I love Louise Candlish's previous books and felt so lucky when I got chance to read The Heights.

This is a great fast-paced thriller of a read and I loved it from page 1. We meet Ellen and Vic who have tragically lost their son, Ellen is hell bent on revenge and seeks it for the loss of her son. Her son got involved with the "wrong crowd" so to speak and Ellen wants revenge on this person.

I do not want to give too much away but the storyline is great - thought provoking and meaningful. Louise Candlish's characters are so brilliant that you feel that you are in the actual book and part of the story.

As a mom myself, I really felt for Ellen and Vic and got on board with their wanting revenge for the loss of their loved one.

Thanks to NetGalley, Louise Candlish and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for my review.

Ellen Saint is writing a novel. It's the true story of what happened when troubled teenager Kieran Watts entered her family's lives and destroyed everything she held dear.

Not having read any of the author's earlier novels, I was looking forward to getting stuck into this one. Although I thought the story was good and contained all the elements of a fantastic psychological thriller, I felt it fell a little flat. I struggled to like or connect with any of the characters, which is always something I look for in a great story.

Based around themes of love, loss and retribution, the plot was good but lacked the unexpected twists and turns I've come to expect from this genre. I wouldn't say it was predictable but it didn't make me gasp in surprise. I so much wanted to like it more than I did.

How far would you go to avenge the death of your child if you believe justice hasn’t been served?
That is the central premise of The Heights, another rollercoaster of a novel from Louise Candlish.
Ellen believes her son’s death was caused solely by the actions of his friend, Keiran, and when he only given a short sentence she takes matters into her own hands. However, a few years later, Keiran reappears, but how? She thought he was dead.
The Heights is a very clever and enjoyable book, it certainly kept me reading late into the night to finish it.
Thank you to #netgalley and #simonschusteruk for allowing me to review this ARC

This is a great domestic psychological thriller. This story has plenty of twists and turns that kept me intrigued right until the end.. I loved the complex characters so much so that I couldn’t quite decide whose side I was on, who was right and who was wrong, who was ‘good’ and who was ‘bad’. This book definitely kept me on edge right until the end.

I am a HUGE Candlish fan. After reading 'Our House' a few years ago, I have read all of her new novels ever since. (Side Note- I am beside myself waiting for the ITV series of the book next year!)
For me, none of her books have quite got to the heights of 'Our House', but 'The Heights' comes pretty close. (Pardon the pun.)
'The Heights' is a fast paced thriller, that constantly keeps the reader guessing and turning the pages, and although I did guess a few twists, it is definitely worth the read!
Candlish manages to blend plot, characters, and setting into a perfect combination, and her books are always SO different. I love how versatile a writer she is, without compromising on any components.
I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next!

The Heights was all about hate and revenge. Those two intense feelings are overtaking Ellen’s life after her son Lucas dies. She could not protect him from some undesirable companies when he was alive, so now that he’s gone she has only one thing in mind, to exact revenge on her son’s killer. She thought she had got it until two years later she casually sees the man she killed and her world spirals again into a toxic obsession of retribution that will threaten her life.

I found the premise of this one so interesting and really made me put myself on Ellen’s shoes. Would my life be consumed with the need to get payback and, in case justice was not done, would I look for it otherwise?

I thought this was more of a domestic drama than a thriller, after all it was quite a slow burn and more about the characters than the plot, but it worked perfectly. Both narrators, Ellen and Vic were very well drawn, nuanced and flawed, with their good and bad sides, making them feel like real people and much more relatable. You could understand their actions even if you didn’t condone them. It was really interesting reading the story from both sides.

The setting was great and The Heights, the apartment block of the title, was quite creepy. Ellen’s High Place Phenomenon condition added to that feeling of restlessness. Her compulsion to jump from heights was absolutely terrifying , especially when you’re not a big fan of heights.

The ending caught me by surprise with a last couple of twists I didn’t see coming and that were a startling end to this finely crafted domestic drama.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster UK for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Heights is the story of Ellen, mother to Lucas and Freya. Married to Freya's dad Justin, with Lucas' dad Vic round the corner. They work the blended family well and all parties get along.
Lucas is expected to do really well in his upcoming A levels and is hopeful to get into one of the best universities in the country. But all that gets turned upside down when he is asked to partner up with new boy Kieran. Revising is soon replaced by staying out late and taking drugs and depsite the others trying to tell Ellen it is just part of growing up, she knows something is going to go wrong.
When tragedy strikes, Ellen is left with only revenge on her mind.

This was a tense, slow-burning story. As the mum of a teenager myself I can definitely relate to Ellen's thoughts, maybe not her actions, but certainly the way she would do anything to try and protect her son and encourage his behaviour towards his future. I really enjoyed the then and now storytelling, it helped to build the tension of the story as it came together to a climactic ending!

The Heights is a book I devoured in a day. It’s a cross between a psychological thriller and a domestic drama in my view and it worked well.
Ellen Saint is mother to Lucas and Freya, she is the typical mum, she worries about them all the time and for the most part can see no wrong in them. Lucas is a top grade child he is in sixth form and getting ready to take his A Levels and he is predicted good grades, that good that a place at Oxford is on the cards that is until he is paired with the new boy, Kieran, he has come to this school as his foster parent lives here. Ellen is at her wits end as her son spirals downwards becoming moody, out all night and she believes he is taking drugs. One night she is woken to be told Lucas has been in a car accident and has died but the driver, Kieran survived. Ellen joins forces with her ex who is Lucas’s dad and she comes up with a plan that will help them all move on.
Crikey this book had twists galore, I didn’t want to out it down at all!! I thought I’d figured some parts out but no I was wrong! The ending I would never have guessed but was a fitting one when the truth is revealed.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Simon And Schuster UK for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

This is a powerful and emotive read which could be described as a psychological thriller and also a domestic drama. The book is based on a family tragedy, a teenage son from a loving family meets a boy from a foster family at school and their friendship becomes complex and ultimately ends in the loss of one of their lives.

Ellen Saint loves her children Lucas and Freya and manages to maintain a happy relationship with her ex, who is father to Lucas. When Lucas becomes a mentor at school for new student Kieron , Ellen sees her som become moody, withdrawn and reckless, becoming involved with drink and drugs and leaving his A star student days way behind him. When one fateful night the car in which Lucas and Kieron are travelling leaves the road and hurtles towards a river Ellen hears the most dreaded news a parent can imagine that her son has died. When Kieron survives the crash Ellen blames him for not saving her son and persues him and vilifies him to the press. Although he serves some time this is not enough and she plans with ex husband Vic their own revenge so they will never see him again.

Some years later Ellen is looking at a job in a high rise apartment block, much against her better judgement due to her unnerving fear of heights. She looks up and sees the man Kieron has become standing there, she cannot believe this, believing he was dead and gone.

The plot twists and turns taking narratives from Ellen, Vic and also from a journalist writing not so sympathetically about Ellen. The story is tense and exciting and builds towards a climatic reunion between the central characters and a very unexpected nail biting ending. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and the characters were well described and the reader was able to build up a picture of them from the narrator and then change their minds with the next one. Definitely recommend this book for those who enjoy a good tense thriller and also those who enjoy a family drama. Who knows what a parent would do if they felt someone had murdered their child?

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Stayed up late last night reading this - I couldn't go to sleep without knowing what really happened. Another excellent book by Louise Candlish - full of twists, anger and grief.

I was fortunate to receive an ARC of this book from Simon & Schuster and NetGalley.

This is the third book of Louise's that I have read and she is fast becoming one of my go to authors!
The Heights is an incredibly powerful book about forgiveness and revenge and morals and motherhood. Although I don't have children, I was easily able to put myself in Ellen's shoes and challenge myself as to what decisions I would make in her situation. One of my favourite sayings is there are 3 versions of the truth - yours, theirs and the truth - and this certainly applies to this book.

The book has a lot of depth. Ellen's relationship with Lucas's Dad, Vic, her current husband and her daughter all add to it. How the decisions she makes about one child ripple effect onto those around them. It was good to hear from multiple narrators and also the different formats. I also loved the references to being an adult of a certain age and not understanding how the kids speak 😂

This is a book that will keep you hooked!

I have thoroughly enjoyed this story, l have read a few books by Louise Candlish and they really are top class.
The story unfolds from each chapter and l found it hard to put this book down. If you like good domestic psychological drama look no further than Louise Candlish.
l would love to see her books dramatised for TV, The Heights was an engrossing story and very well written.

Ellen Saint is shocked to spot the once delinquent teen Kieran in London at the top of a multi million pound residential building called “The Heights”. Why? Because she thought he was dead.

This is my third book by the author (the other two being The Other Passenger and Those People, both of which I really enjoyed) and it did not disappoint! There’s something about Louise Candlish’s writing and attention to detail that, for me, makes everything seem so realistic and easy to picture. She writes a fantastic thriller from different viewpoints and it’s definitely a “just one more chapter” type of book! This book was slightly different to her others that I’ve read as it’s framed by another narrative, but for me that added to the plot. I felt really smug because I kind of guessed one of the twists (that never happens to me! 😂) but the final twist in the book left me as shocked as ever!

Thank you NetGalley for my advance copy of this book. I raced through this thrilling and exciting book, I literally couldn’t put it down! I enjoyed the change in narratives partway through the book and some of the twists and turns that happened. I would definitely recommend this book.

This is a good read.
Ellen’s son Lucas dies in an accident and she is obviously devastated by his death and blames his friend Kieran for her loss.
Two years later she visits a client in London and when she looks out of the window she sees someone familiar. Ellen is shocked as this man should not be there. She knows he is dead and was involved in his murder so how can he be there?
This is a story about revenge and hate brought on by the death of her son. The only person she can talk about this with us Vic, her ex and Lucas’ father. Vic supports her wish to punish Kieran but then we hear Vic’s side of the story, and things look slightly different to the reader.
This is a bit if a slow burner as it takes a while to get to what happened and the aftermath. It is more of a drama than a psychological thriller but I did enjoy it.
Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

The Heights by Louise Candlish
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UKUK
Publication Date: 1/9/21

No Spoilers
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Absorbing page-turner of a thriller. Well written and great characterisation - although I wanted to shake Ellen at several points, she is,after all, a grief-stricken mother and I felt I could understand her actions.
Some great twists and turns and a satisfying conclusion.

Highly recommended.

I’d like to thank the author, publisher and netgalley for providing me with this advance digital copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

My first book by this author and it certainly will not be my last. The Heights is a psychological/ family drama which I thought was fantastic. I was totally gripped by this book as we were slowly drip fed details which at times had me gasping in amazement at what was happening. A brilliant read .

This is a twisty psychological thriller with several unreliable narrators. The reader really doesn’t know who to believe right until the final page.
Ellen is mother to teenage Lucas, separated from Vic, Lucas’s father and living with her second husband and daughter as well as Lucas. Vic and Ellen seem on good terms and discuss their son constantly. Lucas is very clever and hopefully heading to Oxbridge as the novel commences.
When Lucas enters sixth form, his school buddies him up with Kieran, fostered by Prisca and it quickly becomes apparent that he is a bad influence and a sociopath who has something against Ellen.
However Ellen is mostly telling the story with interjections from a magazine article and occasional chapters written by Vic so it is difficult to know how much of this narrative to actually believe.
When something terrible happens, Ellen and Vic blame Kieran and start out on an awful quest for revenge. As the novel progresses Ellen becomes more and more unhinged, focusing all her grief and regret on Kieran.
Finally Ellen thinks she has got what she wants and life starts to move on until 4 years later when she sees her nemesis living a luxurious life in The Heights, a block of flats near where she is working. What is she going to do?
I found this to be a well constructed and clever study of revenge which was so cleverly written that it was impossible to work out what was actually going on and how it would all end
The Heights is my first Louise Candlish novel but it certainly won’t be my last. This was a dark and compelling read which had me hooked from page one.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley, Simon & Schuster and Louise Candlish for this ARC in return for my honest review. A gripping story from the opening pages, the story drew me right in. I was completely hooked by this compelling story all the way through and was completely captivated by Ellen's slow descent into manic behaviour as she tried to avenge the death of her son. A book that I'll definitely be recommending.

I was already a big fan of Louise Candlish so interested to see what her novel written during the strange year that was 2020 would have to offer.. I wasn't disappointed with this obviously darker novel which gave this reader pause for thought.

A book about a book is hard to pull off but an absolute winner when done well. Ellen Saint chose a killer title 'Saint or Sinner’ for her 'story' embarked upon in creative writing classes following a traumatic event. That event is one that despite Ellen's somewhat snobby outlook on life, will tug at the heartstrings. So often we read about those related to victims of crimes becoming obsessed with fighting a cause, Of course none of us knows how we would react in such a circumstance which is exactly why The Heights makes for such compelling reading.

In short the victim was Ellen's son Lucas, born to her and Vic Later when that relationship broke up Ellen married Justin and had a daughter, Freya, Lucas benefitted from three adults but it wasn't enough to save him from the big bad wolf of parents, the 'bad influence'

The Heights takes an unusual premise, populated by characters that are easily recognisable and pushes the reader working through the twists to examine their own stance.
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A truly compelling read.