A gripping, haunting page-turner that had me hooked pretty much from the get-go. It had everything that I love in a book: mystery, suspense and enough twists and turns to leave my head spinning.

Cara’s a complicated character, but one that it’s impossible not to root for. There was just something in her determination and her unwavering belief in what happened the night her brother was murdered that had me racing through the pages to find out what happened/get some kind of justice for her.

I was definitely not prepared for that big reveal, though — I’m pretty sure my jaw actually hit the floor.

I honestly thought I was reading a horror novel, from the gripping and frightening opener to the very last page, Limey Stan became something that haunts not just Cara, but also the reader.

After being found responsible for the death of her 6 year old brother, Cara was first sent to a psychiatric unit, and then foster care when her mother refused to have her back in the family home.

Re-inventing herself and carving a career under another name, she is stepping into her own adult identity, and then her mother's death brings everything crashing down around her.

The terms of a bizarrely twisted will not only reignite the anger of her aunt and cousins, but leave Cara with no choice but to move home. The scene of the Heldean Haunting is framed, for those of us who, ahem, are old enough to remember it, by the real life television event, 'Ghostwatch', conceived and written by horror author Stephen Volk

(For those who enjoy horror, I thoroughly recommend checking out his works, he is on Twitter and a lovely chap to boot!)

The narrative is told from Cara's perspective and honestly, your heart breaks for her as she faces up to the malign influences which have broken her childhood to pieces, robbed her of a brother and left her doubting her own sanity.

Variously called a 'hoax', an impossible event for which the only solution is a sleep deprived, mentally ill young girl, Cara has a massive uphill battle ahead of her in trying to piece together her past, in order to try and make a future free from the child haunting spectre of Limey Stan.

This is who she has adamantly blamed for the death of Matty, her 6 year old brother, the one who disturbed her sleep to the point of violent and aggressive behaviour. But if no one listened to her back then, will anyone listen to her now?

Especially when she moves back into the family home and the tapping noises start again?

A brilliantly conceived story of inherited memory, social perceptions of mental illness, and the lengths people go to to hide dark secrets, this is a thriller unlike any I have read for quite some time. Haunting and scary in the best ways, I really , really enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

The story centres around Cara, who is now in her thirties. But when she was nine she killed her six year old brother, Matty. She claimed innocence, and kept reiterating a ghost called Limey Stan had actually killed her brother. She was sent to a psychiatric unit for two years, as she was too young to be convicted of the crime. After her two years in psychiatric care for being delusional, she was cared for by foster carers, as no one in her family could forgive her for what she had done.
Cara then receives a message that her mother has passed and she is required to attend a will hearing. She hopes she’ll receive a warm welcome from her estranged family, but that isn’t the case, they still firmly lay the blame at her door. Cara is left her mothers house in the will, and Cara really doesn’t want to return there. When she does return weird things start happening again, and Cara is fearful that Limey Stan has returned.

Overall, I found this book creepy, with lots of intrigue. It contained mystery, and suspense. There were lots of red herring along the way, which turned your attention to who you think was the real culprit. Extremely gripping, and the writing flowed well. The only downside was I didn’t really connect with Cara as a character.

I have 6 words and two sentences which will sum up this book.

What A Book

And

It blew me away

I love everything to do with ghosts and so when the email landed in my inbox about this book well I wasn’t going to say no. I mean an unknown entity called Limey Stan, a child murdered and someone else blamed for it.

I was on day 3 of a migraine when I picked this up, I wanted a distraction, yes I know I should be resting but I thought oh one chapter won’t hurt. Well, one chapter turned into 50% of the book and I struggled to put the book down. I really didn't want to.

When Cara comes back to the house, stuff starts to happen again and I strapped myself in for the ride. Now I am not going to lie, I guessed the twist but that is only because of a few keywords put in seemingly innocent sentences. None of this detracted from the story, in fact, it amplified the tension, creepiness and the darkness. However, yes however, I wasn’t as clever as I first thought, Michelle still had more tricks up her sleeve and I loved it!!!! There are a few shocks and when we learn about that night, the ripples that fall after were just so tragic and unnecessary.

The writing flows so easy and I was hooked. I was so engrossed by the story, could Cara be an unreliable narrator or is there something bigger going on. When we see the story told by other perceptions, it definitely casts that doubt out there. Can we ever just take things at face value? Can we always trust what we are shown? I must admit I was thinking I might doubt my own sanity when things start to happen to Cara in the present day. I mean were the toys moving, did the table turn over by itself? Was someone there? Or did we imagine it?

I have not read anything by Michelle before and now I see there a few books to catch up on, plus reading the snippet of her new book The Death of Me has got me a bit giddy!!

God, I cant explain anywhere near as coherently as I want to, to how epic this book was. I didn’t want to put it down, I didn’t want to work I wanted to read and mostly I wanted to know who the heck Limey Stan was. It is definitely one of my top reads so far this year. It had everything I wanted and so much more from a book. Just don’t start it late at night because you will be sucked down that rabbit hole of unrelenting reading, especially with the short and snappy chapters to keep you captivated.

Just read it!

The whole world believed taht nine year old Cara had killed her younger brother. But she blamed it on a paranormal entity she swears was haunting her house. No one believed her and after two years of treatment in a pyschiatric unit for delusional disorderly , Cara was shunned by her family and put into foster care.

Cara is now thirty four and has just found out that her mother has died. She's been living in Morcambe but goes back to Heldean, Essex as her mother had stipulated that Cara attends the will reading. Cara has always maintained that a ghost called Limey Stan killed her brother. There's plenty of twists but i found the pace was slow. The story was inspired by a real life haunting. The characters all have a secret to hide. An interesting read with a satisfactory ending.

I would like to thank #NetGalley,#OrionPublishingGroup and the author #MichelleDavies for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley, Orion Publishing Group and Michelle Davies for the advance review copy of Shadow of a Doubt.

As a 9 year old girl, Cara Belling was sent to a psychiatric ward and began a life in foster care, accused of murdering her younger brother Matty, who was suffocated by a curtain in th living room of their family home, To this day, Cara protests her innocence; stating that Matty was actually killed by a ghost called Limey Stan who had been haunting their house for years.

26 years later, Cara receives a text from her Aunt to say her biological Mother has died. With no contact all this time, she is shocked to discover that whilst she is not welcome at the funeral, her Mother has requested her presence at the will reading. When her Mum surprises everyone by leaving Cara the family home in her will, Cara is determined to find out why, returning to Heldean for the first time since that day.

Stepping back into the four walls of where she grew up brings back a lot of memories regarding the lead up to her brothers death and soon the strange encounters start again. Is Cara still delusional, or is Limey Stan back to finish what he started?

I LOVED this book - fast paced with lots of tension and suspense, I felt willed to carry on reading and discover the truth about Limey Stan and what really happened to Matty that night. The story, whilst in parts a little far fetched, really held my attention and left me constantly guessing people's behaviours and motives. There were a fair few twists and turns along the way some of which I predicted, but even when I thought I had it all figured out, another unexpected turn led me down a very different path!

Shadow of a Doubt was my first experience of a book by Michelle Davies, but definitely won't be my last!

(Review will be shared on the blog in What I read in January at end of month)

4/5

Shadow Of A Doubt is a gripping thriller with an intriguing plot that will keep you racing through, desperate to find out the truth.

With a brooding mystery that drives the story forward, it’s an immensely shocking story full of secrets and suspicions. Even before you find anything out, the concept itself is quite upsetting as it deals with the death of a young boy and the distraught family left behind. And whether Cara is lying and mentally suffering or she’s telling the truth, wrongly accused and abandoned, there’s a lot of sympathy to be shared around. I was constantly verging on the edge of feeling sorry for her and starting to question if she was playing the same old tricks. But I was not expecting the truth that comes out.

However, I was hoping for more a ghost story. With the details of Limey Stan tormenting Cara so vividly, I wanted to feel his presence and her fear. But I didn’t feel scared of someone lurking in the shadows. Instead, I felt her anger which is what drove my eagerness to figure things out.

Although I was hoping for a darker atmosphere and it didn’t get my heart racing as I thought it would, Shadow Of A Doubt is still an engaging and exhilarating story. With an impacting revelation that feels like a punch in the gut, it’s sure to keep your attention, and it has certainly left me intrigued to read Michelle Davies‘ DC Maggie Neville books after this.

I found the plot rather too far fetched and whilst I can withhold my scepticism in some books this just pushed it a little too far. I can imagine it being popular with a lot of readers though so wouldn’t advise not to read it but just go in prepared to take the story on face value more than I perhaps did.

Absolutely loved this book! This a tense and mind bending read that had me racing through it for answers. Cara has been deemed a child killer after her young brother was killed in childhood. Cara insisted it was a ghost, 'Limey Stan.' Cara has to return to her childhood home and this is where the books takes you on a thrilling and sinister read. This book is sure to be best seller and a well deserved one.

This is a dark and creepy story about the very troubled Cara. Having to face up to the ghosts of her past when she returns to her hometown, will people finally believe her?
It is hard to say much without spoilers, but if you like a tense and atmospheric read, then this is for you!

Shadow of a Doubt - Michelle Davies

The writer offers us a creepy dark story that keeps the reader guessing right until the end. This was a new author to me and I am excited to read more from her in the future as I really liked the character development. It's a book a very much enjoyed and can highly recommend. Many thanks to NetGalley and Publishers for allowing me the chance to read and review this book.

A really dark and sometimes disturbing book. As with all Michelle Davies books, it was well written and full of suspense. I really enjoyed the story of the characters and hearing the past and present.

Shadow of a Doubt by Michelle Davies is a creepy psychological thriller opening with a chilling prologue. It gripped me right from the first page. I have previously read Michelle Davies’s DC Maggie Neville series, which I have really enjoyed, so I was intrigued to find out that she was bringing out a standalone. I’m pleased to say that my high expectations for Shadow of a Doubt were met and I loved it.

We meet Cara, who has had a dark cloud hanging over her since she was very small. Now in her thirties, Cara is perturbed when she receives a text from a family member, letting her know that her biological mother has died. Cara hasn’t seen her family since she was a small after they abandoned her. Her family, the police, and the country held her responsible her young brother’s death after he became trapped behind the curtains in their living room and suffocated. But Cara has always remained adamant that she had nothing to do with her brother’s death and it was a ghost, who she nicknamed, Limey Stan, who haunted their house. Even in her adult years, she still believes it. With her return to her hometown, is the truth about Limey Stan about to be revealed?

I really felt sorry for Cara. She has suffered from unimaginable trauma in her life, following the death of her brother. I was fascinated by the story of the ghost, which she still wholeheartedly believes. It made me want to know what really happened that night back in 1994 when her brother died. Was Cara really responsible for his death? Did her imagination create the story of Limey Stan in an attempt to block out the terrible truth?

I could never really be sure what was really going on here. Cara manages to convince a small minority of people that the ghost was responsible, but the majority still can’t believe she is still going on about this. She is determined to get to the bottom of things when she comes back to her hometown, and I was rooting for her to get to the truth. I also wanted to know why her mother had left her house to her in her will. This seemed an extraordinarily generous thing to do for someone who completely cut their daughter out of their life. Was her mother doing this to make Cara come to terms with the truth? I had so many questions which I wanted to know the answers to.

Michelle Davies creates a really creepy atmosphere. I love a good ghost story, and Shadow of a Doubt certainly fits the bill. Michelle Davies ratchets up the tension as the book races towards its conclusion and Michelle Davies expertly plants red herrings, turning your attention away from the real culprit. This is an excellent psychological thriller.

4-5 stars, for this unputdownable thrill ride. It was a very unique and well written book. It was definitely multilayered in it’s offering if thrills, chills, and shocks. I think as a parent it was a tough read, as it really does hit on protecting your children nerves. Overall, I think the author did a fantastic job on developing the characters in a way that really connected the reader. Something was off for me, maybe even just bring a parent, which made me go down to the 4-5 stars instead of the full 5 stars, but I definitely highly recommend!

Will make sure to buzz around platforms and use low Amazon reviewer number on release date.

This book has a little bit of everything I like in a book - mystery, suspense and chills. From the off you get that sense of threat, os something lurking in the shadows that goes well beyond a young child's imagination, and how right that is. Setting you on edge from that very first chapter, Michelle Davies takes us on a journey full of secrets and suspicion that kept me intrigued right to the last page.|

Talk about your complicated characters though. Cara is someone who it took time to get to like fully. Understandably evasive in terms of her background, she was generally always on edge and quite spiky, which makes her harder to get to know or trust. And yet, there was something in her unwavering belief of what happened when she was a child that drew me to her and had me impatient for the truth to be revealed. The author has pitched her character perfectly leaving you uncertain as to how much of what she believes is the actual truth and how much the result of an active childhood imagination combined with a potential psychological disorder. Whatever the truth, there is no doubting that Cara was dealt a very tough hand and it is hard not to feel some sympathy for her. I never once believed that she was as evil as her family made her out to be, but was she innocent either? It was hard to tell and the author leaves readers guessing for quite some time on that front.

When the reveal does come, and it does long before the end of the book, it left me even more intrigued then. Far from the ending being an anticlimax, the atmosphere that the author manages to imbue in the novel keeps the tension high and it still leaves you wondering just what is happening in Cara's life and in the house which appears to be either haunted or cursed. There is a long held question of what really lurks in the shadows - real or imagined - and with a series of inexplicable events, you have to wonder who or what is out to get Cara. The author works hard to keep readers guessing, offering a number of suspects for consideration, all of whom have opportunity if not necessarily an obvious motive.

Michelle Davies has done a great job in establishing characters in the book, and whilst I didn't particularly like Cara's Aunt, Karen, I could see things from her perspective and the hatred she feels towards Cara. But her anger and determination to oust Cara from her inheritance, did make her an antagonistic character and hard to feel a sympathy for, in spite of the losses she had suffered and the more recent pain of losing her sister, Cara's mother. And then there is Limey Stan. Real or a figment of Cara's imagination? Simple shadow or something far more sinister? I'll be honest, and say that I had a good guess as to what it was that Cara had been hearing all those years before, something that was confirmed in the. second half of the book where the narrative moved from Cara's point of view to that of her mother twenty years earlier. The more I read of her, the less I liked her although there were some redeeming moments by the end of the novel.

The final scenes in this book are fraught and full of tension, the final showdown between Cara and her childhood tormentor quite dramatic. There is an underlying sense of threat throughout the book, a kind of chilling element to the story that always has you wondering without necessarily coming down on the side of Limey Stan being supernatural or otherwise. There is certainly a lot of emotion tied up in the story too, the anger and the sense of loss that is never fully realised in Cara's life, and it makes this a really engrossing read. Recommended.

Shadow Of A Doubt is a twisty thriller that tells the story of Cara who is widely believed to have killed her brother 25 years ago when they were young children, but has maintained a ghost called Limey Stan did it. She was placed in a secure children’s hospital and after being shunned by her family, went to live with foster parents. Now her mother had died, she is forced to return to her home town and face judgment again.
I enjoyed the storyline, but the name ‘Limey Stan’ seemed to annoy me for some reason. A slightly faster pace would also have increased my enjoyment.

I’ve tried picking up Shadow of a Doubt several times but it’s just not for me. Did not finish.
As I didn’t finish this it gets a three star rating for fairness. :)

Wow! What a brilliantly complex plot, effortlessly unhurried but very engaging and I never guessed, not once!

This was a disturbing and twisted storyline and I am so impressed that the author was able to lay so many lines and tie them all neatly together at the end. The characters were absorbing and real, I felt empathy and confusion but was able to move on with them as the storyline changed the narrative.

A definite 5 stars from me - Michelle Davies really knows how to write and keep you interested. I will definitely be looking out for more by this author.

Wow! This book was a real page turner. For such a young child to carry that on her shoulders. Loved the writing style it had lots of twists and a lot of emotion. Quite chilling but I was hooked within the first chapter. I loved it. I haven't read anything by this author before but I will looking out for more.

The whole world believed nine-year-old Cara killed her younger brother on that fateful night. But she blamed it on a paranormal entity she swears was haunting her house. No one believed her and after two years of treatment in a psychiatric unit for delusional disorder, Cara was shunned by her remaining family and put into foster care. Now she's being forced to return to the family home for the first time since her brother's death, but what if she's about to re-discover the evil that was lurking inside its walls?

What a read this is! I absolutely loved reading this and it is the first book in a long time that I have felt really excited about reviewing. From the plot description and the beginning of the read it is clear there is more going on than first appears but I was not expecting the exhilarating twists and jaw dropping shocks that Davies throws at the reader. This read is full of shocks and red herrings and it was so exciting to read.

As well as being an adrenaline fuelled read, Davies masterfully builds tension throughout the read until it reaches its devastating, shocking climax. Honestly, words cannot express how much I loved reading this and I highly recommend it. This has everything you would want in a thriller and then some.

So this book is incredibly gripping and exciting to read but Davies features some hard hitting subjects as well. Cara is a character who has been through a lot and her story is a difficult yet highly interesting read. The characters are all realistic and although you may not like all of them, they do all behave in a very believable way. It soon becomes apparent that they are all hiding secrets in one way or another and I was gripped as Davies reveals the devastating truth.

'Shadow of A Doubt' is an intense, electrifying thriller and I loved reading it. I have not been this excited by a thriller in a long time and I highly recommend this shocking read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orion for an advance copy.