A well written and well developed thriller. Interesting from start to finish, storyline flows.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing access to this book. This is my honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was a new genre for the debut author with it being her first thriller novel. Jen Williams normally writes fantasy novels. As a new to me author, I always go into them with excitement and trepidation . Excitement because you hope to find a new favourite author and trepidation because you just don’t know what to expect, you want it to be amazing but you’re worried it might not live up to expectations.

Well, this was a pleasant surprise because not only did it live up to what I love about crime thrillers, the plot absolutely blew me away. It was darker than anything I’ve read for a while! It even made me wince! And anyone who knows me will know it takes a lot for me to have that reaction to any book!

It has a touch of Silence of the Lambs and an element of dark fairytales and folklore which gave it a twisted sinister feel. It is essentially a serial killer thriller with a unique difference.

Dog Rose Dirt is a slow burn novel throughout a majority of the book but that certainly doesn’t take away from the creepiness this book is steeped in. It was atmospheric in description and certainly gave me the shivers.

‘Once Upon A Time There Lived A Wolf
But This Is No Fairy Tale
He Was A Killer’ - first draft cover tag line, Jen Williams’ website.

My thanks to HarperCollins U.K. for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Dog Rose Dirt’ by Jen Williams in exchange for an honest review. I elected to supplement my reading with its unabridged audiobook edition, narrated by Emily Pennant Rae.

I had enjoyed Jen William’s epic fantasy, The Willowing Flame Trilogy, and so was excited to read her first standalone crime thriller. I felt that it was extremely good. Very dark and atmospheric.

Its protagonist is disgraced former journalist Heather Evans, who has returned to her childhood home following her mother’s inexplicable suicide. There she uncovers something truly chilling - hundreds of letters dating back decades between her mother and Michael Reave, a notorious serial killer known as The Red Wolf. He has been locked up in Belmarsh Prison for over 20 years for the brutal and ritualistic murders of countless women.
 
While Heather struggles with this discovery, the body of a woman is found displayed in a similar manner to Reave’s victims. Copycat? After years of silence Reave says he will speak, though only to Heather. Such a meeting could assist the police in stopping the bloodshed and hopefully help Heather to unearth the truth about her mother. Plus, these meetings could perhaps revive her career given her exclusive access.

I found this a compelling premise and I was thoroughly hooked from start to finish. I will warn that there were a few scenes in flashbacks that were difficult as they involved the fledgling serial killer’s cruel acts. The worse one thankfully occurred off page.

There are elements of horror, the Gothic, and fairy tales within ‘Dog Rose Dirt’. Not only does Reave’s identification with the Red Wolf and his use of woods as his killing ground link to Red Riding Hood but he also shares a series of dark and grisly fairy tales with Heather during their meetings. She learns from Michael that her mother was also interested in the darker aspects of fairy tales, while Heather’s memory was of an overly protective parent who only told her stories about “happy ponies and girls at boarding school.”

There are a number of revelations within the story and I was totally glued to my seat throughout. I certainly will be interested to see what Jen Williams writes next.

On a side note - I much preferred the original cover teaser as quoted above with its reference to fairy tales than the more explanatory one that ended up on the final cover art. I appreciate that some readers run screaming from any whisper of fairy tales in their crime fiction though for me it distinguished ‘Dog Rose Dirt’ as something different.

So you’re back in your childhood home sorting out your recently deceased mum’s estate and you find letters to a man, a man who isn’t your father. A man who is locked up in prison for the foreseeable for murder. 🤯🤯🤯 One question – WHY???! Obviously not a question that can be answered easily…. or so you’d think…

Heather didn’t quite expect to go from sorting out her mum’s house to meeting a serial killer like a Ferrari on a test track. And this serial killer is a tricky character. He’s not to be trusted and just like Heather, I got the impression he was hiding something!! He gave me the heebie jeebies in the way he talked to Heather, my skin crawled!

From the brutal opening to this twisty turny kind of book right to that OMG ending, I was hooked. I was glued to my kindle as the story jumped between characters and timelines. Well and truly addicted for little under 24 hours as the writing absorbed my attention from real life. Loved it! I’ll definitely be hunting out more from Jen Williams.

Hmmm how to write a review without giving anything away, Well we have Heather an estranged daughter from her Mum Colleen who apparently committed suicide, so Heather has gone back to her childhood home to sort out the funeral, cryptically her mums suicide note says to both of you and as Heather is an only child she starts delving into her mums past and finds that she has been writing to a man known as Red Wolf - a serial killer. What else has her mum been hiding from her.
This novel is very good at building the suspense and has a dark fairytale theme running through it. It’s definitely worth a read.

My Thoughts: This book completely took over my life whilst I was reading it, Everything about it just instantly drew me in and made it impossible to focus on anything else!

I really felt that the topic of suicide was dealt with with compassion thought towards the victim and the reader, as someone who has lost friends to suicide it was appreciated and made think that maybe this was something the author herself had dealt with in the past.

We’re following Heather, who following the tragic death of her mother had returned to the family home to clear up some of her things and also maybe try and get some answers as to why her mum would end her own life, after all she’s known her her whole life and although their relationship wasn’t ideal or perfect in any way, she had no idea that her mum was feeling so low.

It’s whilst getting her mother’s things together that she stumbles upon some letters from a very well known convicted serial killer, Michael Reave. The correspondence goes back years and it seems they knew each other quite well, could her mum have been hiding a double life?

Not long after Heather returns, dead bodies are being found in ways very similar to the way Michael’s victims were found all those years ago, so Heather takes her newly discovered letters to the police in the hopes that it will help then with their investigation and maybe even help her get the answers she needs at the same time!

I’m not doing the best job of selling the story and for that I apologise but please trust me when I tell you that it was gripping, tense, haunting, full of twists and turns and something very different to any kind of thriller I have read before!

I didn’t see the ending coming at all, but once it’s revealed it all kind of falls into place and makes all the little niggles I had whilst reading make sense!

I can’t wait to see what Jen comes up with next, one thing is for sure, I will definitely be picking it up!

🐧❤️

Heather Evans has returned to the place she was raised to deal with the estate of her mother. Heather’s mother had committed suicide with no clue as to why. While sorting out the family home, Heather finds hidden letters to her mother from a notorious serial killer who is still serving time in prison.

Serial killer Michael Reave, known as The Red Wolf, has spent years of his life in prison after being convicted of the murder of numerous women, who were killed most horrendously and left displayed. Heather is distraught and confused why her mother and this man would be in touch at all.

When a copycat killer begins where Reave left off, Heather is determined to find out how Reave knew her mother and expose the copycat killer at the same time. Heather contacts the police and agrees to work with DI Ben Parker. Reave hasn’t been one for opening up about any of his crimes but agrees to see Heather, closely watched by Parker.

What a story this is, as Reave isn’t going to give her everything at once. There is a little pro quo going on. Heather is an ex-journalist but still has her connections, which don’t always work in her favour. I loved how the characters developed, especially Reave, who caught me out, such a gentleman to take you in.

The story drops back into the past where I felt like a rabbit in headlights mesmerised by a charismatic and luring man. He had such a gentle voice of reasoning in my head, and I was petrified. It is such a chilling and captivating story, both past and present. Do we ever really know anyone?

The in-depth descriptions are perfection, awakening every sense in a horrific way that brings clear images off the pages to see from every angle. But it was the calm that was the most frightening. A stunning read not for the faint-hearted by any means, as it doesn’t let you go.

I wish to thank the publisher and Net Galley for an e-copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly.

This took me a while to get my rhythm, but that said once it was there I needed to know what happens.
The book starts with Heather at her mother's house. Her mother has committed suicide and Heather has not seen her in years. Heather's personal life is a mess, she was sacked from her job, you find out why much later in the book, and you get the impression she has been drifting along.
While sorting through her mother's effects, she discovers that her mother has been in touch with a serial killer over the years. Further investigation leads her to discover that her mother knew him from a commune she lived in before Heather was born. She takes this information to the Police as someone is killing using the methodology of the serial killer who is currently in jail. She finds a connection with the detective leading the investigation and they become close. However, as in most books, things aren't what they seem to be and all the action leads to a climax where Heather finds out the truth and that people aren't what they appear to be.
After a slow start I really enjoyed this.

After her mother commits suicide, ex-journalist Heather Evans returns back home to Balesford to arrange the funeral. Staying in her former home Heather begins to sort through her mothers things. She finds letters written to her mother from Michael Reave, the serial killer known as The Red Wolf who has been in Belmarsh Prison for over 20 years. From the letters Heather realises that her mother was writing to him for decades. What did her mother have to write to a serial killer about and why had she hid it for so long.
In Lancashire, women have been found dead, their bodies dismembered and decorated with wildflowers. The police fear that it is a copycat of the Red Wolf.
Desperate to find out why her mother killed herself, Heather wants to meet Reave to find out how he knew her mother and the police are hoping she can get details from him that might help them capture the new killer. But will seeing Reave cost her too much and take her to dark places she really doesn’t want to go?
I really enjoyed this book, it’s dark and edgy, at times I found Heather strong and resourceful and at times incredibly naive which was a bit frustrating. The ending was so tense I was holding my breath and I wasn’t ready for the twist that came!
The only thing that almost put me off reading was the title but I am glad I didn’t let that put me off.

Creepy, disturbing, but with so much going on it was both hard to keep track and obvious what was going to happen next. I don't want to give too much away but the reader knew Michael was no innocent as we read his early story alongside the current day. Too much was explained with Heather's investigation and her relationship with DI Parker. There was no reason, apart from advancing the story, that she would have kept important incidents from the police. So, although this was a gripping read, too much was convenient to be truly special. #netgalley #dogrosedirt

The serial killer could be argued to represent the modern monsters of our age. The human that isn’t quite human and just preys on the unsuspecting has all the trapping of a folk tale. Sometimes we like to make them something truly inhuman and yet witty and stylish and that risks us forgetting what they actually do to their victims who are not set decorations. In the excellent Dog Rose Dirt by Jen Williams, we get a truly memorable dark haunting tale that still shines a light on the crimes’ victims that gives the genre a much needed twenty first century boost.

Heather Evans is an ex-journalist trying to find a living when she is shocked to learn of her mother’s suicide. Colleen Evans was a strict serious woman that Heather walked out on at sixteen and Heather finds the idea of her mother not acting like that forever is a shock. While going through the home she finds a bundle of letters from a man she realises is one of the UK’s most notorious serial killers Michael Reave the Red Wolf safely locked away for over two decades after a long long killing spree. Already horrified at this revelation Heather finds a series of new stories suggesting that someone is now acting out the Red Wolf’s crimes with scenes arranged eerily using flowers to decorate the victim’s corpses. Sensing her mother’s secrets may have a link and that this could be a story to re-start her career Heather agrees to meet Reaves in prison and while he spins fairy stories for her, she starts to feel someone else is getting closer hiding in the dark and leaving strange messages to grab her attention.

This is one of the most atmospheric crime stories I’ve read in a long time. Despite reading this in the summer I felt the cold, dark and greyness of the locations full of secrets and foreboding. Williams has skilfully fused a thriller story with this atmosphere to feel as if you’ve slightly gone into the woods and on the wrong path. Full of grief, regrets and danger we watch Heather try to find her way through a situation that however unusual is also uniquely personal about finding out the truth about your family/ Heather is a welcome change in characters not filled with burning desires for justice or forensic skills but one who enjoys digging into the story to find the future headline. Ambitious, rash and yet honourable with a welcome streak of not letting men get away with their sexism or attempts to control her – not the person ou ant to ask to smile. She may not be the friend you’d want to always hang out with but the one you’d trust to get you out of a tight situation as she weaves together the secrets of several decades. It’s refreshing to have a lead not acting in a quasi-apprentice way to a monster and while the scenes with Reave are a dance of each interrogating the other you don’t feel Heather is at any times moulding herself in Reave’s mindset.

Williams has split the book into two elements Heather’s hunt for the truth and what is going on with this new Wolf and the life of Michael as he grew up. These are some of the most disturbing scenes in the book as we explore the making of monsters and see out of trauma and abuse you can create someone who is happy in nature and capable of kindness but also very bewitched by their own desire to kill. Williams doesn’t make Michael a witty and funny dark companion to Heather but someone dangerous and yet understandable. Despite that we can still see a monster in front of us even if he can smile and tell fairy stories. Unravelling his inner mysteries and the connections to the present make the plot gain momentum until its disturbing conclusion.

The other highlight is how Williams elevates the tale with lots of atmosphere and great use of corrupted natural imagery and even occasional jump scares to push this thriller onto edges of horror. This comes back to the idea that serial killers are just another iteration of cautionary tales; and it is not a coincidence that Reaves becomes known as the Red Wolf. This is a tale of dark figures just out of sight, symbolism and people who are not always what they seem creating a strange eerie world of its own design and as we tread further down the path with Heather everything gets suspicious. With scenes set in a strange 1970s commune and rumours of darker things in the woods it feels like a murder mystery merged with the trappings of a folk horror story and all the better for it. If Williams wants to use these characters again in some way this has the ability to be a very compelling series.

Williams’ first thriller is a huge success and I hope we get to see many more such tales in the future. Fans of Phil Rickman or john Connolly should definitely look to pick this story up and it is a person read you read as the evenings lengthen, the temperature drops, and you hear a strange noise outdoor. Highly recommended!

This is an interesting mystery/thriller that's pretty dark and creepy with some scenes that some may find disturbing.

I'm finding this a difficult one to review because whilst overall, I think I enjoyed it, it did seem to take a long time to get there and there were times when I said to myself "oh, just get on with it!"

The plot of the book is intriguing and the tension is a constant throughout but it just seemed to be dragged out a little; it started great and I was hooked, the middle was slow and the ending was fast paced if a little OTT. The characters are well developed and interesting but Heather was a little tedious at times and I didn't really become invested in her much; some of her actions also seemed implausible to me.

The parts I did like were the "before" sections, the links to the Grimm Brothers stories, the scenes when Heather went to see Michael in prison and the general creepiness that was ever present but there was just something that I can't put my finger on properly that resulted in me not loving it.

Thank you to HarperCollins UK / HarperFiction and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.

I haven’t read anything by Jen Williams, but this is a truly creepy thriller which set my pulse racing. There are so many books in this genre, good, bad and indifferent. This is one of the best because it’s a complex and twisted story which hooks from the beginning and throws you out at the end.

I didn’t know whose narrative was to be trusted. Layer by layer, the plot thickened and the past was exposed. It’s very clever in construction, pacing is superb and the central characters have depth. It’s a don’t read on your own at night if you’re at all fearful; it’s quite unsettling and that’s down to the strength of the storytelling and writing. Really enjoyed this.

A well-plotted serial killer story that has a lot of depth. Grief and long buried family secrets drive this novel, building tension and intrigue as the story spins out. Williams ensures a creepy undercurrent runs through her novel by peppering her story with unsettling folk horror moments. I couldn't put it down!

It's a good, twisty, gritty and dark story that kept me turning pages and on the edge.
It's a mix of horror and thriller, a story about serial killers and discovering how dark your past can be.
It's a bit slow at the beginning but after Heather discovers the letters it takes speed and I couldn't put it down.
Even if I thoroughly enjoyed it I think that some parts were a bit predictable, especially if you like horror stories, and the ending was a bit too rushed.
The dual timeline was fascinating and somehow I couldn't help help feeling sad for Michael, a twisted serial killer but an abused child too. Heather is an interesting character even if it was like she was blind to clues.
A gripping and entertaining story, recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This is the first book I’ve read written by Jen Williams but I’ll certainly look for more.
The story was very well written and fast paced throughout the book.
Heather and her mother had a very difficult and strained relationship. She returns to her childhood home after her mother’s suicide to sort things out but soon becomes aware that there are huge parts of her mother’s life that she knows nothing about, especially her relationship with a convicted serial killer still in prison.
Heather has frequent visits from a well meaning neighbour/friend of her mother and strange things start happening. There is also a possible copycat killer on the loose. She feels she is being followed and strange gifts begin to appear. She sets out to discover the secrets of her mother’s life and death.
I was engrossed in this story from beginning to end and struggled to put the book down. Very tense and somewhat scary at times. A brilliant introduction for me to this author.

I read many, many crime/thriller novels (maybe too many) and I mostly enjoy them all, but there are a few that completely capture my attention and that I keep thinking about it, even after I finish reading them, and Dog Rose Dirt is one of them. I read it in one day, absorbed in the story of a dangerous serial killer and the young woman trying to figure the truth about her mother.

Heather is a journalist whose relationship with her mother can be described as difficult and sporadic so she is taken completely by surprise by her mother’s suicide and the confusing note she’s left behind. And she’s even more shocked when she finds out that her mother has been corresponding for years with the notorious serial killer, Red Wolf, who’s been in prison since the 1990s for the gruesome murders of many women. Now, there is a new killer on the loose, committing the same exact murders as the Red Wolf and, as more women keep disappearing, Heather could help the police stop him, since the Red Wolf will talk only to her and shed some truth about her mother’s past.

The story is very well-written and the plot is intriguing and twisty, but what I liked most about the story is the protagonist, Heather, because while the murders and the search for the serial killer is central to the story and narrated in such a suspenseful and chilling way that made me check that the doors were locked at night, Heather’s relationship with her mother is as much as important and interesting. Heather is a flawed, troubled, and complex protagonist. She is one of these heroines who won’t stop until she finds out the truth and that make you scream at the pages while you’re reading – “WHY are you entering an abandoned and dark house in the middle of the night all by yourself?”. After her mother’s death she starts digging into her life, slowly discovering a past, secrets, and lies that make her realize that she didn’t know her at all, while we also get glimpses of their complicated relationship.

Would I recommend Dog Rose Dirt? YES, of course!!! It is dark, chilling, intense and I couldn’t put it down until the very last page.

After a rather poor start, this book gives us family mystery, creepy houses, a 'Red Riding Hood' wood, a serial killer and a suicide - yes everything but also exciting and well written

Great ending, but all in all worth a read.

Thanks to Net Galley and Harper Collins UK for the chance to read and review.

This book is dark, greeting and creepy. I found it a little slow paced to begin with but then I couldn't put it down. Well worth a read.

I did wonder if this might be just a bit too dark and scary for me especially as I have a bit of an issue with dark woods but it was bearable. Heather finds letters written to her mother (recently deceased) by Michael Reave a serial killer and is intent on getting the full story of their relationship. The narrative switches between present day (Heather) and the past with the story of how her mother met Reave. I found the past sections far more interesting and darker and creepier than the present. Heather came across as much younger than mid thirties and some of her behaviour just irked me. There is just so much going on in the last 10% of the book that it lost credibility for me. All that said this did hold my interest and I hadn’t worked out all the twists.