There's always going to be the question of why? Why did Ryan Summers go into Three Rivers College and kill all those women before killing himself. What tipped him over the edge?
DI Birch and the team of officers certainly have their work cut out trying to get answers. There's not just shock of what Ryan did, but anger too. As the police investigate, the press are hot on their tails digging for answers.
As the story unfolds you begin to feel some of the frustrations and heartbreak the parents are going through. Not just those who lost their loved ones but Ryan's mother too. How can you live with yourself knowing what your son did? I won't say who, but one of the people in the book really got under my skin. I wanted to get between the pages and knocks their lights out. Yes this thriller really is that good. Not only would I recommend it but it gets five stars from me. This is my honest and unbiased review

I found this book to be a captivating read.

I found that the teenager was out of control and what he did in the end was to end what he did.

The emotions are run high Edinburgh in the book.

By reading from three points of views, it shows every detail from every chapter from each point of views.

This book was a very absorbing read and I would like to read this book again someday.

A moving novel that tackles a difficult subject, well explored from different angles and worth the read.
It’s DI Birch’s first day in a new role since her recent promotion and she is one of the first to arrive on campus at Three Rivers following reports of a shooting.
It’s worse than was feared - thirteen students are dead, all female and shot by a fellow student.
Why? That is the question everyone is asking. We hear different sides of the story, in particular from, from the shooters mother and from the mother of the first in victim. A particularly unpleasant journalist tries to present events from his angle and some unlikely alliances are made.
I found the book credible and easy to read. Kept me engaged to 5he end.

Oh dear. This is, I think the second time that I’ve poorly rated a book that I’ve read because of Netgalley. I did read the book to the end, and I did want to find out the ending but there were so many continuity errors that I just couldn’t quite suspend disbelief. I am sure that many readers less pendantic than I will enjoy this book and I did enjoy parts of it.
The book opens with Moira and there follows a miserable chapter about a miserable woman failing to enjoy a nice sunny day.
Chapter two, ah a new character! But, oh dear... it is DI Birch. Recently promoted and having recently bought her dream home Helen Birch is also a miserable woman.
Chapter 3, another new character, this time Ishbel who is waiting to collect her daughter from football practice. Ishbel does “not entirely approve of her daughters continuing interest in football” You’d be forgiven for thinking that her daughter Abigail was 16 and taking her GCSEs; Mum collecting her from school after an activity, that activity interfering with school work but no, it turns out that Abigail is a grown woman of 19! Ishbel enjoys passive aggressive sniping with both Abigail and her husband Aidan who is a similarly passive aggressive oaf.
The novel centres around the actions of Ryan Summers, Moira’s son as he commits the hideous crime of shooting multiple fellow students at the college he attended. I am hoping that the Scottish education system is different to the English one, because here the bulk of students at FE colleges are 16-18 rather than the 19-27 spread that the author focuses on. These are adults and yet their behaviour is infantilised by their parents, the police and the author. Having adult children of a similar age spread myself it just didn’t feel realistic at all. I think it lost some of the emotional impact because of this.
Turning to ‘the day’ itself, things start to get really silly. Ishbel is at work, for some reason the author is very evasive about what Ishbel does and when it is revealed it bears no relevance to the plot at all) and a colleague mentions that on Twitter there are reports of a shooting at the college and Ishbel panics, that is understandable but what happens next isn’t. She receives a phone call from a Dr friend at the A&E dept telling her that no victims have been brought in yet but that she should go there as it would be the best place to find out about Abigail. Even IF you can ignore the fact that no Dr would ever make such a call, especially when a major incident has been declared but the author tells us that there are 7000 students at the campus. So there is a 1 in 7000 chance that Abigail is involved yet a perfectly rational Dr suggests that a mother of a pupil drives straight to A&E. Okaaay then.
This could so easily have been made more likely if the Dr had phoned her after seeing Abigail or her name, indicating that she was involved.
The book is then largely devoted to the aftermath. This is interesting and emotional at times but ruined by the journalist covering the story. Sometimes he is referred to as a columnist but the pages that are written from his POV are displayed exactly how articles in local newspapers are displayed with hyperlinks to other relevant articles etc which is not at all like a column. As they are displayed as articles they grate as there is no way on earth that a journalist would be allowed to put such blatant opinion into the piece, accusing people of doing things etc. The tabloid press are terrible, but they are also clever enough to operate within the law and most of what he says is libellous.
On a positive note I did really enjoy how the author used Wikipedia pages, news articles, forum posts etc to break up the narrative. The comments on the news articles are brilliant and totally realistic.
The author introduces conspiracy theorists and the suggestion that Ryan was an ‘incel’ a mysoginistic group who refer to themselves as involuntarily celibate and blame women for this fact. While this has been recently found to be the reason behind a spree killing, the author doesn’t elaborate on this which is a shame.
The aftermath period of the novel is more enjoyable than the pre killing and it kept me reading to the end. While DI Birch becomes someone you a cheering on, both Moira and Ishbel remain mostly unlikeable until the final denouement. If only the author had shown the women as they were then for the entire novel.

The book opens with the reader being introduced to three women via their own voices. As one may guess, these women become entwined in the coming chapters. There has been a shooting at a local college and some students maybe hurt...... Enough said of the story as no review should give away the plot. The real interesting script of this novel is the way it covers the use of modern day media and how this dramatically effects not only the lives of those impacted by the tragic event, but also the police investigation of the case. For me the way a book concludes is always important to it's success. This novel deals with the issues well with a satisfactory conclusion drawn, even if it is not realistic or believable in the real world.

All The Hidden Truths is a depressingly timely novel about a mass shooting in a college. It delves into the lives of some of those affected - the family of the victims, the police officer heading up the investigation and the mother of the perpetrator. It asks questions like who is at fault in such an author scenario, and does so without being gratuitous in its subject matter. A really compelling read (and even more so because it was set in my home town of Edinburgh).

(Thanks to the publishers who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review)

A fascinating story of an unfortunately common occurrence in this day and age, with an in-depth look at the lives of the people left behind after the tragedy.a thoroughly good read for anyone.



All the Hidden Truths by Claire Askew

This is a book about a school shooting, a teenage boy walks into Three Rivers College and shoots 13 young women, dead. He then turns the gun on himself.

This shocking event happens at the start of All the Hidden Truths, and the remainder of the book tries to sort out the emotions and anguish surrounding the shooting as well as try to figure out why Ryan Summers was driven to do such a thing.

There are several female lead characters that play the key roles in the book:

Ishbel, Abigail's mother - Abigail was the first girl to be shot at Three Rivers College

Moira, the mother of the shooter, Ryan Summer

DI Birch, policewoman in charge of the case

They have very different roles in the book and consequently offer different aspects of the shooting. It is through these women that the story unfolds, until they finally meet at the conclusion of the book

Some of the story is told through the medium of social media such as tweets, emails or newspaper articles and it holds the press to account. It illuminates how the shooting has effected the community and in turn, how it has responded. I think this aspect adds to the edgy, harrowing feel of the book

I am not sure I would have chosen to read this book on the sunny Sunday morning, I did as it is fairly grim both in subject matter and narrative. However, it turned out to be a compelling read that I finished in one sitting.

All the Hidden truths

From the blurb, we know the subject matter of the story; a mass killing at a school campus. In this case, the setting is Edinburgh and that brings a relevance that shows how such tragedies can happen anywhere. I really enjoyed the location details and could visualise the action as it unfolded.

Claire Askew's story is a convincing exploration of motive. She's really into the psyche of each character. Whether it's a bereaved parent, a gutter press journalist, a DI with personal involvement or the mother of the killer, each twist of the tale reveals another secret. These are all ordinary people whose lives are blown apart. Every character reacts in a different way and bit by bit in a tense reveal, all the different threads of the story come together. It's very much a story about people, well plotted, gripping and I really enjoyed it.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book. I certainly wasn’t disappointed, it was a heartbreaking story for all involved. No parent wants to lose a child or be the parent of the child who done wrong. Most parents worst nightmare I would imagine, I know for me it would. It is a very well written and thought out book. Absolutely brilliant story I will be recommending.

An interesting novel examining the aftermath of a college shooting in Edinburgh by a teenage boy. The story is told from the viewpoint of the shooter's mother, the first victim's mother and the investigating detective.
A very interesting and thought provoking read - all the more so considering the author chose to set the book in the UK rather than the USA who see much more of this type of crime than us thankfully.
As a very current topic I found this captivating, honest and hard to forget and particularly liked that all three points of view were from strong female characters.
Highly recommended and thanks to Netgalley UK and publishers for ARC in exchange for honest review.

A brilliant story about a college shooting, weaving together the narratives of the police, the shooter’s mother and a victim’s mother. I couldn’t put this down. Set in Edinburgh, the novel examines why Ryan Summers shot his classmates but also suggests that people don’t always know what is going on in the lives of those supposedly closest to them.

This is a fact: Ryan Summers walked into Three Rivers College and killed thirteen women, then himself.

But no one can say why.

The question is one that cries out to be answered - by Ryan's mother, Moira; by Ishbel, the mother of Abigail, the first victim; and by DI Helen Birch, put in charge of the case on her first day at her new job. But as the tabloids and the media swarm, as the families' secrets come out, as the world searches for someone to blame... the truth seems to vanish.

A stunningly moving novel from an exciting new voice in crime, ALL THE HIDDEN TRUTHS will cause you to question your assumptions about the people you love, and reconsider how the world reacts to tragedy.

This book is a slow burner. But it builds and builds. I started by thinking hmm … it’s okay, but I’ve read better. I kept on reading it, then got caught up in it. I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. 5*

I really enjoyed this. The story tackles the real world problem of social media following a campus attack. the feelings of the characters is analysed and opened up as they deal with the effects of social media on the events after the attack. I found it a great read and a little different from many other books tackling similar topics today. I thoroughly recommend it.

Verdict: absolutely gripping from start to finish. When Ryan Summers walks into college and shoots dead 13 female students before turning his gun on himself the fallout is immense. With a fantastic cast of strong female characters we are led through the aftermath of blame and regret.

This captivating crime novel deftly balances that perfect line between moving and gripping, tackling a topical and emotive issue that has been in the headlines a lot lately. A why-dunnit rather than a who-dunnit crime novel, you see the crime and how it happened early on, then the novel explores the reason behind it.

All the Hidden Truths centers on the aftermath of a school shooting in Edinburgh, in which a teenage boy shoots and kills a number of other teenagers. There are three POVs: the mother of the perpetrator, the mother of the first victim, and the detective in charge of the investigation. Each of these characters is thoroughly developed, their motivations and the situations they find themselves in completely believable, with strong female voices that I could truly get behind.

For me a story has to tick three boxes: strong plot, character development and beautiful, lyrical prose. Claire Askew has managed to do all three, plus a fourth - she’s written a book that genuinely left me thinking about the themes and issues tackled, and how we as a society deal with the aftermath of these crimes.

An explosive and gorgeous debut. I highly recommend.

Three Rivers College is the scene of a mass shooting. Thirteen women have been killed and the shooter Ryan Summers has killed himself. D I Helen Birch has just been promoted and she is the first on the scene. The aftermath will reveal hidden secrets of two families who had lost loved ones in this terrible tragedy. So many questions and human nature always has an answer even it is wrong.
This book deals with the story of the mother of the shooter and the mother of the first victim, how they deal with the deaths of their loved ones, how they deal with the public, social media and the press and how far some will go to get that scoop. A really good read and it made me think. Could this really happen here?
I would like to thank the author Claire Askew, Holder and Stoughton books and Net.galley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for giving an honest review.

This book kept me hooked right up to the last word!
It was very well written and the story was excellent, I was gripped and needed to see how it would all end. I thought that the characters, were detailed and very strong and loved their interaction.
Five stars from me - one I would definitely recommend!

This was really boring for me. Too much descriptiveness with not much going on in the way of a story.

This is a searing and emotional journey into the lives of three people directly affected by a shooting in a college in Scotland. There is the mother of the first victim, the mother of the shooter and the detective inspector who has been assigned the case. Told from each of their perspectives, as each character struggles to understand why the crime has occurred, and how they are going to deal with the aftermath of such a tragedy. The raw emotions felt by the two mothers were almost painful to read, such is the skill of the author in the creation of these characters.
The hidden truths of the title could be indicative that no-one will ever fully understand why the tragedy occurred, but from my perspective it seemed to relate more to the role of the media in the aftermath; the pernicious way that the media (in the shape of a particularly odious reporter) shapes the way that the victims and the event is perceived by the public. It is this aspect of the book that left me thinking about the book long after I had read the last page.

My thanks go the the publishers and net galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.