Isabel Ashdown

Lake Child brings forth the question: if you can't trust your family who can you trust? It is such a good read, one that kept me reading to find out what really happened to 17 year old, Eva Olsen.

When the story begins, she's recovering from a terrible car accident. She's obviously been badly injured but she can't remember anything. Why on earth are her parents keeping her holed up in the attic room of their house, not allowing her to see her best friends, Rosa and Lars? As the story show more progresses we witness Eva slowly starting to regain some memories, trying to work out what happened the day of the accident. But she also starts to wonder if she can really trust her parents at all.

The Norwegian setting is fabulous. The cover image perfectly portrays to me the remoteness and the snowy mountains that form a backdrop to Eva's home. Her friends are her neighbours but even they are a distance away. I always enjoy remote settings in novels as they can contribute to a sense of unease, of people lurking in the shadows.

In many ways, Eva is something of an unreliable narrator. She's only seeing things from her point of view, feeling very much like things are being hidden from her and being unable to see beyond that. I liked her as a character very much and I was hoping that she would get some kind of resolution to her difficulties.

Dotted throughout her story are transcripts of interviews between Maxine Gregory and a woman who is employed to be her ghost writer for a book about Maxine's life. Whilst it's not entirely clear from the outset why the interviews are there, I really liked how the two individual strands started to intertwine and although, by the end, I'd semi-guessed some of the outcome, I thought this was such a well-plotted book. Isabel Ashdown keeps plenty of secrets up her sleeve to reveal at the last minute.

I was so impressed by the author's clever storytelling. Psychological thrillers can sometimes seem a little implausible and I didn't find that with Lake Child. In fact, I found the whole thing entirely possible. What an excellent read this is. It's suspenseful and so atmospheric, and I loved it! show less

I love a book with an unreliable narrator but this one has two for the price of one! Emily and her younger sister, Jess (only younger by less than a year) share the telling of the story, centred around the abduction of Emily's baby daughter, Daisy. Although a lot of the focus is on trying to find Daisy, the real story is that of the sisters and the rivalry and jealousy between them. I never really took to Emily but Jess I did like, and all the way through the book I never knew if what I was show more witnessing was the real Jess or not. What is really clever about Ashdown's writing is that you just don't know who to trust or who to believe and some really tight plotting has taken place to keep up the momentum and the intrigue.

The book is set on the Isle of Wight. I have holidayed there and loved it so having it as a setting was something that really appealed to me. Being an island makes it a perfect place for a story like this as the enclosed feeling ramps up the tension.

The story starts with a prologue that sets the scene, or does it? Only quite a way into the book does the prologue really fall into place and at that point there is a bombshell that I really didn't expect. And the epilogue was just perfect. Again it was unexpected but it made me feel quite satisfied.

To say any more would be to give away too much but what I can say is that this is a psychological novel of the highest order. With twists and turns galore I had a lot of trouble putting it down. I kept thinking I knew what had happened in the past and what was going to happen and then had my thoughts turned on their heads.

Little Sister is a fantastic look at family dynamics and the far-reaching consequences of secrets within those families. I absolutely loved it! show less

What an outstanding book! Atmospheric doesn't even begin to describe it; Isabel Ashdown perfectly conjured the landscape in Norway, so much so that I felt as if I should have been wearing snow boots and a padded jacket whilst reading Lake Child.

Eva's whole story is massively intriguing from the start; she's recovering from a mysterious accident and her parents have her locked in the attic. I couldn't read fast enough to find out why she was locked in the attic and to discover the mystery show more surrounding the night she was involved in a crash. Then just as the story reaches fever pitch, we are distracted by the interview of a grandmother of a missing baby in England that threw my mind into turmoil and made me put on my virtual running shoes to see how the two stories were linked. I thought I saw it coming but, with an abundance of family secrets stashed in the closet, I could only see the tip of the iceberg.

Isabel Ashdown must be part-Viking to have embraced the scandi-noir genre so expertly. I say scandi-noir but maybe this is scandi-psych as it twisted my brain into knots with the shots of intrigue and surprise being fired at me relentlessly. As chilly as the landscape is, the warmth of family and friendship shines through, excluding the dysfunctional family in England of course; they wouldn't have looked out of place on the Jeremy Kyle show, that's for sure. The contrast between the two families is portrayed excellently; they really are like chalk and cheese.

Gripping from the start, Lake Child is filled with mystery, intrigue and dark family secrets. Set against the backdrop of a cold and beautiful Norwegian landscape, it's a real ice-gripper. A highly recommended read.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion. show less

I've had my eye on Little Sister for a while so I couldn't resist picking it up to see what all the fuss was about. Yes, I expected a twisty psychological thriller but what I didn't expect was such a fast-paced dual timeline story that had me suspecting EVERYONE!! Sometimes I didn't even know which 'Little Sister' the book was named after - it really is SO good.

Emily and James have a baby daughter, Daisy. Daisy is the Little Sister of James' teenage daughter, Chloe. When Emily and James go show more out to a party to welcome in the New Year, Daisy is left in the care of Emily's Little Sister, Jess. When Emily returns home, she finds Jess collapsed on the floor and Daisy missing. As the police hunt for Daisy, we delve into the dark and dusty background of each and every member of this family, discovering more skeletons in the closet than the ghost train at the fair.

Emily and Jess have been apart for many years and have only just been reunited when Jess returned for their mother's funeral. As we look back into their past, we find such deep rooted sibling rivalry that was quite cleverly hidden. On the surface they appear to be loving sisters, but underneath...dare I say it, I think they hated each other! That was all in the past, though - wasn't it?

Meanwhile, Chloe is lying and sneaking around as she spreads her rebellious teenager wings. Could she have put her Little Sister in danger? Then we look at Emily and James - why did Emily return from the New Year's Eve party without James? What happened to James' first wife and why won't he marry Emily? So many questions with such ripe juicy answers just waiting to be plucked within the pages of Little Sister.

You seriously won't be able to put Little Sister down! I thought I had it all worked out on many an occasion, only to be proved wrong time and time again. I gave my eyes a total workout as they whizzed over the pages of this riveting book and I can't recommend it highly enough.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion. show less