The Soul Breaker is typical twisty goodness from Sebastian Fitzek, hugely addictive and unpredictable and a right old page turner.

A series of horrific crimes has been occurring and at one mental facility a group of patients and staff are about to be cut off and trapped as a killer stalks the halls...

Claustrophobic and cleverly layered, The Soul Breaker is chilling and creepy...a kind of locked room mystery come psychological drama hybrid. It has a genuinely scary bad guy and reminds you that death isn't necessarily the worst thing that can happen.

I loved it and will likely be thinking about it for quite some time to come.

Recommended.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Head of Zeus for an advance copy of The Soul Breaker, a stand-alone psychological thriller set in a luxurious mental health clinic in Berlin.

The serial killer known as the Soul Breaker claimed three victims, leaving them catatonic and barely alive with a note in their hand, before disappearing. Meanwhile a man, named Caspar by the staff, is found outside an exclusive clinic, hypothermic and suffering from amnesia. As he begins to recover the weather takes a turn for the worse and the clinic is cut off from the outside world, just as the head psychiatrist is found catatonic with a note in her hand.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Soul Breaker, which is a tense thriller with some good twists. Before I review the novel I should point out that it relies on some barely credible coincidences and what I think is some extremely dodgy science (but what do I know? It could be possible). If, however, the reader, like myself, is prepared to accept this and go along for the ride it is excellent entertainment and well worth the journey.

Not only does the novel rush along at breakneck speed it has several puzzles to solve along the way. The story of Caspar and the Soul Breaker is presented as part of an experiment by a psychiatry professor, so every so often they interrupt the main narrative with their observations and deductions. I didn’t really get the point of this, but it provides a welcome break, almost a relief, from the tumultuous events at the clinic. The puzzles come in the form of Caspar’s real identity, the identity and motive of the Soul Breaker, the motivation of most of the characters and the riddles in the notes. Then there are the twists, one or two I guessed ahead of the reveal, but mostly I never saw them coming.

This is a story of mayhem with quite a high level of violence and cruelty, but it is also a story of Caspar seeking himself and his memories. His flashbacks to the little he remembers are sad and suggest that his amnesia is a relief. Who knows how the mind really works and this is at the heart of the novel.

The Soul Breaker is a tense, exciting read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

The Soul Breaker doesn't kill his victims. What he does is much worse.
He leaves them paralysed and completely catatonic. His only trace: a note left in their hands.

There are three known victims when suddenly the abductions stop. The Soul Breaker has tired of his game, it seems.
Meanwhile, a man has been found in the snow outside an exclusive psychiatric clinic. He has no recollection of who he is, or why he is there.
Soon the weather goes from bad to worse, and the clinic becomes completely cut off from the world outside.
When the head psychiatrist is found trembling, naked and distraught, with a slip of paper in her hands, it seems the Soul Breaker has returned. And with the clinic cut off from the world, no one is able to get in – or out.

This is an amazing suspenseful read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had continuously.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own honest voluntary review.

I found this disappointing. It seemed to be a list of the most awful things that could be done to a human being and very little story. For me, it was a sequence of horrible things happening with little of the personality issues that usually make a story. The potential threat of hypnosis is a theme. There is a present day thread running through but this only suggests the possibility of indirect hypnosis through reading. We have no Information about the impact of the experiment on the subjects.

Sorry - not for me.

An intriguing concept for a book: an experiment based on reading the case notes relating to the Soul Breaker. The notes are effectively a thriller, a whodunnit. The story continually switches from the case notes to the experiment and back. Who is the Soul Breaker? How does he render his victims catatonic? Who is friend and who is foe in the psychiatric clinic?

It was all going well, a page turner, until the students finished reading the case notes and the explanation began. I felt everything lost pace. In written form, the technique of revealing the meaning of the clues working through the notes by page number seemed a bit cumbersome. I've no doubt the story would work really well on screen and I'd be interested in listening to the dramatised audio book (judging by the reviews I've read). I've given it a 3 but I can understand the higher ratings.

Wow,what a read!
A definite heart pounding thriller.
Loved the setting and characters. So much happened in a short space of time and got quite gruesome and stomach churning in parts.
Kept me up reading til the early hours.

I finished this book in one go (less than a day) but I've given it three stars only.

To say I am disappointed, is to say nothing. I can't even say I am disappointed. I devilishly enjoyed Fitzek's Passenger 23. I could not believe I've never met this author before. Thus, I asked for this ARC as soon as it became available... Yes, I read The Soul Breaker very quickly. Yes, I could not put it down, but for various reasons.

I really wanted to get the same 'ahhh' out of this book as I did out of Passenger 23. But I did not. Yes, it is evil. Yes, it is twisted. Yes, it is all in your head or in the head of the characters. Yes, it is complicatedly designed locked room mystery-thriller. But... It has so many buts.

Firstly, the ending is so twisted onto itself, I am lost. Secondly, I do not understand the presence of some of the characters and timelines. They felt like an after-thought. And thirdly, some of the tropes felt like they were piled up on principle: let's add this and mix it with that and add some more of this from that shelf over there...

A quick read if you are thriller-inclined but...

The Soul Breaker is Fitzek’s fourth novel and a disturbing yet riveting thriller. A mental hospital, cut off from the outside world by a winter storm, troubling reports about a man who breaks women inside, a protagonist who has lost memory of himself and his past. These are the ingredients of Sebastian Fitzek's gripping new thriller, which is once again not for the faint of heart. Set in a high-class mental hospital on the outskirts of the city, isolated in heavy snow, the nightmare of anxiety and fear presented by a serial killer called the 'Soul Breaker' unfolds in tension. The 'Patient Medical Record', which forms the body of the novel, begins in a luxury psychiatric hospital called 'Toyfels Clinic' outside Berlin. A man who had recently collapsed on a nearby road was found by a caretaker and came to the hospital, but he loses all his memories and lives by the name of 'Caspar'. Only gradually does he get to know himself better. The things he remembers are at least as scary as the present in which he is admitted to the lonely clinic after an accident. Is there a connection to the "Soul Breaker" and what actually does he do to his victims, young women who die sooner or later after the encounter? Just before Christmas, news of a serial murder case that has terrorized the whole of Berlin is reported day after day.

Three young and beautiful women went missing one after another and died shortly after they were found in a so-called 'awakening coma'. The media calls a person who commits such a terrible thing a 'soul destroyer' who is alive but has no pupil reaction and is unconscious and unable to communicate with the outside. The only clue to solving the case is the mysterious note found by the victims. There are also reports of the soul breaker being inside Toyfels Clinic. This is a compulsive, creepy and nail-biting read full of eerie descriptions, wicked twists, dark secrets and brutal murders and an elusive and terrifying psychopath on the loose. What I love about Fitzek is he does his homework and crafts an authentic psychological thriller based on genuine psychiatric knowledge. Sebastian Fitzek mixed his thriller out of frightening news and the characteristics of a man who mentally breaks everyone because he has no memory of his own. The reader is inadvertently drawn into the story, standing next to the protagonists, feeling their breath, sensing their fear with chills running down his back. Fitzek repeatedly misleads his readers and proves that the human spirit is more dangerous than even the most brutal serial killers and relies on a Machiavellian scenario to shred the reader’s nerves before offering them an unexpected finale. Highly recommended.

I powered through this one so quickly, as I needed to know what was going to happen next. The suspense and the twist were brilliant and it was something I would never have guessed. I did guess about the students early on, but that didn’t detract from the main plot at all.

I thought the opening to the story was a great way to introduce the Soul Breaker and really set the tone for the rest of the book. I enjoyed the build up with parts of Caspar’s memory coming back to him every now and then. I could feel his emotions and was trying to will him on, to keep going.

I found Schadeck’s character quite unrealistic in how he reacted to things and that detracted slightly for me – also why I knocked a star off. When everything else in the story fitted so well, he just stuck out like a sore thumb and I couldn’t relate or understand him. Additionally I was a little frustrated as I felt it was left unfinished in terms of the students.

Overall, this had me hooked from the start and I thought the twist was done very well. I couldn’t tell that this had been translated either which was an added bonus – I will be looking out for more by Sebastian.

Well what can I say about the Soul Breaker but utterly mind blown!
There aren't many books that get under your skin or play mind tricks but this one does it in spades.
The Soul Breaker is not interested in killing his victims not in the common sense but he destroys you from your own mind,
When Casper awakes to find himself in a psychiatric clinic he has no memory of who he is or what he life was before he got here and how 8s he somehow connected to The Soul Breaker.
After finishing this book I will be constantly looking for clues to see if this has effectively changed my mind!
,

“It wasn’t murder, it wasn’t rape, it wasn’t torture; this crime was far, far worse”

The real crime about this book, was definitely that I spent so much time sat on the edge of my seat, glued to the pages, that I had a numb bottom and a completely messed up head, by the end! It really is no surprise that I suffer with Nosocomephobia (that’s a fear of hospitals in everyday language) and that’s just as a visitor, mention an appointment and I am like someone demented, which also rather neatly sums up part of this, for me, very uncomfortable, claustrophobic and nerve-wracking journey into the minds of both victims and perpetrators.

The page-turning story hit the ground running with those very first lines, no slow build up to the plot here. The action wasn’t fast paced, although the many twists and turns, kept things moving along steadily and seamlessly. The ending was more or less what I was expecting, although even then Sebastian had to sneak in another genius variable, which left things over, yet up in the air! To be fair, the final twist was just about the only element of the storyline I saw coming with any real accuracy, everything else had me playing catch-up, – and I thought I had a rather devious streak in me when it comes to working out thriller plots, but this one was something else!

The story is narrated in dual timelines, although it doesn’t dive back and forth too many times and the well signposted, considered length chapters, made things easy to keep track of. Very well structured, intensely textured and multi-layered, this lugubrious storyline was quite unique and unconventional, putting me very much in mind of the 1970s film Coma, an adaptation of the Robin Cook book of the same title. Those underground hospital corridors that go on forever, with lighting that only operates as you approach it and then switches neatly off as you pass, always leaving you in semi-darkness. Those sterile rooms full of machinery which is always large and noisy, concealing a whole host of real and imagined horrors. Those areas of hidden terror, the pathology departments and morgues, where anything or anyone might lurk in the shadows. A sense of time and place which was so strong as to cause a palpable tension within me.

As well as being a consummate and powerful storyteller, Sebastian is an author skilled in the visual depth, desperate intensity and immersive qualities of his narrative and dialogue. He writes with total authority and complete confidence, about a subject he has clearly thoroughly researched and manages to tie up all those loose ends neatly. Sometimes the technical details were a little overwhelming, but I needed to be clear in my own mind what was happening in this distorted picture, so that little bit of extra concentration on my part, really paid off in the long run. Wow! are these people weird or what! What kind of socially depraved caves do they inhabit, that they really think that playing with people’s minds, making them like the walking dead, is in any way acceptable!

Sebastian paid great attention to detail when he cleverly crafted a small cast of completely unlikable, complex characters, who have been afforded individually strong, almost malevolent voices, with which to tell their story of dark dread and menace. Each one of them has some kind of axe to grind, or a deep, dark secret which they wish to remain hidden. There can be no sense of working together to outwit a common enemy, as each of them is a suspect in the others take on the situation, so there is no one foe to fight for, in this emotionally disturbing, complex snapshot of mans inhumanity to man.

Oh my word, this was a fast pacing heart racer. I was on the edge of my seat reading this! I couldn't turn those pages fast enough. yet at the same time I was afraid to! A very clever and well-written book.

Soul breaker, I felt, was an apt title for a book that seemed to be devoid of any feeling...clinically written, I felt no affinity to any of the characters. I was randomly gripped by fast flowing prose but in the end it's the story complete that we're judging here and I just felt it lacked in every aspect. There are a lot of 4* ratings, mainly from abroad, so I can only assume that translation has hindered an otherwise good read...not at all for me I'm afraid.

I have really enjoyed this authors previous books but really struggled with this, was a DNF at 15%,apologies

Sebastian Fitzek is a new author to me but when I received an invitation to read The Soul Breaker I decided to give it a try and I am so glad I did. The story is dark and atmospheric with an extremely eerie setting and it got me hooked immediately. I really enjoyed this one and will definitely be reading other books by this author now I have discovered him.

Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for my ARC.

Brilliant, I loved it. Sebastian Fitzek has produced a wonderful piece of writing with this tense and entertaining Thriller. It’s full of great characters, and a plot that I really enjoyed. At times I was on the edge of my seat. So many hours of great entertainment.
The authorities are baffled by what the Soul-Breaker is doing to his victims. Leaving women in a terrible state. The only unusual thing is that none of them have been physically hurt, just mentally traumatised into a catatonic state. Caspar is pretty sure he has a daughter going by all the dreams he has been having, however being in a psychiatric clinic with no memory of anything else that’s happened in his life, is making him very unsettled. When doctor Sophia Dorn in suddenly attacked in the clinic, it becomes clear to everyone that the Soul-Breaker might be somewhere inside the facility. Now everyone is scared out of their mind.
You can’t help but be pulled into this story. It’s well worth a read. 5/5 Star Rating

Three women go missing without trace. A week is enough for a psychopath known in the press as "The Soul-Breaker" to destroy them. By the seventh day the women are psychologically dead, like bodies without a soul. Shortly before Christmas, The Soul-Breaker strikes again, this time in an exclusive psychiatric clinic. The clinic has been cut off by a snowstorm, and The Soul-Breaker is in their midst. Trapped in the clinic, staff and patients band together to protect each other, but The Soul-Breaker shows them that no one is safe.

A bunch of students are conducting an experiment. Their task is to read an account of something that happened in the past, They must carry on if they start the experiment. We see what is happening in the account they are reading.

This is quite a dark read that will keep you guessing. The setting is creepy, it's spooky and atmospheric. The plotline is quite unique, The book started off good, then it dipped for a bit in the middle, then built up to a good ending.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #HeadofZeus and the author #SebastianFitzek for my ARC of #TheSoulBreaker in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Head of Zeus and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an unbiased review.
I really liked the sound of the book but I appear to be the minority in that for some reason it didn't really grab me from the start and I then felt that I was merely continuing because i'd already invested time in it. I would state that I was curious to find out the ending and stuck with it right to the end.
Whilst not my favourite book of the year so far, I did however feel there were plenty of signs of what Mr Fitzek is capable of and would still read other publications by him.

I had already read this novel in Spanish, but I couldn’t remember the plot, just that I had liked it a lot. My amnesia had nothing to do with this excellent novel, I just don’t have a good memory. I remembered some details but every twist surprised me all over again. The plot is completely unpredictable and utterly engrossing. The characters are not quite believable, but they serve their function of acting as potential baddies or victims. The setting is as creepy as they come, a mental hospital in the middle of a blizzard. It’s spooky and atmospheric. I wasn’t sure what the chapters set in the present, where a professor conducts an experiment, had to do with the main plot, but the whole explanation made sense. The ending surprised me all over again, and left me breathless.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Head of Zeus!

#TheSoulBreaker #NetGalley
Must read.
The Soul Breaker destroys women.
He doesn't kill them or mutilate them. But he leaves them completely dead inside, paralyzed and catatonic. His only trace a note left in their hands.
There are three known victims when suddenly the abductions stop. The Soul Breaker has tired of his game, it seems.
Meanwhile, a man has been found in the snow outside an exclusive psychiatric clinic. He has no recollection of who he is, or why he is there. Unable to match him to any of the police's missing people, the nurses call him Casper. Casper makes little progress regaining his memory, but he grows restless and wants to leave the clinic to piece together the few clues to his life. But the weather has taken a turn for the worse, and the clinic becomes completely cut off to the world outside. No one is able to reach the clinic, and its staff and patients cannot leave. So when the head psychiatrist is found trembling, naked and distraught, with a slip of paper clasped in her hands, it seems somehow the Soul Breaker has rreturned.
Thanks to NetGalley and Head Of Zeus for giving me an advance copy. .