3.5 stars

The Quiet Girls by J.M. Hewitt is a psychological thriller, the second in the Detective Carrie Flynn series.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Bookouture, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

  
Series Background:    (Warning – May contain spoilers from previous books)
DS Carrie Flynn lost her sister Hattie, when she was a child.  Hattie was abducted, and never found.  Their mother has spent the last two decades in a nursing home, not speaking, not really there.  Carrie spent years in foster care.  She has become a very independent woman, who doesn't really let people in.  She needs to be in control at all times, so stays away from booze and drugs.  She is partnered with DC Paul Harper.



My Synopsis:   (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)

The police have received a message from a distraught caller stating that they had provided information in the past, and nothing was done.  It looks like the caller is now going to take matters into their own hands.  Carrie wants to follow up, insisting that the caller is a victim, while Paul looks at the caller as a perpetrator.

Three girls enter a house and one of them is attacked by a pedophile.  One of the girls, 11-year old Melanie Wilson, gets the other two girls out.  Later, she ends up missing, along with her parents.

Another family, mother, father, and twin 15-year olds also go missing.

There is something about these cases that are stirring up Carrie's memories of her missing sister.  After 20 years, Carrie still aches for Hattie.

 

My Opinions:  

I enjoyed this second book in the series much more than the first.  We got to know a lot more about Carrie, as we explored what happened to her sister.  This really helps to involve the reader.  I think I may have let this series go by the wayside if the author had not done this.  I like how Hewitt told both Carrie's story and the active case in alternate chapters.  I do, however, believe that the tie-in between the two was a little far-fetched.

The plot was good, and it moved quickly.  It is a very fast read.  The characters were interesting, and as they book moved along, the strength of some increased, while others fell off.   The author created survivors!

The book explores the idea of living off-the-grid, and the reasons it would or not appeal.  To me....no...I have to have somewhere to charge my e-reader!

Overall, I enjoyed the book. The series is improving.

This was a solid police procedural and one I really enjoyed. I have read the first book in the series, but it is absolutely possible to read this one as a standalone.

Carrie and her work partner Paul (who seems like a really lovely bloke, btw), investigate a couple of missing girls as well as an incident where a girl was in the process of being assaulted and was helped out by her friend. This friend, Melanie, is one of the missing girls. I loved the character of Melanie, she was a very real person to me as I was reading this book. Her father, Harry, I didn't like at all - but it speaks to the skill of the author that I felt this way!

Twenty years after her sister went missing, Carrie is still haunted by what happened. This is the reason she became a police officer in the first place and she is very hard on herself when it comes to solving the cases under her care.

The story has many twists and turns and I was holding my breath several times.

4.5 stars from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture.

⭐⭐⭐1/2
A gripping suspense thriller and a very fast read.

Eleven-year-old Melanie Wilson has finally been invited by the cool girls in the school to hang out with them but this very quickly turns into a nightmare for the 3 of them. Who was the man in the house that tried to attack Kelly.

Detective Carrie Flynn is trying to find out who the mysterious caller is who keeps phoning and accusing the police of doing nothing to the man she reported. She is also fighting her own demons. She took her sister out with her 20 years before and Hattie disappeared without a trace. She is still blaming herself for this.

Melanie's father is a stay at home dad and her mother a lawyer. Her father is suffering with depression. After what happened to the girls he decides;without asking anyone; to move the family to an deserted island nearby and invites another family with. There's no electricity or cellphone reception. What do they really know about this family. The father seems charming enough but the mother hardly speaks and the twins are weird. How will they deal with this primitive life and are they really escaping the big bad wolf?

Carrie tries to figure out who the mysterious caller is and is also looking for kids that were reported missing. How will these all come together?

I enjoyed the book but I found the mother's character a bit wishy washy. She is an intelligent woman but cannot stand up to her husband and his insane ideas. The ending also left me a bit disappointed.

Thank you to #netgalley and #bookouture for the ARC in exchange for my honest review

The author did an amazing job of connecting several different storylines into one big thrill of a read! I love how Carrie's past of having a sister that was murdered connected with another family relocating to an area off the grid. The author wrote a unique and twisty read that any fan of suspense will enjoy. Also, please make sure that you read the author's notes at the end of the book! I highly recommend this one!

This second book featuring DS Carrie Flynn takes her back into the nightmare she experienced when her 6-year-old sister, Hattie, disappeared over 20 years ago. The girls had walked to a park and when Carrie left Hattie behind for a moment in a pique of annoyance, Hattie...well, Carrie can't remember exactly what happened -- she's blocked it out. But she does remember the bloody shorts and how their mother, Mary, was never the same. Carrie ended up in care and then went on to become a police officer with her main goal to save other children from whatever happened to Hattie.

Now, Carrie is getting anonymous phone calls from a girl who claims that she has reported a man to them but the police won't do anything so she must take matters into her own hands. Frustrated because neither she nor her partner, DC Paul Harper, can get the caller's name, they are left without anything or anyone to question or arrest. There is a case in the works, however, as a 12-year-old girl named Kelly claims she was drug into a house and assaulted but there are some holes in the story and the detectives aren't quite sure if they are hearing the truth. They can't locate the person who was allegedly in the house, have no description or even a name but they plug on doggedly.

In another thread, Harry and Alice Wilson hear from their daughter, Melanie, that the story told by Kelly isn't exactly complete but there was a man inside this house and he was naked from the waist down and had a deformed face. Harry, who is obviously mentally ill, decides that he will move his family away from Manchester and that they will live off the land on the deserted Pomona Island. Alice, who apparently is very weak-willed quits her job and agrees to sell their house and go with her family. Harry entices another family to come along with them and so the Hadleys -- Gabe, Liz and their twins, Willow and Lenon (age 15) show up to take the boat to Pomona.

And that's where the real story starts. What happens on this island when these two families are completely cut off from the rest of the world. No amenities, no Internet or cell service, and no way to contact the mainland if they get into trouble. And they will need help soon. NO SPOILERS.

What a story! You must be able to suspend disbelief in order for this drama to work but it did completely draw me in and I couldn't put it down as I had to know what happened to these people. My feelings about the characters were all over the place and I didn't know much of the time if any of them were completely sane. Often I felt like screaming, "OH COME ON!" when something seemed way too conveniently coincidental or completely unlikely. But I went with it. We definitely learned a lot more about Carrie Flynn and I think she could grow on me. I've read both books now and am interested to see where this character will go next. The details about the island were fascinating, especially the author's note at the end. A most unusual setting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this e-book ARC to read and review. I'll be on the lookout for #3 in the series.

Detective Carrie Flynn has a case involving a missing eleven-year-old named Melanie Wilson, and she is reminded of a tragic time in her childhood when her little sister was missing when they were children.

It is not a cut-and-dried case for Carrie, however. The story focuses first on Melanie and her two friends when something terrible happened to them. Melanie's home life is seen, and her father makes a life-changing decision for their entire family. Another layer to this situation is that at the police station Carrie has received several phone calls from a distraught young woman. Could all three situations be connected?

This multi-layered story touches on a very sensitive subject as danger does indeed draw very close to Melanie. The story is beyond twisted and has more than one storyline. Not only is Melanie's father experiencing as close to a mental break as one could, and this changes everything about the family. Despite the chaos the family ensues, Carrie and her partner do whatever it is they can to locate Melanie and her family.

The Quiet Girls is the first story in the Detective Carrie Flynn series. Carrie's past was explored and we learn what makes her so good at her job now. She was the only character I really liked, although I admired Melanie Alice, Melanie's mother, was rather difficult to accept. The story itself was very intriguing and had a thrilling ending. I do look forward to seeing Carrie work on and solve other cases.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion..

When I first started reading this book I felt it was a bit disjointed with different story lines which appeared to have no connection running at the same time, but as the story progressed things started to fall into place and make sense so glad I stuck with it. A complex plot which is full of dysfunctional families, secrets and lies, a great read.

DI Carrie Flynn #2

Eleven year old Melanie goes missing. DI Carrie Flynn is in charge of the investigation but it brings back memories of when her sister went missing twenty years ago. The book starts with three young girls entering a house and narrowly escaping the clutches of a paedophile. This worries one one of the girls family so much that they decide to up sticks and move to a remote island along with another family. Carrie has been informed that three children have went missing their school.

There is a lot happening in this story but it's still easy to follow. Carrie is in a relationship with her partner DC Paul Harper. The plotline is complex. It's not an easy story to talk about as I would give far too much away. We learn some more of Carrie's background, we learned a little of it in the first book. My o ly criticism is that the ending felt a litt,e rushed.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Bookouture and the author J.M. Hewitt for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First, I want to thank J.M. Hewitt, Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.

J.M. Hewitt’s The Quiet Girls is an absolutely addictive mystery thriller the kind of story that gets more intense the deeper into you read. It is one of those books that I found you really had to pay attention to or you might miss a detail.

This book is dedicated to Lou and Lisa. Two of the strongest woman J.M. Hewitt knows.

This story may not be for everyone as it does deal with some adult issues that may be triggers to some readers. This story involves abduction, pedophile, rape, controlling spouses, alcoholism, mental illness, infidelity, etc.

J.M. wrote a incredibly unique mystery thriller unlike I had ever read before. She told the story of Carrie as a young girl, the bond with her younger sister Hattie, and the tragedy that had happened to her. Fast forward to modern day as Carrie is now a Detective working on a very interesting case. A case that had a shocking twist.
I loved this and how this all tied together when it was revealed in the book. Melanie in the book was named after Melanie Hamilton from the book Gone with the Wind. She was kind, loyal and very determined in the film. Carrie’s (who was named after the actress Carrie Fisher) sister Hattie was named after the woman who played Mammy in Gone with the Wind. She was the first person to win an Oscar. Hattie like the actress was black.

In every book there seems to be a character I don’t care for. In this book hands down it was Harry. Harry was extremely controlling! If he said It was going to happen it was going to happen. There was no saying no to this man! Some of the things he did totally shocked me! I wondered how Alice put up with him!

Throughout this book my heart ached for everything Carrie was put through and what all she lost along the way.

Some of the names of the characters were so unique, different and pretty! I just loved the name Willow, Gabe, Hattie, Scarlett, and Lennon.

Detective Carrie Flynn is haunted by her past and this has shaped her future. When she was a child, her younger sister went missing, something she blames herself for, so she has spent her career in the police trying to make up for it.
Carrie finds herself involved in what appears to be two separate cases, both involving young girls, however as her investigations progress, she is disturbed to find that they might actually be linked together.
The book goes between the current cases and the disappearance of Carrie’s sister giving us an insight into what drives her to work as hard as she does. This also gives her character more depth. The other characters in the book didn’t seem quite as well developed with the exception of Melanie and her mother but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the book. Dealing with child abduction is not easy but the reaction of Melanie’s father seemed a little odd at times, and this fact may divide readers. I get that he wanted to protect her from harm but moving to an island with a family who up until that time they had very little interaction with and going completely off grid was a touch extreme. That being said I found myself really drawn into the story as you try to work out how all the different storylines link together or if they even do. What I found fascinating was the fact that the island they relocated to in Manchester actually exists and has quite a bit of history to it (yes, I googled it)
This is the second book in the Carrie Flynn series and although I have not read the first book there was never a time where I felt I was missing something, so it works perfectly well as a standalone. With the pace of the book and my natural curiosity on how it would end I found that I raced through it in a couple of days. This is certainly an interesting read and I will keep an eye out for book 3 as I am intrigued to see if Carrie ever gets to the bottom of what happened to her sister.

The Quiet Girls picks up on the story of Detective Carrie Flynn and her sister Hattie who was kidnapped over 20 years ago and never found. Don’t worry if you’ve never read any of the other books you’ll soon pick it up.
The story involves another couple of families. They suddenly decide to leave the rat race and move to Pamona. A little island in between the canals of Manchester.
How the two stories connect soon become obvious and you will be gripped. Read in one sitting as I couldn’t wait to get to the finale.

A twisted,complex thriller. Secrets and lies,dysfunctional families and a good detective team. Well worth a read.

I REALLY tried to like this book but unfortunately it just didn't quite capture my interest. I like the Carrie and Hattie story but the whole Melanie and her parents story was just boring. I like a good mystery/thriller and this one just didn't hit the mark.

3 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my Advanced Reader’s Copy of The Quiet Girls. Publication Date: November 13, 2020.

I was not aware that this book was part of the series, however I do not feel like I missed out on anything by not reading the first "Carrie Flynn" novel.

An 11-year-old girl, Melanie, had quite the scare while her and her friends were rummaging around an abandoned house. A scary man, details left unsaid, grabbed one of the girls. Melanie’s father was terrified of the situation and decided to pack up and move to a deserted island, and to take his wife and daughter with. His wife was clearly not on board with this decision, and I could not wrap my head around the fact that they actually moved to an isolated island with no electricity, etc, and actually convinced another *random* family to join them.

A different story line, revolving around Detective Carrie Flynn, was far more interesting. Struggling with the past abduction of her sister 20 years ago, a new case seems eerily familiar. I enjoyed this character & story line much more.

Although I was not a fan of this specific book, I did enjoy Carrie as a character and would be interested in reading another book by this author, especially the next Carrie Flynn novel.

Thank you NetGalley and J.M Hewitt for the chance to read this before it hits shelves later his month. Wow this story had so much going on in it. I liked it but at the same time I didn't. I mean you really have to believe some of the things that the author is putting out there. I liked Harry's idea and he had a great one but I think he went about it the wrong way. The girls are another mystery. The mystery man is another, the fact that the detective had a missing sister is another one. I think the author tried to put to much in it and then had to find a killer and just randomly picked someone. Not my favorite read this month, but still good.

This was a really entertaining book. It kept me paging over and over, because I just had to see what happens to the family on the island. The ending wasn't something I expected and took me from the left field. The way the backstory of detective Carrie Flynn was finally connected to the ending of the book was done well, and I just enjoyed how everything came together. Recommended.

Carrie and Hattie had to practically raise themselves. There mother was struggling just to put food 9n the table. She worked long hard hours. One day on an excursion to a park Hattievis killed. Her body hasn't been found. Carrie became a police officer. Now she has been receiving strange call from a girl. She is focused on discovering which the girl is and saving her from a pedophile, who has been accused of trying to touch another girl.
Aluce and harry have a daughter Melanie who is twelve. Alice is a lawyer the family breadwinner. Harry is a house husband. He has been the primary caregiver to Melanie. Harry decides to uproot his family and sale to a deserted island and learn to be self reliant. That way they'll be away from the dangers of society. He invites one other family to join them. This family has a set of twins, Willow and Lenon. The families will be working closely together. Their survival depends on helping each other. There is no boat to leave the island and no way to reach out to anyone if anything happens. At least they are away from danger and the turmoil of a city. Or are they?
Provocative and intriguing.

The blurb for this book was really promising. Unfortunately it did not deliver. I felt as though I was reading two books which only came together in the last few chapters. I still don't know what actually happened. Confusing and unbelievable in equal measures. Saying that I am sure other readers will enjoy it more just not for me.
I would like to thank the author, publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

What an intense book! I love police procedurals and this one did not disappoint. The novels takes off from the first chapter, and had me enthralled until the last page. The characters are engaging and the storyline flowed seamlessly. Very excited to see where this book series continues to go. Will Carrie ever find out the truth. Anxiously awaiting the next installment. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of the book.
#netgalley
#thequietgirls

The second book in the DI Carrie Flynn series…. The characters are really starting to come through now, we got a small glimpse into Carrie’s past in the first book which intrigued me… now however in the second book, we learn so much more about Carrie and how her sister, Hattie disappeared 20 years ago and how she blames herself as she was minding her at the time, not knowing what happened to her sister has been eating Carrie all this time and now she must face what happened! It is all brought back to her when she is put on the case of missing 11 year old Melanie Wilson, she couldn’t help her sister but she is adamant that will never happen again.

As and aside, two families move to an island called Pomona, each very different in their own right and for their own reasons but can two families with no history as such on a desolate island truly work?

There are a few stories running through this book, some intertwined however cannot divulge too much for fear of giving too much away…. Overall a very carefully plotted story which you may not understand at first where it is going but trust me hold in, its complex but worth it.

Looking forward to the next book in this series.