Whilst I enjoyed most of this murder mystery, the pace was very slow and far too many "Then" and "Nows", seemingly thrown in at random.

The author described the hauntings very well, but on the negative side would four 15year old boys really spend their time analysing dreams? What about homework and, um, girls?

Sorry Mr North but I did not finish it.

Thanks to Net Galley and Penguin Random House for the chance to read and review.

Although not quite hitting the heady heights of The Whisper Man for me this book was a decent read in itself. There are connections between the two books but it is not necessary to have read TWM first although I would recommend you do as it is an excellent read.
We start in the past when a bunch of boys start to experiment with dreaming. Then there's a brutal murder with one perp caught, the other, Charlie, escaping. Our protagonist Paul leaves the town as soon as he can, riddled with guilt at the part he played to facilitate what happened. Until that is he is forced to return when his mum has a fall. This is the catalyst that sparks the strange things that subsequently happen. Meanwhile, in an unrelated town, miles away, it appears that someone is emulating the killings from the past. With Charlie's whereabouts still unknown could it be that he is back, and if not, who is the copycat.
This was a book of two halves for me. The first half was excellent, building the layers from the past and weaving the present among them. Cruising for a five star rating. And then when the pieces of the puzzle started to come together towards the end, well, that's where it kinda fell a bit by the wayside for me. It's hard to qualify that statement here as to do so would inject spoilers into the mix, and I am also aware that most of what irked me a tad is probably personal preference but, there you are. It meant that I wasn't quite as fully satisfied at the end of the book as I would have liked to have been. It just all felt a little rushed at the end.
Apart from that, the characters held up very well and would have shone had the story been finessed a tad better. Pacing was hit and miss and the story did let itself down a tad as all was explained.
All that said, it did hold and keep my attention nicely throughout, I just wanted a little more from it than I eventually got. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

The previous book from Alex North, set the bar high for scary, dark, creepy and nerve jangling novels, and it is a delight that book number two, is of the same genre. It is the sort of book that you read with the light on!
Paul Adams was arrested for the murder of a classmate, twenty five years ago, only briefly, as the real culprits were caught red handed. The adult Paul, left Gritten, his home town ,and vowed never to return. He became an English teacher, but, still suffered mental and emotional turmoil , relieving events at his school, being bullied by two boys, Charlie Crabtree and Billy Roberts, and the death of a friend. Paul only returns home after his mother, Daphne, has a fall at her care home, and her condition gradually deteriorates.
Once back home, Paul feels he is under constant surveillance, and the woods near the back of his old house are particularly menacing. It was rumoured that a being lives in the woods, that can be conjured up by incubation, a form of dream experimentation that Charlie and Billy both believed in. Then, another schoolchild is murdered in similar circumstances, and Paul knows he must confront his fears in order to stop other Copycat killings. What really happened in the woods and where did Charlie disappear to? Why is his mother so fearful of red hands, and why are they in her old house?
Such a tense read, a real page turner, even though sometimes, you don’t want any more revelations! Full of red herrings, this book deceives and bewilders in equal amounts. I felt sorry for Paul, he had a really rough home life, only his mother showed him any affection. It was almost like as soon as Paul had any friends, or happiness, that it was all snatched away from him. This novel shows how easily weakness can be taken advantage of, and the dangers of physical bullying were just as dangerous then, as online bullying is now.
I rate this as a five star read. I will leave reviews later. Many thanks for my advance copy. My daughter is already reading and enjoying this book, and I hope it will be chosen for a future book club read, if we are ever allowed such simple pleasures in the future!!

After the runaway success of the creepy The Whisper Man, Alex North gives us this atmospheric follow up, with the return of Featherbank and Detective Amanda Beck. 25 years ago, Paul Adams left the industrial town of Gritten, 100 miles north of Featherbank, for university. to never return, making every effort to forget the murder of a classmate committed by Charlie Crabtree and Billy Roberts. Paul had been in an uneasy friendship with them after his best friend, the bullied James, insisted on becoming closer to Charlie. Paul became concerned about Charlie, who led them down the path of lucid dreaming and incubation, and into the strange and frightening fantasy of a shadowy man in the woods, with the red hands. Whilst Billy was prosecuted for his part in the killing, the sinister Charlie disappeared, never to be seen again, turning him into a cult figure and legend, inspiring others to follow in his footsteps, as through the years, copycat killings have occurred.

Amanda finds herself on the scene of just such a gruesome copycat killing of Michael Price, in Featherbank, nearly beheaded by Elliot Hick and Robbie Foster, aided by an online user posting as CC666, possibly the missing Charlie, with inside knowledge of the original murder. The investigation has Amanda going to Gritten, where Paul, now a university lecturer, has returned, his elderly, dementia suffering mother whom he has not seen in all these years, suffered a fall and is dying. His mother's initial comments, informing him it is in the house, bring back his haunted memories of the past. Despite his desire to be free of the past, he is unable to escape, meeting his old friend, Jenny Chambers again, perhaps the time has come for him to confront what happened all those years ago? In a narrative where further murders occur, red hands are everywhere, there are ghosts, and dangers that refuse to subside in the present.

North writes a beautifully creepy and compulsive novel that immediately captured my attention with the oodles of tension and suspense. I loved the fascinating look at lucid dreaming initiated among the boys by Charlie, a charismatic, self assured and menacing teenager. Whilst this was a brilliant read, I did feel that North crammed too much into the novel, resulting in confusion, reducing the clarity and impact of the main storyline. Nevertheless, this was an entertaining and riveting read that I thoroughly enjoyed. Many thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph for an ARC.

This book put me through the wringer and I mean that as a compliment! I loved The Whisper Man, so I was keen to read Alex North's next offering. The Shadow Friend was another brilliant book. Alex North has such a distinct author voice, and adds depth to his characters that brings the story come to life. And what a story...it's a sinister, scary nailbiter with some gobsmacking twists and turns. A belter of a read.

The Shadow Friend is a dark chilling thriller that will keep you hooked from the first page (maybe keep the lights on!) ! After reading The Whisper Man I could not wait to see what Alex North came up with next! A superb read and now one of my favourite authors. I cannot wait for the next book!!!

The Shadow Friend is another creepy, atmospheric thriller by Alex North. Again Alex draws on the supernatural. This time the focus is on a disturbing game a group of boys played twenty-five years ago, a game which turned deadly and resulted in the disappearance of one member of the group. The boy who disappeared was never found, and the police have never discovered what happened to him. But is the truth finally about to be unravelled?

Alex North introduces us to Paul Adams who has returned to his hometown as his mother is in a care home and is approaching the end of her life, but he finds himself drawn back to events which took place in his teenage years many years earlier which have haunted him ever since. The centre of the mystery in this novel is the disappearance of a boy twenty-five years ago, Charlie Crabtree, who Paul was once friends with. Since his former friend went missing, a series of killings have taken place which seemed to be inspired by the events surrounding Charlie’s disappearance. And red hands seem to follow Paul everywhere.

Once again, Alex North creates a spooky atmosphere which drew me into the plot and the setting. He paints a very gloomy picture of the town where Paul was brought up, almost as if the town itself isn’t willing to forget what happened there. There are some chilling scenes when Alex North describes the appearance of red hands. This seemed to be the key to solving the mystery behind Charlie’s disappearance, and I wanted to find out what they meant. I enjoyed the scenes when Alex takes us back to Paul’s childhood, and some of the scenes he writes are very disturbing. It made me think even more about what the true picture was and how this was connected to what happened to Charlie.

Although I enjoyed reading this book, and it kept me entertained, I did find that the pace was a lot slower than it was in Alex North’s first book, The Whisper Man. I was interested to find out what was going to happen next and what the truth was, and this is what kept me reading, but I did find this book to be a much more leisurely read.

The Shadow Friend will keep you invested in the plot and the characters, and overall I thought it was a really good read. I’m certain I’ll be reading what Alex North writes next.

Ghosts, mysterious murders, lucid dreams, shadowy entities hiding in the woods and untrustworthy past memories …. the latest thriller from Alex North certainly sounds to contain all of the ingredients for a dark, exciting thriller. Told with the use of regular flashbacks, we learn of a murder which took place some 25 years ago. Details of the murder are drip fed to the reader, but we do know that the protagonist Paul was involved, along with several of his school friends. Now, Paul has returned to his hometown to see his ailing mother and his confronted by his past. His return coincides with the murder of a child in a nearby town and this case bears an uncanny resemblance to that of 25 years earlier. Soon we are plunged into a murder mystery story, complete with ghosts, hauntings, and scary a plenty.
In ‘The Shadow Friend’, North continues his approach of playing with childhood fears and urban legends. An approach that can lead to many spine-chilling moments for the reader.
For me, the story finally took off in the last 30 pages or so. Despite the chilling aspect of the earlier story, the pace was slow and I was waiting for the story to take off.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of this book.

Twenty five years ago, two boys brutally killed one of their classmates to supposedly please an entity living in the shadows called the “Red hands” and forever rule the world of dreams. Now, one of the classmates, guilt ridden, returns home to finally find out what really happened back then and make peace with it all.

Omg! What a page turner, like really, and just the right amount of creepy. It will definitely make the hairs on your body stand on their ends if you try and read it in the dark like me, lol. But seriously, it is super gripping, the way the story gradually unfolds, and little by little takes you through it all was just great. And it’s not a straightforward story, there’s so much going on, there are turns every corner, and little twists that you will not see coming, never a dull moment there. The way the characters are written is so compelling you can actually picture them, and told in such a perfect way I could legit feel a chill at times. It kept me guessing throughout, till the very end, and let me tell you, there’s no way in hell you can predict anything at all. It goes at a real fast pace till the last third of the book when things start unfolding and it slows down a bit and in the tradition of Alex North there comes an avalanche of heartwarming and heart rending emotions, but again told in such beautiful words it’s bound to wet your eyes just a little bit.

I loved it, absolutely. It rarely happens that I like a book so much, worth every minute of your reading time. Totally recommended.

Thanks so much to Netgalley, author, and the publishers for the ARC.

A dark, macabre story that takes place in a small village which is next to dense woodland known as ‘The Shadow’. A horrendous murder by two young boys leads to ramifications 25 years later when another murder takes place. I thought the novel was heading into horror fantasy territory as four teenage boys try to merge their dreams into each other to carry out a murder but, thankfully, this novel is not covering that area. Paul, one of the four teenage boys in the group, returns to his dying mother and has to face up to the events that took place 25 years earlier which will shed light on the current murders. A good novel, well plotted to keep you turning the pages into the late hours of the night.

I received an address we are stopping in exchange for an honest review.

Slightly less gritty than the last one, but still pretty creepy. 3.5 sophomore slump rounded up. More horror than psychological thriller

4.5 stars.
As someone who absolutely loved Alex North's first novel, The Whisper Man, I could not contain my excitement when I heard that he would be releasing a second book.
And having given The Whisper Man 4.5 stars last year when I read it, I would have to say that The Shadow Friend is just as good as North's debut.
I'm a big fan of the way that this author plays with the notion of childhood fears and urban legends. And again, there's lots of creepy, eerie and atmospheric moments.
I have been recommending this author to every since last year and I will continue to do the same. I think he will be one of those authors that I automatically pick up the next book that he releases going forward, I'm that sure that I will enjoy it.
So, if you enjoyed The Whisper Man, do not hesitate to pick this up.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Alex North’s The Shadow Friend is a Book that will draw you up; turn you around and ultimately exhaust you.

It is a dark crime thriller where nothing is as it seems and which keeps the pages turning

Highly recommended

The Whisper Man was one of my top 5 star reads of 2019 and so I couldn't wait to read Alex North's latest novel, The Shadow Friend, and oh, my goodness it was worth the wait.

#NoSpoilers but this is another gripping story from Alex North. The transition from past to present is managed seamlessly and the politics and pain of teenage friendships resonate.

A dark tale that had me hooked from the off.

Another 5 star read. Highly recommend.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of The Shadow Friend.

Having not read The Whisper Man by Alex North I went into this with an open mind.

Paul and his 3 friends all went through a traumatic event ending with one person dead and one person disappeared forever.

We meet Paul as he goes back to his childhood home and scene of the event 25 years later as his mother suffers a fall and is placed in a home. The story flicks back and forth between the events of 25 years ago and the present. Four children experimenting with the theory of lucid dreaming and the reader finding out what has become of the characters.

I found this confusing for about the first 50% of the book. It was difficult to differentiate what was real and what was a dream or imaginative state. Along with the back and forth I found myself having to re read quite a lot. I felt that there still a lot of things left unexplained at the end, which may be just personal choice, but I like to think most things are finished off.

All in all I would still give this a 4 star recommendation as it was an enjoyable story once you got used to it. The last 50% really took off. I am secretly hoping the unexplained points mean that a sequel may be on the way.

I was very excited to read this one. I loved The whisper man and was hoping this would be as amazing too.

It started off really well. It was quite creepy and interesting with the discussion of dreams and the 'red handprints'. Initally, it had me hooked. After a while, it wasn't as exciting. I did feel a bit underwhelmed with the twists and how it ended.
It is still a good book and I will definitely look out for more books by this author.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for a honest review.

The second novel after the excellent debut book by Alex North (The Whisper Man)
I was hoping this to be as good as The Whisper Man and I was not dissapointed.
The theme and style is similar to the first book but has its own strong plot and characters.
I found the book to be very atmospheric with a supernatural undercurrent throughout which reminded me of the equally excellent C.J.Tudor.
The story unfolds between the 2 timelines slowly uncovering what happened on the fateful day with IMO a twist I did not see coming covering with realism themes of loss and regret.

As good as The Whisper Man and a book I would definitely recommend to those who enjoy Stephen King and C.J Tudor.

Right, that's it !! Alex North is one of 4 favourite authors of mine. There I've said it.

That's 2 books of his now that have that spooky element to it which I'm finding I love. Not many psychological thrillers have that element so its bring that extra spark to it.

If you haven't read any of Alex North's books (The Whisper Man and now The Shadow Friend) do so as a matter of urgency!!

Thanks to Penguin UK - Michael Joseph and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. What an incredible edge of your seat thriller. Simply one of the best I have ever read. This book literally has it all: an irresistible premise, taut-plotting and a creepy resonance that sends an icy finger up one's spine. In fact, everything about 'The Shadow Friend' screams 'read me'. Indeed, I can guarantee you won't be disappointed in this one. Alex North is a natural storyteller, and this shines through in his supremely crafted thrillers. Unlike many authors who delight in subterfuge for the sake of subterfuge, with little contributing to the overall story-arc, North's novels contain nothing superfluous to the relentless forward-motion of his majestically contrived plots. In other words, the story is all. That is not to say that North writes simple, uncomplicated tales, however. Quite the contrary. Indeed, what is ingenious about this story is that you think you know where it is heading.... until you don't. In 'The Shadow Friend' we have several sets of crimes - some twenty-five years apart. All have in common a number of elements: the concept of lucid dreaming, mythology and the murderous impulses of [some] post-pubescent boys. It leads to one obvious conclusion: that the one of the original perpetrators of the crime twenty-five years ago - Charlie Crabtree, is pulling the strings of a new generation of killers. Charlie, who provided the theoretical justification of lucid dreaming for the original murder of one of his classmates, disappeared in the aftermath of the murder over two decades ago. So, it is only logical to assume that he is the puppet master behind the recent copycat killings. Perhaps too logical. Indeed, nothing as it seems in Alex North's mesmerising tale. There is a twist coming... which, ironically, you won't see coming. This is the point where your jaw drops open and you marvel at North's genius. There are no other superlatives I can add, other than to proclaim North as the new master of the psychological thriller.

Addictive stuff.

25 years ago, Paul left the town of Gritten never to return but after his mother takes a bad fall, he is forced to return to his hometown and confront his past.
25 years ago, Pauls friends Charlie Crabtree and Billy Roberts brutally murdered one of their classmates, leaving the crime scene covered in red handprints. After the murder Charlie disappeared, never to be seen again.
Now after all this time, a copycat killer is recreating the murder and the nightmares Paul thought he had left behind come back to haunt him.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story, it was dark and creepy with a huge twist no one will see coming (infact, I had to read it again just to confirm what I had just read while muttering 'no way').
It took me a while to get into the switching of timelines but I quickly got used to it.
This is another cracker of a story from Alex North, I am already looking forward to the next one!!!