Cover Image: The Woman at No. 13

The Woman at No. 13

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Member Reviews

Kate O’Leary is a respected GP who has helped generations of people living in a rural village in Ireland. Then one day a teenager that she has helped has been found dead and her bloody clothes are found in Kate’s home. She’s arrested and then bailed. She calls her close friend from Germany who immediately flies over to assist his friend. Despite threats to Kate’s life they are determined to find out what happened to Alice and who killed her. She told her secret to Kate and the whole community are now against Kate believing that she must have killed Alice. This book is a good read but I found it slow going at times. I would recommend reading it as it’s well written and full of twists and turns and unexpected events.
Thank you to netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

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This book is such an emotional rollercoaster. Kate (a small town GO in Northern Ireland) has found one of her patients (Alice) murdered in a very brutal way! Alice has told Kate one of her secrets and now Kate is fighting to prove that she didn't murder her. The local priest also knows her secret , but he has secrets of his own which won't go down too well with his vows of celibacy.
Kate is getting threatening letters and it's only with the support of her German friend Jannis that she goes to the police. Matters come to a head in the graveyard with Kate, Daniel (the priest) and Jannis all nearly getting killed by a lynch mob of locals. It is after this event that the real murderer is found.

Many thanks for letting me read this and will be looking for more by CO Williams

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The Woman at No. 13
by C. K. Williams
Thank you, NetGalley, HarperCollins UK, and,-C. K. Williams. This book kept me turning the pages for hours. A psychological thriller with lots of twists to keep you in your seat. At times it became confusing with the main characters. But, all in all, it was quite good.

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Sooo not what I was expecting by any means. I was hoping for an eerie murder thriller and I feel like I got every genre and sub plot except that almost. I couldnt click with the writing style and the million little sub plots and random themes just irritated me. Even the murder mystery part of the story, which was what qttracted me ti the book, was just really far fetched and illogical. Very little makes sense or has any real relevance to the overall plot. All I can compare it to is for example those of us who watched GOT..... and there's a big deal about the night King or a character face swapping n then it's all forgotten about and has no real relevance come season 8..... that's the feeling I got from this book over and over again sadly. Its season 8 over and over again.

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Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Kate is a suspect in a murder when blood from the victim was found in her house. It will take everything shechas to find the killer and the person trying to frame her for murder.

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2 stars because of nice North Ireland’s descriptions and a remote friendship that lasts 20 years. These were the only interesting things worth of reading.

I think I confused this book with “The Girl in Cabin 13” by A. J. Rivers and seeing all these great reviews I expected a great psychological mystery. Instead…such a disappointment.

The book is mainly about LGBT although nowhere mentioned in the description or the category. It’s also about freedom of love, sex, pedophilia, and maniac Northern Irish villagers who towards the end of the book turn into the Ku Klux Clan. The characters are not well developed so they are hard to care for. The title has nothing to do with the book. The first chapter has nothing to do with the book (apart noting the beginning of their friendship). The action is 20 years later so the main characters are in their 40s but they talk and act as if still in 20s or early 30s and nothing really has happened in their lives since they met. The mystery is painstakingly slow with every few hours description and lots of driving back and forth in a car and discussing to tell a secret, not to tell a secret, then wait and start a new chapter before it gets revealed (not that any secret added much to the story). The book is full of village people who are just randomly thrown names and, hard to be distinguished from each other, hard to care about.

The murder is completely unbelievable and superficial as the book itself. How exactly do you cut someone in pieces and put it back without causing a serious volume of blood everywhere? With what and where? You will be laughing out loud once you discovered who actually did it.

Are there no police in the Northern Ireland? If you are from Northern Ireland, my sincere apologies. This is what you get for being so hospitable to the writer when she came to visit.

Dialogues are cringy and the love story…. It’s being sexually attracted to a priest and one make out session and a possible gay sex scene (you can fill in the blanks). Yes, with a Catholic priest. Kill me now.

The book uses swear words like “shit” and “cunt” but most popular “fuck” used 56 times. Who really speaks like that?

As the author doesn’t seem to spend much effort on writing this book is hard for a reader to care for it either. Thanks to Netgalley for a free copy in an exchange for an honest review.

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Whilst this is a well written book, I did not find it easy to read, it did not flow well and felt disjointed.

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The woman at number 13 is a murder mystery with many characters, sub plots and timelines.

When Kate is accused of murdering her patient, Alice, she calls her long-time friend, Jannis Loose. Can they solve the mystery and prove Kate’s innocence? Who killed Alice, and why?

The writing style is interesting. It’s very choppy and Staccato with short chapters and information presented precisely. It takes a while to get into, but I actually liked it. However, it doesn’t really lend itself to fleshing out characters and I found that I wasn’t particularly invested in any of them. I found the whole thing quite challenging to keep straight- it’s the sort of book you flick back through as you go through ideally which isn’t really possible on kindle!

I did enjoy the premise but somehow it all just fell a bit flat. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

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A small community in Ireland, a priest, a GP and a German friend......the story gradually unrolls and it gets more and more complicated until the arrival of a lynch mob brings things to a head.
The sad story of a young girl who is murdered and her body violated is horrible and the community locked into religious thinking that causes all sorts of problems to the poor thing is even worse.
This story covers religion, the priesthood, village life, gay culture and relationship problems.
I did not find it an easy read.

This review will be posted with Waterstones

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This book wasn't for me. I found it hard to get into because of the writing style. It felt rather choppy and the dialogue between the characters isn't how normal people speak. The characters weren't fleshed out which made it confusing people there are lots of characters. Although I finished this book, it was hard to get through. I did enjoy the premise and the subplots had promise. Thanks for the advance review copy.

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I have neutral feelings about this book. Starting out, I was really interested in the title "The Woman at Number 13" . I thought maybe a creepy motel, hotel, or cabin room aboard a cruise ship? No, no , and no, but that's okay! I still really enjoyed this book even though I found the title to be a bit deceiving. What was the thought behind that?

I found this book to be suspenseful with a bit of an edge to it. The chapter flowed nicely into each other and the writing style was fluid and didn't have the boring drawn out repetitiveness.

I struggled with finding the characters "likable" but again It didn't ruin the book for me. The premise was interesting and the story was engaging. I would like to have seen a stronger storyline but I still enjoyed this book.

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I had to check the title and particularly my memory of the cover whilst reading this book as the two don’t really fit. This is a story about a very small village in Northern Ireland where a young woman’s body is discovered cut into pieces and then laid out as if she was still alive. The story surrounds Dr Kate and her relationships, particularly with the most time narrator, German friend Jan. I understand that communities like the one in this book probably still exist but I found the lack of police support was conveniently poor. I was also slightly irritated that the kitchen sink was thrown at this story: abortion in Northern Ireland when it was still illegal, sex with inappropriate others, coming out of both male and female characters, catholic priest not keeping his vows of chastity with many recipients etc etc.

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The Woman at No. 13 by C.K. Williams was my first read from this author, and I must admit that it had me feeling a bit discombobulated from the very start.

Kate O'Leary is a small town doctor who finds herself at the centre of a murder investigation when the blood of one of her teenaged patients is discovered in her home. Kate knows that she is not responsible for the shocking crime, but must uncover the truth before she becomes yet another casualty in a town that is awash in rumours and speculation.

With a constantly shifting timeline, I found the narrative to be disjointed, and for this reason found it difficult to connect in any significant way with this promising premise. 3.5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for an ARC.

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I didn’t gel with this book. I couldn’t work out if the main characters relationship was a true friendship. A big life secret is held back by one character and not shared which doesn’t ring true. There’s a bit about someone in church wearing only a jumper. I wondered where his trousers were but the author meant he had no coat. I’m sure it would be better with a bit of tweaking. That being said it was a good read and kept me entertained.

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Thank you for the advanced copy

This was a cozy quick read.
Alice has told Kate a secret and she is now dead and someone wants to silence Kate..

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This is an interesting story about friendship, small town thinking and the choices make as a teen to understand yourself. Kate is a small town doctor who has provided information to a teenager Alice about her choices when she finds herself pregnant. When Alice ends up dead the town turn on Kate. Using Kates one phone call she calls her life long friend Jannis to come help her.
Will Kate and Jannis find who killed Alice before the town sentences them to death? Will the truth come out about Alice and her struggle with her identity?
Thank you to netgalley for complimentary copy.

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The plot of this book sounds exciting and should have been a solid thriller. However the writing style spoiled it for me. It felt clunky and didn't flow well for me to become completely absorbed in the story.

Also the sorry wandered off topic far too much. I think the author was trying to cover too many issues like abortion laws, LBGTQ, brexit etc etc that the murder was almost a subplot.

I've given the book a 2 as it did hold my interest just enough to finish but I don't think I would recommend it to friends.

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Dr. Kate O'Leary works as local GP in a small and deeply religious community in Northern Ireland. She has a respect of the villagers, until a murdered young woman is found and all the traces lead to Kate. After the arrest, she calls her friend Jannis for help.

As it seems, an official verdict can mean nothing if people seek for revenge and have their own sense of justice.

Can Kate and Jannis stay alive and find a real killer?

Tense, dark and twisty novel. Full of issues of civil rights, gender equality, women's rights etc.

Good read.

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This is well written and intriguing thriller that deals with some hard hitting topics.
It’s an enjoyable read and one that I devoured in a single sitting.
My only negative would be that the book title and cover didn’t actually match the plot or premise of the book.

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Thanks NetGalley for the ARC of The Woman at No. 13
This was not a favorite of mine, I did finish the book. I found it really hard to get into, characters were introduced too quickly, all at once and I found it really hard to remember who was who. There seemed to be many story lines running through this novel and the plot made sense but the writing style did not keep me interested. It just wasn't for me.
Basically the story is about a murder of a young woman, Alice, who was pregnant and had an abortion, all eyes very quickly look to the local doctor as the town thinks she is responsible for advising Alice on how to terminate her pregnancy. The local town folk take the law into their own hands.

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