Dr Richard Carter and his wife Pamela are brutally murdered by one of their daughters. Sara goes on to spend 8 years in a secure children’s unit and her sister, Shannon, is placed in foster care. Fast forward to the present and Shannon is wanting to reconnect with her sister. This book is full of clever twists and turns and Cummins has total control throughout. I really enjoyed the story being told not only from the perspectives of Sara and her friend Brinley, but also from other minor characters. Cummins deftly navigates the transition between characters and time periods.

This was such an intense, compelling and sometimes really uncomfortable read, especially in its portrayal of what can go on behind closed doors. I was gripped from beginning to end. Cummins is obviously a very accomplished thriller writer and I’m looking forward to catching up with some of her other books.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for my ARC

My first book by this author and it certainly won't be the last. This book was packed full of twists and turns, my heart broke for Sara Shannon and Brindley, they all suffered so much. I enjoyed the glimpses of the past mixed with the present. Was not expecting the end. Great book thank you for the advanced copy.

Great book which will keep you guessing to the very end, i couldn't put this book down and i look forward to reading more by this author.

Struggled a little bit to get into this but only for a chapter or two and then it was a brilliant murder mystery suspense book. 3 main characters all interweaved in each others lives in a whodunit kind of book. Really recommend.

This is a well written thriller about a woman trying to escape her past. Fiona Cummins is an accomplished writer and it shows in the way this story is cleverly woven.

Catherine is a wife and mother with a family history that she’s kept from her husband and daughter. That is until something happens to start the unravelling.

I found it a compelling read and can recommend as a strong 3* Good Read

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview.

Children that Kill - WOW

What possesses a child to kill their own parents!

1997 Shannon and Sara are totally mistreated by the Carters cannot even call them Mum and Dad but Patricia and Richard. Best friend Brinley witnesses some of the tormentments and it is so cruel.

2018 Catherine is about to be exposed to what happened all those years ago.

I really enjoyed this, it was well written and had me gripped throughout.

I would of liked to had more of Sara's side to see why she was so mental.

I couldn't work out why MP Geoffrey had been made part of the plot which could of easily been left out, I didn't really get his goings ons but there was some OMG moments.

Overall well worth a read I thought it was great.

Thank you Pan Macmillan and netgalley for the opportunity to review.

This is the first Fiona Cummins book that I’ve read and I will certainly now go back and read her previous titles. I saw this author during the lockdown #LockedUpFestival at the start of July and was struck by her humour and generous storytelling so was keen to try one of her books. And it didn’t disappoint. Not that this book is at all humorous.. It would be hard to put too much humour in a story inspired by the actions of real life child killers such as Mary Bell.

The story grabs the reader from the start. Within the first few paragraphs you know that “the grown ups are dead”, lies have been told - or rather one great big whopper - and the prologue literally ends with a bolt of lightning. It’s a great tale - past narrative interwoven with the present day as we are slowly led up to what happened way back when, and how our protagonists find themselves face to face with danger 20 years later. It wasn’t too long before the book became the proverbial page turner.

It focuses on the relationship of two young sisters (Sara aged just 10 and Shannon 12) and their neighbour/best friend Brinley, on the closeness of their relationship, on the cruelty they face within the home, on the events that occur in each household that end in death, and on the repercussions of their actions in later life.

The characters as adults each have their own demons to battle. They’ve managed to push these away with different degrees of success in the intervening years but it’s welcoming to see that they do possess the moral strength needed to face them head on when the time comes. I felt for the characters too. One has struggled to move on from the events whilst another has formed a new life albeit with eggshells constantly under foot.

The only misstep I found was a subplot involving a less than honourable politician. Perhaps interesting in the current climate but his role in the story arc, although key, could have been explained in a paragraph or two.

All in all a great read - one to recommend.

With thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC.

Sara and Shannon Carter, young children who suffer child abuse at the hands of their parents. Witnessed by their close friend Brinley; who is also dealing with her own family traumas.

One night, the Carter children sneak into their parents bedroom and stab them 14 times with a pair of scissors.

The story is told from the viewpoint Of both Sara (aka Catherine a new name) and by Brinley.

Shannon reaches out publicly wanting to reconcile with her sister who she is now estranged.
Brinley, a journalist who is also chasing them down for the next exclusive.

The book flips between present and past. The young girls, and the adults they became.
I do enjoy books written in this narrative, 2 view points, 2 points in time. It’s a good way of maintaining the suspense.

I’m conflicted in my opinion on this book - it has all the hallmarks of it being a page-Turner; but in reality I struggled with it. The descriptive writing I found inspiring - and I would read the paragraphs over, as I enjoyed the imagination and comparison.
However the plot was somewhat ok... it could’ve been better. I found there were gaps, and then those gaps were filled with poorly filled reasoning and disposable excuses, like an after thought.
There’s a couple of twists in the book, which keep you interested, but the final twist is unnecessary and I feel out in there for a jaw dropping reaction - which didn’t happen.
I must say that although I struggled with the first ‘third’ of this book; after that I became absorbed in it - and enjoyed it. Until the last 10% which then became a little ‘unbelievable and reaching’ for my liking...

This is the first Fiona Cummins book I’ve read. I will read a couple more before making a decision on whether to continue going forward

Thank you Netgalley for my free ARC book in ret n for an open and honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. The start of the story with the abuse of the girls was so real. I was angry and upset for them and didn’t care so much about the killing of the parents because I almost felt they deserved it! The way the story was written with flashbacks to the girls’ childhood was well done and not at all confusing. The only part I didn’t love was the MPs story. I’m still confused how it fitted in to the main story. I think it could easily be taken out and the story read just as well

“We rode our bikes everywhere, the Carter sisters and I. Until the murders, and then I stopped being a child and became a liar.”

With more twists than a corkscrew and a sizzlingly paced narrative, this story of murder, secrets and lies had my jaw hitting the floor like a jackhammer.

The plot is genius. A child killer, a double murder, a sister seeking reconciliation, a journalist hunting down the scoop of her life. As Cummins expertly weaves her tale, she coaxes you into making assumptions, then blows them out of the water in small explosive bursts that leave you almost speechless with disbelief. Then just when you think it’s all over, she hits you with a final twist that is utterly, utterly brilliant.

The characters are convincing and the story scarily plausible: the lies told in innocence, the misplaced loyalties, the secrets held close for two decades. And while parts of the narrative are sinister and disturbing, they are necessarily so. All the plot elements hold together beautifully to make this one of the best psychological thrillers I’ve read in years.

With thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC.

At first I thought I‘d read a very similar book before and therefore knew the ‘twist‘, so I was contemplating putting this book down. I kind of did know the twist, but this was so well-written I couldn‘t put it down.

When they were 10 and 12 Sara and Shannon‘s parents were killed by one of the sisters, following a lifetime of abuse. Secrets were hidden for years but are now coming out into the open.

We find out the current-day implications for the sisters and their former best friend Brinley, and then go back to find out what actually happened on that day so many years ago.

My only niggle is that I don't really understand the relevance of the MP to the story (other than revealing some confidential details) - that whole storyline could quite easily have been left out with the information coming from another source.

Addictive reading from start to finish. Wow- this book had me hooked and I have had to read it within a day just to know the ending. I loved the twists- so many that I really didn’t see coming despite knowing the book had some from glancing at other reviews. It felt so real, some of the story was hard to stomach. The parts explaining the girls childhood was raw and painful to read, I felt so strongly for those girls -A sign of fantastic writing from the author. I’m sure this book will be a huge success, the fact I had to stop for a minute, take a breath and think over all I had just read after finishing is a sure sign of a truly engaging read.

I have just this minute finished reading this utterly gripping, enthralling book. It's very dark and filled with the terrible things some people do to each other. But it's also so good, well written, totally compelling.

A really well-paced thriller with intriguing protagonists who are tied together by a dark shared history. Moving between two time lines, twenty years apart, we slowly learn about the Hilltop murders, the shocking case of a young girl of ten murdering her own parents in the late 1990s, leaving herself and her sister orphaned. There is some beautiful description (I loved the part about Lichtenburg scars), and the author is adept at sprinkling compelling clues to keep you turning pages.

Firstly I would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for my copy of the ebook in exchange for my honest review.

The story follows two women, Brinley Booth and Catherine Allen on their journey through life as they try to forget the horror which happened to them when they were younger.

The author grips you instantly with her brilliant suspense building and descriptive writing, each chapter leaving you hooked and the is straight away a ‘can’t put down’ read. I was completely enthralled into the story and just when I thought I had the story all figured out I found myself with a feeling of whiplash as the truth of the hilltop murders finally unfolded. I started to feel at peace thinking I finally knew the truth and then the author threw in the most unexpected curveball that left me with my mouth wide open.

This booked is definitely fuelled by lies, so many lies you will never know who you can trust.

The only problem I had with the book was the messages from the stranger, I personally feel like they were misplaced and I wonder if it would have been better to have them as a separate chapter.

The character building was fantastic, I love how each of the characters grow with you during the story, each chapter giving away a little more about them.
My favourite character was Brinley, I felt sorry for the grief she held, I loved how she didn’t care about her appearance, she was who she was like it or lump it, and I willed for the relationship between her and Lawrie to grow.
I felt sorry for Catherine, straight away I felt sorry for her and could feel that she was a warm and gentle person but I just couldn’t connect to her the way I did with Brinley, she was just to emotionally damaged.
Shannon creeped me out from her first tv appearance. It was like I could feel how evil she was, even through the pages.

A chilling and fast paced psychological thriller that had me gripped from the start. A doctor and his wife are murdered by one of their young daughters and twenty years later the secret of what truly happened comes to light. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

4.5 out of 5 stars

This book was really interesting.
I really enjoyed the small flashbacks to the night of the murders as well as seeing how the characters were now.

The book was split into parts and each part ended with its own cliffhanger. Every time I thought I guess what was going on the plot thickened.

I gave this book a five star because I still think it was an excellent piece of writing however I did take issue with the fact that the ending was almost wrapped up a bit too quickly.
In addition to that there was also a narrative in the story that didn't seem to go anywhere.
Mainly I was just disappointed that it seemed to wrap up very quickly at the end however the book was still excellent

Thank you NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the advanced copy of this book.
Well I didn't see that coming at the end- I won't give anything away.
This book was well written and gripped me from the. A difficult subject to write about but I felt Fiona did it well - child killers are not always what you want to read about but is was done with consideration.
It took me a few days to read, but that is because I am working, had I not been I suspect I would have devoured it in 1 or 1.5 days.
This is the third book I have read by Fiona Cummins and it won't be the last.. I would definitely recommend this book to add to your reading list.
When's the next one?!

Gripping, compelling, heart rending. When I finished this I had to just sit down quietly and stare at a blank wall for a bit to process it all. Phew.

What a roller coaster of a read- thank you for giving the chance to read it, and all those sleepless nights thinking about it! Starting off in 1997 with a girl running away from a deadly crime scene and being struck by lightning, this book never fails to push and pull you all over the place. Wow wow wow