Such a great read! The plot is meticulous, which meant the mystery held right until the end. I changed my mind so many times, the who, the how and the why constantly shifting with every twist.

Alice and Jamie, live a good life, with their young daughter and can afford the luxuries of a nice house, a nanny and a comfortable lifestyle. Until everything changes when a young man, seemingly under the influence of alcohol or drugs, breaks into their home while Alice has friends over for a “play-date” and out of fear for her child, she hits him over the back of the head with a stool, killing him.

Alice’s guilt won’t let her leave things alone and as she gets to know more about the young man and his family, she realises that the break in wasn’t random. There is so much going on in the story and the character development is excellent. Brilliant!

5 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Katherine Faulkner and Bloomsbury for an ARC of this book.

On my goodness, a break in sounds bad enough - but this particular one has ripples of effect that seem never ending. Alice is an art restorer, extremely successful in her field. Married to Jamie, an executive of a charity, with a little girl.Martha. With her inheritance, she was able to buy their house in a reasonable area of London. Perfect Life.
One incident changes everything. A young man, apparently intoxicated, beams in through the basement door while Alice and a couple of other 'Mummies' are having an evening drink - their children are playing in the next room, cared for by Martha 's nanny Becca. Suddenly the life of Alice becomes a nightmare as she slowly loses her confidence, freedom, job, sanity, husband..............her entire world collapses.

This book is a rollercoaster of a read, there’s so much going on and so many layers to the story that I genuinely didn’t know which characters to trust for most of the book. I loved the multiple POV and flicking between timelines. This book was brilliantly written.

A fantastic read which kept me hooked from start to finish. A fast paced intense thriller with lots of nail biting moments which I just had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen. Twists and turns galore so buckle up tightly and enjoy the ride.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Katherine Faulkner has a knack for crafting intricate thrillers that keep readers second-guessing themselves. This novel follows Alice, a London mother whose life takes a dark turn after she kills an intruder in self-defense. What seems like a straightforward case soon spirals into a web of unsettling secrets, suspicious behaviour from those closest to her, and a mystery that refuses to stay buried.

The pacing is sharp, with tension building steadily as Alice digs deeper into the truth. The author has the ability to weave psychological suspense with domestic drama and this made for a gripping read. The characters, especially Alice, are layered and compelling, making it easy to get invested in their fates.

This is the book to read if you like novels that explore the complexities of relationships and hidden truths.

The break-in is a fast paced, twisty mystery. I loved that their was always secrets unfolding that kept you on the edge of your seat. Katherine's writing style keeps you fully immersed in this mystery and I didn't want to put this book down. I loved the unusual premise and interesting characters. Overall a great read and I highly recommend it.

This is an intense read, the lies and scamming that goes on in this book was something to reading about. Alice kills a burglar that’s invaded their home and can’t deal with it mentally. She’s having a hard time, but Jamie her husband is there to help her. It’s a gripping psychological thriller that leaves you questioning what would you have done in this situation, it shares the vulnerability of woman home alone. The author wrote the book in 4 parts and every part got better and better. I loved the twists and turns and the truths that came out at the end. A fantastic 5 star read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy.

This was an exciting, pacy read with an unusual premise: Alice, mother of Martha and wife of Jamie, has killed an intruder during a play date. As Alice tries to move forward with her life after this dreadful incident, we learn that all is not as it seems in her beautiful house and lots of secrets emerge. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader on the edge of their seat. I like the way the author describes settings, using interesting and memorable details so the reader almost feels they’re taking part in the novel (for example, sitting next to a character in a coffee shop or with them in a holiday cottage). I enjoy Katherine Faulkner’s immersive writing as it pulls me in and I loved her previous books as well. The Break-In is a great read and I highly recommend it.

There was an awful lot going on in this tense thriller. Full of twists and turns, sometimes a bit hard to keep up with in my opinion. It was well written but I felt that there was just too much going on, which spoilt the book a bit.

This is a really good, interesting novel that is told from various perspectives.

Alice is a young mum, living what appears to be a dream life: great house, husband , child, job…. Then, one night, during a break in, she kills an intruder and everything starts to disintegrate.

The characters are complex and well drawn and the different perspectives kept my interest throughout. It’s a well told tale with excellent twists and a solid and well wrapped up ending.

I really enjoyed it and am grateful to NetGalley and Bloomsbury publishing for the opportunity to preview.

Absolutely loved this book! From page one I was hooked and couldn’t wait to pick the book back up.

I can’t wait for more from this author!

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This had potential to be a great book but I felt it like it was just missing something.
The synopsis intrigued me. Why did the break in happen. How is everyone else involved in some way.
Instead I found myself in and out of interest while reading this.
Times I couldn't put it down. Others where I struggled. Overall it was a solid book. Especially for people just starting to read the genre.

I have enjoyed Katherine Faulkeners previous books so had high hopes for raising suburban thriller set in London.
Following a break in, Alice is not charged but can't move on and discovers a web of secrets. The idea was brilliant but the book was too long (towards the end) and there were a lot of characters to keep track of. The unfolding and explanations of what happened at the end had me skimming (sorry)

This is a superbly written tale of a mother - Alice - who is at home with two friends and their children when an intruder (Ezra) breaks in, grabs a knife and seems to be looking for someone. In the panic, fear and confusion Alice hits him over the head with a metal stool and kills him. The rest of the story is about Alice's guilt, trauma and her search for the truth about why Ezra came to her house.

Alice is the main character but there are also viewpoints from other female characters, which works well. She makes some silly decisions and becomes increasingly paranoid and suspicious of almost everyone. This emotional disruption and her strained relationships are characterised extremely well throughout the book.

The story begins just after the break-in. The cast of characters is quite small but just enough to keep the reader guessing about who is manipulating whom, who is lying and who has secrets.

A thoroughly good read with an intense and intriguing plot.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC. This book is due for publication in August 2025.

The break-in kept me guessing throughout. It was well written and I became invested in knowing why the break-in had happened.
I marked it down a star because it felt as though there were so many things which happened at the end, and they all had a bit of a Scooby Doo lengthy explanation vibe going on,

A gripping read that was hard to put down. Every time I thought I worked it out, something happened to change my mind. Would highly recommend this book

Alice appears to have the perfect life. A loving husband, a beautiful young daughter and an interesting job conserving art work.
Then, a play date at her beautiful house, a young man breaks in brandishing a knife, Alice, in defence, hits him on the head with a chair and he dies.
This is all in the first few pages.
All starts going wrong for Alice. The plot thickens, there is more to it than meets the eye, clues, twists, jaw dropping turns....what on earth is going on and what has happened in the past.
A must read, tense, gripping thriller!
Another success for Katherine Faulkner!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing PLC for this ARC.

OMG! This book has absolutely everything. Great characters, fast pace, great story. I cannot recommend this highly enough. Alice is having a play date for a couple of mums and her kids and Ezra breaks in to the house with a knife threatening her. As a mum she fights and kills him hitting him with a kitchen stool. Self defence against an intruder right? Oh the story is just getting started! A chain of events begins which will keep you devouring every chapter. As Alice's bewilderment grows and she fears she cannot trust anyone we are willing her on to get justice despite the awful circumstances she finds herself in. Are the police determined to convict her as a murderer? I just loved this book. Sensational writing
_. Denise x

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Very twisty read! Loved how it all came together in the end

4.5 stars

This is my first of Katherine's books but it sure won't be my last.

Where I think this excels is in its normality. I love thrillers, in fact they're probably my most read genre, but they can be a bit fanciful, because they're fiction, they're entertainment, they don't need to be real. Whereas a break-in is very possible. Ignoring the twists and turns in the book, the simple fact is a break-in can happen to anyone and does happen often, and so it's easy to put yourself in that position and that's what ramps up the thrill factor.

I loved how much Katherine focussed on the mental side of a situation like this. I can't imagine it's very easy to get over a break-in anyway, let alone a death. But I find a lot of books, TV shows, an films sort of gloss over tat, but Katherine really shows how it lingers.

Yes it is about a break-in but there's so much more going on. There's so many layers, and it's dripping in twists and turs, and yet it manages to stay on the right side of too much.

I wasn't a huge fan of any of the characters - not in the sense that they're badly written, but because they're immensely unlikeable. Alice was probably the only one that I did have some compassion for because of what she was put through, and kept being put through, with no-one believing her. She was just protecting her daughter, but it became a lot bigger than just that and she is having to wade through everything that was being thrown at her. The secondary characters are all written well and work well off of Alice, but I didn't find any of them likeable, which is good because it means I had a plethora of suspects up my sleeve, and you start to think if any of them are what they say they are.

What I found interesting was how Katherine had plotted it. Normally in books you get a bit of build-up and we get to know our characters before the thing happens. But in this, the break-in has already happened, the death has already happened, which means Katherine has had to make the rest of the book as gripping as the start, which can't have been easy.

It I told mostly from Alice's POV but there are a few others, and I can be on the fence with multiple POVs because I get confused by them easily, but they work really well here and they're really easy to follow.

My first Faulkner book but I'll definitely be looking for her others. This goes on my pile of highly enjoyable thrillers and I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Lisa Jewell, for example.