Izzy and Tris are the perfect couple. Both are highly desirable and Tris is a well loved celebrity. Their home town of Sterndale is rocked when Tris is brutally attacked at a wedding. Whlle he is in a coma, Izzy discovers evidence that he was planning to leave her and this affects her feelings for him. The story revolves around who attacked him and why.

I was attracted to this book because of the comparisons to Broadchurch. I'm baffled by this. Where Broadchurch had characters you felt for and a real sense of a community stunned by a murder, Innocent has none of that. The characters are paper thin, defined by their status or lack of it. This should have been a tear jerker, a family torn apart by tragedy but I felt nothing. It's a readable novel, and fine to pass a couple of hours but I'll have forgotten it within the week. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book is not your usual murder mystery, and takes many unexpected turns along the way. The ending took me completely by surprise. All the characters are realistic, some we empathise with, and some not. The story is told from several angles, about the effects on a community by the attack on a celebrity. I am eagerly awaiting the next novel by Erin Kinsley!

Izzy is mother to Flora and wife of Tris, a good looking celebrity and they seem the perfect family. They attend a local wedding and during the evening Tris is found unconscious and seriously injured but who would do such a thing?
As Izzy begins to unravel bits of his life she knew nothing about she is more and more convinced he was having not one but several affairs.
Then he dies and several villagers fall under suspicion. But who disliked him that much to kill him?
This twists and turns with a final twist at the end.

In the pretty market town of Sterndale, where everyone knows everyone and their business. TV personality Tristan Hart is attending a lavish wedding at Sterndale Hall hotel with his wife Izzy and young daughter Flora.
The wedding reception is in fall swing, the Champagne is flowing. Tristan Hart is called to meet someone near the swimming pool at the hotel. The next time he is discovered with a life-threatening head injury that will change his life forever. When the Police are called, they wonder why this popular TV personality that everyone loves has been attacked in this way.
The rest of story is told in several POV’s each with their own story and what links them to the victim for the police to discover who the real culprit is and why did they want to hurt Tristan Hart.
Thank you NetGalley and Headline for a copy of Innocent by Erin Kinsley. I Have mixed feelings for this book. Don’t get me wrong this is not a bad book. I liked the premise of this story and I liked how they delved into each character and found the links between them and Tristan Hart and that he is not all that he seems. But I found it a bit slow. It wasn’t gripping enough for me. I expected more but it didn’t deliver.

So many characters to dislike, suspect, envy, suspect again and ultimately still never quite trust!
The assault of a celebrity at a lavish wedding celebration sparks an investigation that turns the lives of the rich and famous upside down and reveals all sorts of secrets and lies that they had spent years gilding over.

The premise was good and the plot kept me reading but I found both Izzy and Tris to be a bit lacking in character traits that made them believable. A shame because with a bit more depth to them as the main protagonists the book would have engendered real feelings in the reader rather than the mild interest in the outcome of the investigation that I found I had.

A dramatic crime, a host of suspects and a meticulous police investigation leads to a very satisfying crime thriller in which you’ll be questioning everyone’s innocence.
Tristan Hart’s a much-loved television superstar, a loving husband and father, good friend and perfect neighbour. So who would want to bash him over the head with a champagne bottle at a local wedding, leaving him for dead?
As the police begin to put together the clues, a picture emerges of a man with a past, a man with enemies, one who was possibly being blackmailed. Is Tristan really a blameless victim? Even his wife Izzy begins to suspect a darker side. As the police investigation gathers pace and more suspects are added to their list, we question whether the assailant be one of Tristan’s friends or neighbours, a crazed fan or someone closer to home?
Tristan might be able to tell them what happened – but what if he never recovers?
This is a gripping read! Characters, setting and the police investigation are all convincingly portrayed, the narrative is crisp, concise and even sometimes humorous, and the denouement is a surprise in all ways! A definite five-star read.

A summer wedding in a beautiful location is something quintessentially English especially if it takes place in a small market town where everyone knows everyone else. This particular occasion however, has an unexpected ending when a well known local celebrity guest is found unconscious with serious head injuries and the police are called.

The discoveries about the victim shake his friends and family to the core and no one is sure who they can trust. The police know secrets are being kept but as they work their way through the clues will the right ones be exposed to help them to solve such a serious crime?

Once again Erin Kinsey has produced a book which shows the human side of a serious crime and subsequent police investigation. The devastation of the family, the concern of their friends, and the determination of the police to discover what happened are all written in a satisfying and seemingly realistic manner and this was very enjoyable.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this thanks to NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the author's previous work. Although, to my mind, not as original as her first book it is still definitely worth a read.

A wedding should be a happy occasion but the quaint & pristine rural community of Sterndale is about to be shaken to it’s core with an assault on a celebrity citizen that they hold on a pedestal. What secrets has the charming TV presenter been hiding? The gossips in the town latch on to any crumb of scandal but a murderer in their mists is a shock to far, even for them.

This initially held a lot of promise but ultimately I was left disappointed. This was due to several factors. I became quickly disinterested in the relationship of Izzy & Tris as their life had no real spark to it. The book seemed too cluttered with characters, it could’ve done with a few less police officers as while this is more realistic, it just seemed baggy, and I was getting muddled who they were. And finally the actual guilty party was too predictable and guessing correctly didn’t really have satisfaction that it usually does.

Overall, it was a quick but unfulfilling read.

Rather disappointing and many characters a bit of a stereotype. Glossy TV presenter found dead at wedding. Everything wonderful on the surface but dig a little and everyone has a secret. Wasn't hard to guess the culprit quite early on. A bit of a stretch to compare this to the first series of 'Broadchurch'. Thanks to Netgalley for the preview.

Weddings are a great place to plot something deliciously dangerous – and a lavish summer affair in the market town of Sterndale is perfect. A local celebrity is violently assaulted and police must act quickly and decisively to discover who is responsible. But in a quiet town, everyone knows everyone else’s business – or thinks they do. It’s not long before rumours are rewritten as truths and lies spiral out of control. Who really did it? And who is willing to say anything if it means they won’t be suspected? I think this would make a great book club book, as there’s so many wonderful layers to unpick.

#Innocent #NetGalley
A good read.
The pretty market town of Sterndale is a close-knit community where everyone thinks they know everyone else. But at a lavish summer wedding a local celebrity is discovered slumped in the gardens, the victim of a violent assault that leads to a murder investigation.
As the police search for answers, suspicion and paranoia build - and the lives of the locals are turned upside down. Secrets that lurk beneath the pristine façade of Sterndale come to light as detectives close in on the truth...
Characters were ok. I feel connected with a few but not all. Although I'm sure that other readers will love those characters too.
Thanks to NetGalley and Headline for giving me an advance copy.

Sadly, there are quite a few things I really didn’t enjoy about this book. Firstly, for a thriller, in my opinion it just wasn’t enthralling in the slightest and there was no suspenseful build-up to find out ‘who dunnit’ - and worst of all, I realised at about 30% in that I actually didn’t care. When we finally got around to it, I thought the perpetrator was glaringly obvious and there were no real twists; the plot being centred around twee village gossip and a couple of side-stories that were never fully explored or closed out.

The dialogue between all of the awfully unlikeable characters felt stilted and forced and I also didn’t enjoy the author’s cringeworthy cliché attempts at highlighting wealth by name dropping Farrow and Ball paint or Fortnum and Mason tea bags at regular intervals; it just didn’t feel necessary. I did enjoy the rapid writing style and the constant switching between character perspectives but I think, without this element, it would have been unreadable and I would have struggled to finish it. I’m sure this book will have its place, but I prefer a thriller to pack more of a punch. It’s an easy read, but not one I’ll be thinking about long after I’ve put it down.

Thank you to Net Galley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book begins with a summer wedding, which quickly turns bad after one of the guests, local celebrity / tv presenter Tristan, is found beaten unconscious. Based in the small town of Sterndale, the book follows a number of characters as police try to solve the mystery of the attack, finding that there are a number of people who could possibly have a motive for the attack, which include some murky figures from the past and some seemingly innocent friends and acquaintances from the village. It also seems that Tristan may not be who he claims..

This is a great read, although I will admit that I’m biased - two of my favourite types of book are a huge sweeping family saga, or an examination of life in a small town where everyone thinks they know each other so well, but in reality there’s lots of secrets and undercurrents. This is the latter, and I think it’s a fine example of its type. The characters are decent and there’s plenty of secrets and intrigue to go round!

The story focuses on Tristan and his wife Isobel, and their friends Laura and Aidan. Each character is interesting in different ways, they’re not all given a full backstory, but I felt there were enough hints that there could have been a prequel to this book almost, focused on Laura and Aidan.

Overall this is a good read, relatively short but it’s well paced!

I quite enjoyed this book, I did find all the characters a bit confusing at first,and the pace of the book was on the slow side for me.Having said that I am an impatient reader, and so I don't think its fair to be too critical.Other more patient readers than me may enjoy the pace of the book more.It was an okay read .I hope it does well.

Like a few other reviewers, I did find the characters difficult to sort out, particularly the police personnel who did not seem to stick in my mind. The story, however, was good twisty with lots of misdirection and I loved the letter at the end.

This is a slow burn of a read that builds a story of deception and mistrust and ends with a surprising twist I didn’t expect. The characters are stunningly portrayed and not always very likeable but I did find myself being completely immersed is the lives of these people and the investigation that starts with an assault at a wedding that then turns into a murder enquiry. Plenty of secrets and surprises in this story making it pretty compulsive reading and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
My second book by Erin Kingsley and she is right up there with my favourite authors and look forward to reading more books from her in the future.
So a good solid read and one that I can highly recommend to all lovers of a good mystery.
My thanks to also NetGalley and Headline for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A 2* OK read.

Tristan is a celebrity who lives in a small village with his wife and children. It's a village full of stories and secrets and as an accident at a lavish wedding becomes murder, things start to bubble up.

I'm afraid I really struggled with this book, there were too many characters introduced very quickly, so, I struggled to remember who was who and who was married to whom. Then it just seemed to meander and I'm afraid I lost interest.

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

I was looking forward to reading Innocent after reading great reviews for Erin Kinsley’s debut novel, Found.

I was a little bit disappointed. It took me until about a third of the way through to get into the book, and there are quite a few characters that get introduced. I found this confusing at first as to who’s who, for example the police investigating the case. Also there were characters, such as the locals voicing their opinions in the cafe, that came out of nowhere - I struggled to understand the relevance of these characters to the plot, wondering what I had missed previously.

I’d guessed the ending quite early on in the book, which is unusual for me as I always try not to guess the twists when reading thrillers and mysteries, as I like to be taken on the journey as the author intended. However, in this case, it was too obvious not to realise.

Once I had got into the book, I finished it quickly, so it did keep me interested. I give this book 3 stars.

I realty enjoyed this book and found it intriguing as to where a happy family will go after such a tragedy. Tristan Hart is found unconscious at a wedding and the Police have to find out what happened which proves complicated in the beginning due to the number of guests. His wife, Izzy, feels that there is something not adding up due to her finding a second phone which she knew nothing about and here lies her issue. She begins to doubt her husband who is a TV star and wonders whether he is faithful. This concerns her for the sake of their three year old daughter and herself and finds it difficult to cope especially as her nanny is not all this seems but luckily Tristan’s parents are her rock. The story winds in a great way implicating people who turn out to be innocent and the one they were least expecting to be guilty turns out to be just that. It was a good story and I must say I did not expect the person who was responsible to be responsible. Tristan has demons in his past which do lead people down the wrong path but that is sorted out eventually. A fab book especially as I was surprised with the culprit.

Really enjoyed this book. I was hooked from the first page and it kept me guessing about what was going to happen. Great beach read or just a great book to take you away from everyday life for a little while.