A book full of twists, turns, myth and suspense. Given 4 * and not 5* for one reason - the action of DS Harper upon not revealing a family connection in the investigation seem unbelievable. Otherwise really not what I had expected and a real thrill to read.

I really don't know what genre to categorise this book in - mystery/police procedural/psychological thriller or folklore.
I do know that I enjoyed it though, very much.
If I had known that the story involved selkies or seal people then I probably would have shied away from it and never read it as folklore isn't really my cup of tea.
I am so glad I gave it a chance as it is a well written and compelling read with well drawn characters and an original story.
It is the first book I have read by Melanie Golding but I will definitely be reading her back catalogue. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for introducing me to her.

I absolutely loved this book, it was enthralling from the start and I was dissapointed when it finished, I would definitely recommend this book

A young girl is found alone, and it’s not long before shopkeepers call the authorities. A short time later, her mother turns, distraught and worried, but glad to see her daughter is ok – they’re sent on their way with a gentle police telling off. At the same time, a man’s body is found in a bath, though fortunately, he’s still alive. The two events cannot be connected, there’s no link but yet, DS Harper remains cautious, hesitant to rule anything out. During the investigation, it’s found that something does connect the man with the mother and daughter (prepare to be shocked) and this leads police down a dangerous path. The most worrying is that no one really know in which direction the danger lies… Combining the author’s skill at mystery writing with great characterisation and a storyline that, little by little, drags you in, will Harper find out the whole truth before it’s too late?

A missing parent, an abandoned toddler, and some mythical fairytale elements all combine in this bewitching psychological mystery, a tale of love and discovery. Captivating and beguiling, this is a story to savour on a winter's night

Loved this book, not normally a genre i choose to read but will be in future, loved the folklore to it, the tales, i was hooked from the start, it was beautiful it was emtional and full of tension from page to page

I was amused to read a review that was literally word for word a repeat of the synopsis. This was a very interesting and complex story line starting with a supposed abandoned child. The police procedures were presented in an authentic way and I really enjoyed this read.

Melanie Golding, The Replacement

Part psychological thriller, part police procedural and part dark fairy tale, The Replacement continues the police procedural framework of Golding’s debut novel, the hugely successful Little Darlings (2020), and similarly draws on powerful folk myths. In the more usually prosaic world of the police procedural, Golding’s central protagonist is the strong-willed, intuitive DS Joanna Harper, whose own life has been shaped by the disturbing fluidity of human relationships.

One of the novel’s most important relationships is the difficult kinship between Joanne and her estranged daughter Ruby, born when Joanna was only in her early teens so raised not as her daughter but as her sister. The complex connections between these dual protagonists are interwoven with a tense, haunting narrative that tells a story of human loss and isolation. Harper’s approach to the case exemplifies her instinctive sense of what detection involves:

“Cases came together for Harper all at once like illusions, puzzle pieces falling randomly until she took a step in a different direction and suddenly it would come to her: the links, the gaps, shining a light on it all so she could see the way through. She turned each fact over, searching for the kinks, the points at which each one joined the rest: first, a child abandoned on the seafront; a mysterious woman disappearing…”

The underlying mythic structure is centred on themes of displacement and entrapment, drawing on the folktales in which a selkie briefly takes human form by shedding their sealskin. Should their skin be stolen, the selkie, unable to escape from the human world, is left trapped and longing for a lost undersea home. The themes of home and homelessness are threaded through the plot, with Ruby, who has fled her childhood home, drawn inexorably into the incomprehensibly strange family in the flat across from her own: the intriguing Gregor, a mysterious woman and her beautiful child - the “strange, ethereal” Constance, who seems to Ruby “so faded and distant, as if she had one foot in another world”.

Golding’s absorbing novel expertly draws together the mythic and the procedural to craft an intricate story full of mystery, longing, loss. It is a tale of shape-shifting and transformation, in which we are compelled both by the mythology of the selkie who takes the form of a human woman and by the far darker story with which the selkie’s fate is interwoven: the story of a deadly human predator who steals the identities of those whose lives and wealth he wants to possess or inhabit, willing to go to any lengths to secure his thefts.

' What a fantastic book. It sounds like a cliché but I literally couldn’t put this book down. I found It so gripping and engrossing that I read it in one sitting. The story is not a typical thriller, although it includes the usual twists and turns but it is very different and very inventive. If you want to read a psychological thriller with a difference then this is the book for you.

What an enjoyable and, at the same time, thrilling book. The plot is so well constructed and developed and the characters equally believable. It has pace and suspense with the bonus of very enchanting echoes of mythology. The writing and the storytelling appealed to me and I thoroughly recommend it. My only little negative is that I don’t think the two separate timelines suited the narrative.

A tale of myth and mystery

DS Joanna Harper is brought in to investigate the horrific assault on Gregor, a seemingly single man who was bludgeoned and left for dead, however the discovery of children’s toys in his apartment raises more questions than answers
Especially as earlier a young toddler had been found, before her mother finally appeared. Are these 2 events connected?

Joanna Harper is a character that has it seems appeared in a previous book, this is my 1st book from this author, however this did not distract from the story and I was able to enjoy it and loved getting to know the characters
I shall be looking for her previous and future books too
With a mythical twist as we read about selfies and the mystery surrounding them, there is also the police search for the attacker of Gregor
These are cleverly woven together bringing with it an enjoyable read that at times I found difficult to put down
I recommend this book

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this title

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. I enjoyed it but was not as gripped as I expected. There were twists and turns but the mythical elements were not my thing. Overall a good read.

Thank you to HQ stories, Tandem Collective and Netgalley for my arc copy.
After reading Little Darlings and loving it, I couldn't wait to get into this!

The relationship between Ruby and Gregor was strange from the beginning, I could feel bad vibes from Gregor, but I also thought Ruby was a bit stalker creepy at the beginning as well!
When I started reading it I thought it was obvious where the story was going, but then a few twists and turns happened throughout the book and then one in the middle I was not expecting that kept me wanting to read!

I wasn't sure on Joanna at first as a character but ended up rooting for her in the end!
The folklore i wasn't sure on either but everything kept being tied together as the story went on and it all worked perfectly together to fit the story!
I liked the ending and how it wasn't as predicted as I thought it was going to be!
An addictive, eery thriller.

I found this book difficult to get into. There are a few different stories being interwoven and I found it a bit hard to follow it all. If you like a challenging read that you need to concentrate carefully, then this is a book for you. It just didn't thrill me and I wasn't overly keen to get back to reading whenever I put it down. It is a thriller and there is an interesting storyline about a child and who the mother actually is. Overall, there was just a tad too much going on for me

The Replacement by Melanie Golding is another book about the selkies and a mysterious male. Joanna and Ruby play a major part in the story. Joanna as the officer in charge of a mystery death and Ruby as the woman who takes a child.
Recommended

Unable to get stuck into this due to struggling with screen time.
Plan on getting a physical copy to read.

Very good book, and to be expected from a great author...intrigue aplenty and a thoroughly enjoyable read! Many thanks to Netgalley.co.uk, author and publisher for opportunity to read this ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley, Melanie Golding and HQ for the ARC of The Replacement.

When a girl is abandoned on a cold December day, the police are called to investigate. A women arrives just minutes later claiming to be her mother, and the case is dismissed as a runaway toddler.

A man is then discovered left for dead in his bath at a nearby flat. The two cases are then found to be connected and the suspect is a little too close to home - DS Harpers's estranged daughter Ruby.

This storyline was really gripping - a combination of crime and thriller, but with an unexpected edition of some mythical / folklaw too. I will be honest I wasn't expecting the mythical element - its a bit 'odd' and requires you to abandon belief a little. Despite this, it actually worked quite well to create a quote unique read.

3 stars only because I struggled to totally get on board with the mythical parts, but overall an enjoyable book from Melanie Golding.

Such a great story and one that really gets the imagination going. I'll never look at a seal the same way again!

I have heard great things about Melanie Golding’s thrillers but having not read one before, I didn’t really know what to expect. The synopsis drew me in and I was really excited to give her latest release a go.

A little girl is abandoned in a seaside town on a cold December night but when her mother finally collects her, it’s brushed off as a simple case of a runaway toddler. A man is found unconscious and barely breathing with a head wound in his bathroom and children’s toys in his flat. DSI Joanna Harper is assigned to investigate the case of the man in the bath and is led to some CCTV footage of a young woman and a little girl. That’s when she realises that the case may be a little too close to home because the woman in the CCTV is none other than her own estranged daughter, Ruby.

Several chapters are prefaced by an extract from a ocean-themed piece of literature. There is a marine mythical element to the book, which took me by surprise within a thriller, but it was done expertly. It somehow didn’t feel out of place within what is mostly a police procedural crime drama and it was a really refreshing, intriguing addition to the book.

I was thoroughly gripped by the Constance/Ruby/Leonie dynamic and I didn’t really know exactly what would happen at its end. The way that Constance and Ruby formed their friendship felt very authentic and I was championing them to join forces from quite early on in the book. Details about Constance and where she came from were very slowly revealed and I relished that gradual process because it kept me hooked.

Gregor came across as quite enigmatic at the beginning but I became more repelled, as the narrative progressed. He seemed to be quite unpredictable and it just wasn’t comfortable whenever he was around. He had the same deadly charisma as Charles Manson or Ted Bundy and I was thoroughly unnerved by him.

There is some really beautiful descriptions of the ocean and coastal landscapes. I really felt the pull of the sea throughout the book and I think that was intentional, given the subject of one of the story strands. These spots of serenity dotted amongst the very chaotic, dark plot were a very welcome reprieve and allowed me to come up for a breath of cold air.

The Replacement is a twisty, unique thriller with a very dark heart. I appreciated the magical realism, mythological element and had no idea where the main story was heading. The different strands of the story tie together cleverly and I was left with a lot to think about on finishing it. Although there is quite a lot of police procedural content in it, which I’m not a huge fan of, it wasn’t overdone and there was still plenty of focus on the key players within the drama. I’d definitely be interested in trying another of Golding’s books!