Interesting and unusual story with lots of twists and interesting characters.. A lot of story to unravel and kept me guessing.

This was an interesting and intriguing story about female friendship and whether it is healthy or controlling behaviour when one person is the dominant female in the relationship.
Grace and Anna were childhood friends and grew apart when Grace and her parents went to live in Australia. Grace had two parents whist Anna only had her father to care for her. When Grace returns to live in Clearwater with her daughter Matilda she expects the friendship with Anna to be rekindled but Anna has her own close adult friends.
When Anna doesn’t return after a night out Grace is trying to find out what happened after she had left the pub that evening. When no-one else seems concerned about Anna’s disappearance Grace reports her missing. However all is not what it seems and events unfold towards a gripping climax.
Highly recommended

Mind boggling! This is one to get your thoughts in a twist!

Five women go out for a night in the pub, only four of them return safely home. What happened to Anna? No-one seems to know. Speculation among the other mothers at the school gates is rife; Grace, her childhood friend, is out of her mind with worry and the more she tries to find out, the more she is concerned that someone isn't telling all they know. As time passes and tension racks up, something - or someone - has to give . . .

Before I start my review, I have to say that I really appreciate that the blurb doesn't give away an awful lot - just enough to pique interest! Women, as we all know, can be the best of friends but they can also be their own worst enemies. This is a story of friendships, jealousy and resentments with past and present in equal measure. Who to trust? My mind was certainly in turmoil trying to work it all out. The characterisation here is absolutely superb and the story-telling is spot on; at times I didn't even know whether to trust myself! Full of suspense and possibilities I still failed to spot the truth - full marks to the author for her very clever writing. An intricate, enigmatic read which kept my attention to the bitter end. Heidi Perks never fails to live up to my expectations and I'm happy to give this one 4.5*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

I really struggled with this book - frankly all of the characters were pretty unlikeable and certainly people I would avoid at all costs.
The pacing of the book was good but the ending you really could see coming.
Overall I felt everything about this book was average and cliched.
Sorry for such a negative review :(

Where is Anna?

That is the question on everyone's lips in this story, when she goes missing.

What follows is a thrilling and entertaining read, with well written characters, Highly recommend

This is the fourth book I’ve read by Heidi Perks, whilst it’s not my favourite of hers it’s still a twisty well paced read.
3.5 stars

I found this book to be very good, if a bit claustrophobic!
To have such a friendship as the one between Grace and Anna would be too much for me.
A very interesting story written set in a part of the world that I know well, that in itself is a trifle claustrophobic placed as it is on a promontory out in the bay from Weymouth. Living there I would imagine you would feel rather cut off from the rest of the country.
I enjoyed it and read it quickly, always a good sign.

I’d like to thank Random House UK, Cornerstone and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Whispers’ by Heidi Perks in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

From an early age Anna and Grace were best friends until Grace moved to Australia with her parents. Now, twenty-two years later, Grace is back in Clearwater expecting her friendship with Anna to continue where it left off. But although Anna has new friends and doesn’t want Grace manipulating her life any longer, Grace won’t let her forget the secret they share about what happened to Heather Kerr at Crayne’s Cliff.

‘The Whispers’ is a chilling and extremely tense psychological thriller of secrets and lies that had me gripped from page one. It had bucketloads of tension and drama, a brilliantly thought-out plot, characters that I wasn’t sure could be trusted, and so many twists and turns I couldn’t stop reading for fear of missing something. This is an exceptionally well-written thriller with a perfect ending that I thoroughly enjoyed and can wholeheartedly recommend. I can’t wait for the next one.

A MISSING WIFE. FOUR FRIENDS. WHO IS TELLING THE TRUTH?

Grace and Anna were childhood friends, they did everything together, until Graces' parents decided to emigrate to Australia, breaking the special bond that the two 17 year old girls had, now Grace has returned to their hometown of Clearwater, and wants to pick up where they left off, but Anna has made a new life for herself, made new friends and is not the same person that Grace left behind all those years ago, then Anna goes missing leaving a loving husband and a son that she adores, she wouldn't leave them of her own accord, would she??

The Whispers is a dual narrative by Anna and Grace and spans across two timelines with the girls both regularly returning to their own memories of what their childhood and teenage years were like and the secrets they have kept. I didn't much care for any of the main characters, grasping no connection at all but, as the story unfolded, I gained an understanding of them. The story is a fast paced, intense, imaginative read that keeps you second guessing right to the end, with many twists along the way which I definitely recommend.

I'd like to thank Random House UK Cornerstone and Netgalley for the approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

Heidi Perks' novels are always full of jaw-dropping twists and The Whispers is no exception. As with her other books, the story is told from multiple viewpoints and that's a massive part of the intrigue. In The Whispers we follow Grace and her childhood friend Anna. After a night out with two other friends, Anna goes missing and Grace is desperate to find her. The narrative leads you down a path where you form an opinion of the characters...but is it the right opinion?

The Whispers is another great thriller, that you won't want to put down, especially when you get to 'that' moment!

'She wasn't in love with her, it was much more than that' ... One friend out of a group of five has gone missing, where is she? Which one of the friends knows, who is telling lies?...The ultimate betrayal...
A thrilling story full of suspense, a tale with a twist. A book full of characters, none of which are likeable, that is the hook that keeps us hanging on. Brilliant.

The Whispers by @heidiperks
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Publication date: 15/04/2021
-
-
-
Childhood best friends, Grace and Anna, were inseparable until Grace moved to Australia. 19 years later and she is back in their hometown desperate to rekindle the friendship with Anna. But one evening, after a girl’s night out, Anna goes missing. Grace is beside herself with worry but the rest of the friends and Anna’s husband don’t seem to share her concern.
This was cleverly written and left me wondering who was really telling the truth throughout the story. A highly addictive and suspenseful read.
Thank you to NetGalley, @randomhouse and of course Heidi Perks for this ARC.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book.

I’ve never had an intense friendship like the ones portrayed here and this book makes me glad of that. I liked how you were led into feeling sorry for Grace for so much of the book.

Grace has returned to the English coastal town of Clearwater, where she grew up before she emigrated with her parents to Australia when she was seventeen. Now married with an eight year old daughter and her husband away working In Singapore, she is looking forward to re-connecting with Anna Robinson, her childhood best friend.

Anna’s mother left when she was five, leaving her disengaged father to bring her up. When Anna and Grace became friends at school, Anna started spending a lot of time at Grace’s house with her family, the two of them becoming as close as sisters. However, now that Grace has returned to Clearwater, she discovers Anna has moved on and has her own tightly knit group of close friends. While Anna is happy to see Grace again, she is not looking to rekindle the close friendship they once had or to talk about the events that happened in their past. But then Anna goes missing after a night out with friends and Grace feels like she is the only one concerned about her.

This is a complex tale about women’s friendships and how the closeness of them can lead to toxicity, jealousy and even obsession. The first part of the novel is mostly seen through Grace’s eyes, but is she a reliable narrator? Could she be seeing her old friendship through rose coloured glasses and Anna’s friends as controlling rather than merely supporting Anna?

In the background at the school gates, are the mothers at the primary school where Anna and Grace’s children are in the same class. At school drop-off and pick-up time they gather in clusters and watch in fascination as Anna and her friends interact with Grace, whispering about they think is going on in this drama playing out before their eyes. This was almost an incidental theme in the novel, but could have been employed more effectively to add tantalising gossip and conjecture as commentary on what appeared to be happening in the triangle that is Grace, Anna and Anna’s little group of friends.

The story is a slow burner but this allows the tension to build slowly and ramp up once we start to hear more of Anna’s voice later in the novel. It’s more of a psychological thriller than a mystery with the need to delve into the thoughts and motives of both Anna and Grace. The prologue ensures that there is always a feeling of foreboding, as we know a body will be found at the end – but just whose body will it be?

We know straight away that there's going to be a body. It's on the beach under Crayne's Cliff near the town of Clearwater and it's new year's day. To understand what happened we're going to have to go back to the previous September. Grace Goodwin has a soft Australian accent - she's lived there since her teens and now, in her mid-thirties, she's returned to her home town to live. Her husband, Graham, works in Singapore and she and her eight-year-old daughter, Matilda, might as well be in the lovely apartment she's found. Grace's best friend, Anna Robinson, is still in Clearwater and she has an eight-year-old child too. Ethan's in the class Matilda will be joining. It's perfect!

Anna's generally thought of as having a sensible head on her shoulders and she's changed a bit from the Anna Fallow Grace remembers. Grace can't help but feel a little bit resentful that Anna doesn't seem to have a lot of time to spare for her, choosing, instead, to spend it with three women to whom she's become particularly close. Nancy Simpson seems hostile to Grace: it could be that she's jealous of her and fears that she's going to disrupt the foursome. Grace is fearful that Nancy has some hold over Anna and she's determined that she'll look after her. After all, she always has done. She was the one who protected Anna when they were fourteen and another girl in their class, Heather Kerr, went missing.

In an echo from history, Anna goes missing in mid-December and Grace can't understand why her husband, Ben, seems unwilling to phone the police. Grace knows that Anna wouldn't simply leave: it's what Anna's mother did to her and she'd never do it to Ethan. The police seem reluctant to take any action - and close the case very quickly. Nancy, Rachel and Caitlyn are determined to protect Ben. What are they all hiding?

This an absolute cracker of a story. Some women's friendships can be toxic - some male friendships can be too but there seems to be a more vicious element in the female version and Heidi Perks explores this with skill and sensitivity. Her characterisation is exquisite: she captures Grace's determination and drive perfectly. Here's a woman who had the guts to move herself and her daughter from one side of the world to the other without any support from the husband who seems more interested in his job than his family. This woman has guts and she's not going to see her oldest friend taken advantage of - or worse.

The plot's superb: there's a twist which I certainly didn't see coming despite all the clues being there. It's a brilliant book and I'd like to thank the publishers for making a copy available to the Bookbag.

Anna and Grace were childhood friends but haven’t been in contact because Grace moved to Australia with her parents when they were teens. But suddenly Grace is back to this small town in England. Twenty years have passed and they all moved on. Grace wants to pick up their friendship where they left it but Anna is reluctant. She seems to avoid Anna. But one night she invites her to a night out with her other friends. Grace leaves early because she does not enjoy sharing Anna them. The next morning she learns that Anna did not return home from the Pub. And she is sure something happened and that the friends don’t tell her the truth about what happens.

When I started this book I thought I knew where the story was heading. But after a while I noticed that something was off and I became a bit irritated by Grace. Well, it turns out that nothing is like it seems and that was a nice surprise. But unfortunately there is not much happening, actually. Anna goes missing and that’s it. This is a character driven story where we are more in the heads of Anna and Grace and get some insights into their childhood friendship. But it is a slow paced story, the mystery where Anna is is short-lived and quite early on you get an idea what’s going on here. The story is OK but there is nothing here that I haven’t read somewhere else. I am pretty sure I read something similar. But the pace is so slow and there really is not much happening. So it was an OK read for me.

Big fan of Heidi’s books so was delighted to review her latest for NetGalley.

Anna and Grace grew up together and were best friends - almost as close as sisters. They were inseparable until Grace was 17 and her family moved to Australia, leaving Anna behind.
Now almost 20 years later, Anna remains in the same twin with her husband and son. She has a good group of school mum friends and life is good. Until one day when she answers a call from Anna, who tells her she is back. Back from Australia, back to join her on the school run and back in her life - why and why now? What is the secret from their past that binds them together?

I really engaged with this book and kept trying to predict where the story was going - I got everything wrong as Heidi tells her story so beautifully and draws the reader in. Another great read.

It all started when Grace returned home to Clearwater from Australia where she had been living, bringing her daughter with her. She hopes to pick up the childhood friendship she had with best friend Anna but, inevitably given the years that have passed, Anna has moved on and now has her own circle of close friends - the Gang of Four as they are known. This displeases Grace and she endeavours to inveigle herself into the clique... After a night out attended by the Gang of Four and Grace, Anna fails to return home...
And so begins a brilliant display of toxicity, jealousy, controlling behaviour, and more dysfunction you could imagine as we follow our, mostly, dislikeable cast as they play out what happened next, with a splash of "what happened in the past" thrown in for good measure.
This is a slow burn of a book granted but the slow and steady build up really works as the foundations are needed to set the scene of why things happen as they do. Even with the slower pace it is still compelling reading and had me gripped all the way through. The characters are excellent and all feel real, occasionally larger than life but never becoming caricatures. With twists and turns all the way through combined with a healthy dose of secrets, lies and duplicitous behaviour this was a good solid read that I have no hesitation in recommending for fans of the genre.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I enjoyed The Wispers, it was my first Heidi Perks novel and it won't be the last. It was super easy to read so flew through it over one weekend.
I will say though it's not your typical twisty turny thriller but more like a bit of a drama, still good but I do like a bit more shock factor.
I also felt some characters weren't executed as well as they could have been, they were introduced but sort of just there to fill spaces and it was very much the Grace and Anna show.
All in all though a very good read and story where everything was cleared up by the end leaving you with a satisfactory finish.

Having never read a book by this author the premise of the story intrigued me. Grace Goodwin has returned to her hometown of Clearwater after years of living in Australia and is hoping to pick back up her friendship with Anna Robinson where it left off when she emigrated. After the initial pleasure in seeing her one-time best friend Anna suddenly seems to cool towards her, after all it has been a long time and she now has a new set of friends that don’t seem to have much time for Grace. When Anna goes missing after a Christmas meet up Grace feels that she is the only one that is truly concerned about what has happened to her friend and that the others are keeping secrets from her. Will her digging find her friend, or will it reveal things that have been kept secret for a long time?
At first you can’t help feel sorry for Grace, her husband is working all hours in another country and the only person that she really knows doesn’t seem to want to spend time with her, making you wonder if Anna really isn’t the person she remembers. Anna’s friends seem to resent her presence and constantly find ways to exclude her or just ignore her entirely and you have to wonder why Anna is not trying to get them all to get along. And that’s the beauty of this book. The further you get into it the more you see the history between the two women and the toxic friendships you know are there are actually not the ones you think they are.
I wasn’t particularly a fan of Anna’s friend Nancy as she came across as quite controlling and the main instigator to any of the animosity towards Grace. That being said as time went on and you saw the obsessive nature of Grace then I could kind of see where she was coming from and why Anna was so desperate to avoid being alone with her. The slower pace of this book helped build the tension towards the unexpected ending that had me turning pages well into the night. The unreliability of both Anna and Grace had me questioning which version of events were true. This is a book that explores friendship and loyalty and how secrets can destroy fragile links, questions if friendships really can stand the test of time and if the past really is as rosy as we remember it to be. Now that I have discovered this author, I don’t think that The Whispers will be the last book I read by her.