Thanks for the ARC and opportunity to write a review pre publication.
Found this to be highly enjoyable if somewhat dark thriller with interesting but scary characters. Hooked form chapter one and raced through it.
Look forward to reading further books by this author.
Thanks again

This is an incredibly atmospheric thriller.

Firstly positives:

It was was very haunting
The beginning and the set up was amazing
The whole idea of Fiddlers Wood and the commune/cult was fascinating
As a character Michael Reave himself was very well written
As was Ben Parker and I wish we had seen more of him

What I disliked about it:

Heather - she was a difficult character and very unlikeable
Too much description...I think it should have be about 50 pages shorter...there was alot of unnecessary description and I think by the end it felt a bit bloated by so much build up...
There wasn't any pay off as we went along...it was all saved up for the very end...which was very rushed and jumped into ludicrous territory

What started out as an interesting and tense thriller became a B movie plot..
Which was a shame. That meant that all the build up and expectation amounted to very little and was very disappointing.

I think it needed to be less descriptive and give more of a drip of information and surprises throughout the book..but for the majority of the book we find out very little. My guesses from the very start were correct about certain things and then all of a sudden we were hit with a huge amount of information and a crazy action scene that wasn't needed.

I would have preferred it to have felt more like an investigation where we could work out the clues....but there was very little to work out until we were given all the information at once.

I think the end sequence should have happened about halfway through the book and then the rest of the book should have been about dealing with the aftermath of it....we felt like it ended just as it got really interesting.

The beginning was powerful and interesting but the middle was very bloated and then the end was OTT and became completely unbelievable. I think having that OTT in the middle and then the human consequences after would have worked much better.

Overall it is a very tense and daunting thriller but had the beginnings of a great book which was let down with too many descriptions and a B movie ending.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Okay so let me first say this is one of the creepiest books I’ve read to date (and I’ve read a lot of creepy books)!

Secondly, probably don’t read with the lights off...

Thirdly, WOW!!!

Loves it, everything about it, loved the way the plot wove together and how the secrets came out bit by bit, the twists n turns just kept coming, relentless, it was fantastic and I was kinda gutted when it was over, the twist hits you straight between the eyes all at once and you’re like woah hang on, but wait? Nope, not having it....haha!

Brilliant thriller, creepy and fast paced and just crazy in places, loved the tie in to the Grimm fairy tales (I’m a fan) and just thought it was a corker of a book!!

More please, soon, like yesterday!!!

I knew I had to read Dog Rose Dirt after loving the Ninth Rain series--it didn't disappoint! The plot kept me on the edge of my seat page after page!

I’m always on the lookout for a good serial killer book and I thought A Dark and Secret Place looked pretty intriguing. Unfortunately, I ultimately found it disappointing.

I thought the “Before” chapters about Michael’s early life were well done and I found Michael believable. Once Michael started to grow up, though, I didn’t find the Before chapters as well done. I wanted a lot more background information about the mysterious man that takes him in and the commune he starts. There is very little said about it’s purpose and motivations and it left me with a lot of questions. I also struggled with Hetahers character who was so unlikeable and unbelievable.

Overall, I found A Dark and Secret Place pretty disappointing. I really wanted to like it and was intrigued in the beginning but it was so slow I just couldn't.

For me this straddles the sweet spot between thriller and horror as we follow the story of Heather Evans, a down-on-her-luck former journalist, who returns to sort out her family home after her mother’s suicide.

Strange tokens begin to appear in the house and unsettling incidents occur as Heather stumbles across hidden correspondence between her mother and a notorious serial killer, the Red Wolf. Gradually, Heather learns that her mother had never been the person she’d thought she was but this knowledge comes at a heavy price. As a ‘new’ Red Wolf emerges, replicating the killings, can Heather help the police find the killer before it’s too late?

I loved the creepiness of this book and refused to read it except at night with dark mode on on my kindle and the light out, for maximum chills. It’s fantastically atmospheric and the character of Heather is clearly unreliable and often acts in ways you don’t approve of. Nevertheless, the author keeps you on-side.

The missing star is because so much of the action happens in a big, slightly confusing rush at the end so that you’re going “what?”, “Whaaaat??” “Wait. What?!” I think that some of this action could have been paced better to reach a slower crescendo. Overall great read 👍🏻.

Thanks to Jen Williams, Harper Collins and NetGalley for an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Heather is back in her childhood home for her mother's funeral. She discovers there is a connection between her mother and a serial killer named Red Wolf but what is the connection? And how can the murders be happening in the same way again when he is in prison? Loved the connections with Grimm fairy tales. Loved reading this book but not one to read in the dark!!!

Many thanks Net galley for letting me read this book will definitely be recommending it.

"Dog Rose Dirt" is a creepy, gruesome serial killer thriller with shades of "Silence of the Lambs". I particularly enjoyed the homage to Grimm's fairy tales.

Heather Evans returns to her home following her mother's suicide. She discovers letters between her mother and a serial killer known as The Red Wolf. When more bodies start to appear she is called in to speak to The Red Wolf (Michael Reave).

Something isn't right as small things start to appear in her mother's house, and as the truth unfolds it is far from the expected outcome.

Really great book, lots of twists and turns and would recommend.

Really well-written and quite disturbing. Not one to read just before bed time! I really enjoyed this and thought the characters were great. Highly recommended.

A great psychological thriller. A serial killer "The Red Wolf" Michael Reave serving his time in prison. More women turning up dead but possible a copycat killer. A young woman, Heather, whose life it turned upside down after her mother commits suicide. There are so many twists and turns with in this book, secrets and lies, relationships and fear. This novel has everything needed to bring the reader into Heather's world.
I'm not going into any details about the book as I would have hated to read any spoilers before I picked this book up. All I can say is read it. Once you pick it up it is very hard to put down.
Cannot wait to read more by Jen Williams

When former journalist Heather Evans returns to the house she grew up in following the death by suicide of her mother - from whom she was estranged - she discovers a shocking secret. Among her mother's belongings are a long correspondence with an imprisoned killer. Trying to discover why her conventional, emotionally withdrawn mother would be known to the notorious Red Wolf, and what could have driven her to suicide, Heather is drawn into a mystery reaching back to before her own birth.

Strangely, this is the second 'journalist returns to their childhood home after the death of a parent and uncovers a serial killer' thriller I've read recently: does the herald the beginning of a weirdly specific trend?!

Dark and scary with twists and turns that keep you guessing right to the end. My thanks to net galley the publisher and the author for an advance copy in return for an honest review.

A great, twisty and compelling serial killer thriller. I thought it was quite slow to start, but as the story got deeper and creepier, I was fully invested. The conclusion was heart-poundingly tense, and the revelations were unexpected and satisfying. I really enjoyed it.

If I were asked to describe this book in only two words it would be pitch black. Treading a fine line between thriller and horror this is not a book for the faint of heart as it touches on themes of child and animal abuse as well as the crimes of at least one ritualistic serial killer.
It is vicious, dark, creepy as all hell and very, very good.

Following the death of her mother Heather realises that she may be linked to the original serial killer, and could be the key to unlocking the identity of the copycat.Set in the present day as Heather visits Michael Reave in prison she starts to investigate the link between her mother and the killer, the chapters are interspersed with flashbacks to Michael's past. This cleverly creates a narrative that made me unsure whether Heather was being set up as a victim, whether she was being used as bait or whether she knew more than she was revealing. This uneasy feeling was only heightened by the references too original fairy tales and folklore. When Heather unearths a connection to a commune with strange ideas about the local woodland the story really picks up pace as she travels to investigate the area and interview some of the people involved. This leads to some incredibly creepy and atmospheric moments that had me frantically turning the pages to see what would happen next. Whilst by this point I had my suspicions there were plenty of shocks and surprises that kept me utterly engrossed.

If I had any gripes about the book it is that there was insufficient explanation for the twisted ringmaster running the show, and I would have liked to have understood more about the commune.

My thanks go to the publishers and NetGalley for the advance copy in return for an honest review.

Scared me, kept me riveted to the end—even though I read a lot of it 'through my fingers'. The writing style is perfect for the book, and worked so well.
Thank you for the Arc.

Written in a quite lovely dark style that gives a great atmosphere to quite an awful series of crimes, this was a book that I really enjoyed. I understand that this was the authors first departure in to this genre and I have followed her already on Good Reads and Amazon.

Not for the fainthearted but a good well structured dark thriller!

Heather Evans left home at the age of 16 and her relationship with her mother has been strained ever since but she has to return to her childhood home when her mother commits suicide. As she is packing up the house contents, she finds an old tin containing letters written to Michael Reeve since from before she was born. Reeve, known as Red Wolf, is serving a life prison sentence for murder and Heather manages to arrange a visit to talk about his relationship with her mother.

Over various visits, she starts to realise that she didn't really know her mother at all but she also starts to notice signs that she is being followed and somebody is getting into the house.

Her curiosity gets the better of her and she starts digging deeper into her mothers past which leads her back to where her mother lived in a commune - but finding out the truth may not be all she was expecting.

A great story line although a little slow at times with a few twists and turns to keep you guessing.

The blurb for this one sounded right up my street and there were some very disturbing and shocking moments throughout the storyline but it was very difficult to engage with the characters especially Heather and I did struggle to keep with it.
Not really for me and I think it will be one of those “marmite” books after reading other reviews.

A thriller with more than a small splash of horror, Dog Rose Dirt is the story of Heather Evans and her reluctant return to her home village following her mother's suicide. Heather always had a strange relationship with her mother, so feels uncomfortable returning to the house where she grew up to arrange the funeral and sort through her mother's things.

Whilst looking through the house, Heather finds a box full of letters - sent over the course of many years - which she soon realises are from the notorious serial killer, Michael Reave, aka the Red Wolf, who has been in prison for 20 years for the brutal murder of women - which he has always denied.

Why was her mother in such close contact with the Red Wolf? and why did she kill herself, leaving behind such a mysterious note? Soon Heather becomes embroiled in her mother's past, and - when copy cat murders begin to take place - she finds herself face to face with the Red Wolf in prison, trying to help the police and find out more about his connection to her mother.

Dog Rose Dirt is an immersive, scary, gruesome read which had me shocked, disturbed, and racing to finish it and find out what was going on. It did get a little overboard by the end - and I really couldn't understand why Heather didn't seem to find anything scary herself until so late on in the story! but it was a very entertaining thriller.

I would like to give the book 3.5 stars out of 5.