn’t like the main character of Nikki so so much but perhaps this was just me.
Overall I can recommend this especially if you enjoy a story of manipulation that is both intense and chilling.
My thanks to NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Omg what can I say
James carol you’ve done it again , highly recommended book
Gripping from the first page a real page turner
Buy it and forget about the world for a day , so engrossing

This was a scary story if it were real. I couldn't decide whether I liked it or not however it was written well and I warmed to the author quickly. I read the book quite quickly for me so it did keep pulling me back in. It's certainly worth a read