Claire Allan

I often have problems with thrillers, finding belivability lessens as the plot thickens. I had none of those concerns with The Nurse by Claire Allan. This book set me on the edge of my seat from the beginning and kept me there right to the end. This is a dark, disturbing and anxiety filled read as it follows a number of perspectives, including that of the mother dealing with the disappearance of her only child, Nell.

It is soon discovered that she has been taken by a psychopath in an effort show more to show women that their bid for equality has gone too far. The story escalates as it goes on, and when the body of another woman that the same psycho took turns up, everyone realizes that they are battling against the clock. Nell is being punished for all women who, many men feel have been emasculated by the females of today.

This was the perfect fall evening book to curl up with in my cozy chair with a warm afghan. There is both food for thought and room for debate in the subject matter, especially when one read’s the author’s notes at the end of the book that state that men often feel that women use their status as the weaker sex to get away with things and that there are websites dedicated to this idea. show less

Ingrid Devlin remembers it well, that night 25 years ago when 8 year old Kelly Doherty went missing and was later found murdered. Now Ingrid is a journalist at The Chronicle in Derry and is tasked with writing an anniversary piece for the paper. However, a bit of digging makes her start to question everything she thought she knew about the case and puts her back in touch with people from her childhood who are connected with it.

I always enjoy a Claire Allan book and Ask No Questions is no show more exception. It's a gripping crime/psychological thriller which kept me guessing as much as it did Ingrid. I found it so intriguing to see how she, along with others who were children at the time, started to question their childhood memories. I'm sure we've all looked back on incidents from our childhood and realised that what we thought they meant wasn't quite accurate.

Ingrid is quite a character. She's a tenacious journalist, one who tries to keep her morals but doesn't always manage to do so in pursuit of a good story. I thought she was brave bordering on foolish most of the time but she's an excellent protagonist and one I'd love to see again in a future book. The majority of the story is told by Ingrid but there are some chapters about Declan, one of her childhood contemporaries and someone very close to the case. This narrative sharing worked really well to tell the story of then and now.

I found Ask No Questions to have quite an ominous feel to it and the author did a fantastic job at ramping up the tension and the unease. I particularly liked following Ingrid's investigations and how she went about digging into Kelly's death, and I really enjoyed the many twists and turns to the story before it reached its conclusion. show less

I've really enjoyed Claire Allan's previous books and she's one of those authors whose books I want to read without knowing very much about them. I actually think, after reading The Liar's Daughter, that she's getting better with every book.

This is the story of two women: Heidi and Ciara. Ciara is Joe McKee's daughter and Heidi is his stepdaughter. As Joe lays dying each woman feels compelled to return to help care for him, despite the fact that there is no love lost between any of them at show more all. I had a really good idea about why this was, and I wasn't wrong, but the unfolding of this dark tale of twisted relationships still moved me emotionally.

It's not an easy book to read because of the subject matter, and I imagine it wasn't an easy book to write too, but Allan has done a brilliant job at portraying not only what the women have been through but also the knock-on effects of it, of how they both felt alone and how they dealt with their inner demons.

Joe's death wasn't a natural one in the end and part of the story concentrates on what happened to him. However, the larger part focuses on how those around him dealt with his life and his death. It's such a sad story to read and I found it absolutely compelling from beginning to end.

With the exception of the odd flashback scene, almost all the action takes place in Joe's house as his family gather before his death and then deal with the aftermath. This makes for a quite claustrophobic setting, and given that there are only a few people there, almost a locked room mystery as to the nature of his death.

The Liar's Daughter is a powerful and absorbing story and a triumph for the author. show less

What a fabulous book. I inhaled it in the space of a day (all right, I was running behind with my reading but even so, it's one I just didn't want to put down).

It gets off to a blistering start with the discovery of a body during a heatwave. Elizabeth O'Loughlin is out walking her dog one morning when she discovers Clare Taylor, a woman who has been the subject of a vicious attack. Elizabeth hears Clare's last words but they don't mean a great deal to her.

We then hear from Elizabeth show more throughout the story and it's clear she has a place in the story but what is not clear is what that place is. We also hear from Rachel, one of Clare's best friends, and we follow her as she deals with the aftermath of Clare's attack amidst the mess that her own life is becoming. As the story progresses it becomes clear that there's a lot more to the attack than first thought and more women are in danger.

I found Forget Me Not to be an intense and gripping read all the way from that explosive beginning to the explosive ending. I had an inkling of some of what was to happen but not all of it and Claire Allan did a fantastic job of weaving the plot together to keep up the tension.

Hearing from the characters in the first person really puts the reader right into the heart of the action and at the end I was just turning those pages as fast as I could. It's really exciting stuff with lots of twists and turns. show less