Cleverly done but really demands your full attention as it swaps between characters and timelines a lot. I preferred The Whisper Man I think, but Alex North does this genre really well.

This is another wonderful, twisty mystery from Alex North. A story about family that is quite upsetting and disturbing at times, with the wonderful storytelling and engaging characters I have come to expect from North's novels. Highly recommended reading.

I took a bit of time to get into this story as the plot threads weren't easy for me to get in to. As the story progressed and I understood the links, I enjoyed it and was hooked.

I received an E-ARC with a request for my honest review.

This eerie thriller follows Katie Shaw, as she tries to find out why her estranged brother is missing. Soon she learns there maybe a darker reason and he may be on the run.

Meanwhile, Detective Laurence Page is investigating the murder of Alan Hobbes who lives in the half-burnt house. It is unusual case as it seems the man knew he was going be killed that night.

With the unusual circumstances, the mystery is unravelled through multiple timelines.

Will Katie find her brother? Did Alan Hobbes know he was going to be murdered?

This thriller does jump around a bit, which I found a little confusing at times. However, by the end the mystery was all revealed, and it all made sense again.

There is an underlying plot which explores the possibility that everything in life is set, and that the future can’t be changed. This was an interesting concept to hear talked about, and I kind of agree is certain cases, but not really when it comes to becoming a murderer.

I liked the strength and curiosity of Katie Shaw as she tries to find her brother, even though they have had hard times she still cares and is willing to put her life in danger.

Overall, an eerie, multiple timeline thriller where the secrets behind the half-burnt house are revealed.

The Half Burnt House is a book that requires full concentration due to the complexity of the plot, multiple timelines and cast of characters. Having read and loved both of the author's previous novels, The Whisper Man and The Shadow Friend, The Half Burnt House required more effort on my part to follow all aspects of the story. Don't get me wrong, it was an excellent read and I enjoyed it very much but it didn't have the intense scary vibe of North's two earlier novels.

The plot contained numerous superb twists and turns that kept me guessing until the end. I wondered how the various threads would connect but I needn't have worried — everything came together nicely. Lacking the spine-chilling uneasiness of The Whisper Man and The Shadow Friend, it was, nevertheless, a solid 4 star read.

I looked forward to reading another Alex North novel but the half burnt house was quite a challenging read and a couple of times I had to re read passages to make sense of the convoluted plot, And although the story is good the book is told from the different perspectives of characters and timelines so keeping them all in my head was like keeping plates spinning and even at the end I had to re read it but it was quite lacklustre.

This is the second Alex North thriller that I have read, and requested this one because I loved The Whisper Man. This does take concentration to read, it's not a quick read because it demands your attention. To try to summarise, a teenage Katie Shaw decided to spend an afternoon with her boyfriend rather than walking home with her younger brother, a decision she will always regret because that afternoon her brother was brutally attacked by Michael Hyde. Moving forward, Katie is now married to the boyfriend she spent that fateful afternoon with and she has a small daughter, Siena. Her brother, Chris, became an addict and is now missing. She last saw him two years previous when he stole from her for his habit and she reported him to the police. We also have Alan Hobbes, a retired professor of philosophy, who is found murdered hours after letting all of his staff go - as if he knew. But Hobbes is a man who lectured about determinism, that everything in life has already been decided. Then we have Detective Page who was present when Chris Shaw was attacked and now is involved in the Hobbes case not realising that there are will be links to the Shaw case. So many characters and as I said, you need to concentrate because there are flashbacks to different times and different names. But everything is cleverly written and we meet some lovely evil characters. It is intriguing to see how everything and everyone comes together. A good read.

Alex North does it again with this thriller plus a dash of supernatural. It's well plotted although confusing at times with characters dotting about in different time frames. Still a good easy read, though.

The Half Burnt House is the latest thriller by Alex North, I'm not even going to attempt to try and give any breakdown as I'm still trying to make sense of it myself. The story is told across multiple timelines with lots of characters making it a very busy read, is easily confusing and will require your full concentration. I can normally block out the noise around me whilst reading but found, with this one, that I needed total peace and quiet to get my head around it. It's an intense read which did keep me intrigued throughout, needing to know what happened, and how all these characters are linked, is what kept me going. This is the third book I've read by this author but The Whisper Man still remains my favourite read of his by far.

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

3.5 stars
I love Alex North’s books and was really looking forward to this one.
It’s a good read but does require a lot of concentration with the multiple storylines and moving from the past to the present.
I struggled at first with how the different storylines fitted together but advise you to hang in there as it does all come together in the end.
I really felt for Katie as she knows something is wrong but her husband thinks she is over reacting.
Other characters in the book are quite intriguing as there’s a book that has a big part in the story.
Overall a good read.
Thanks to Michael Joseph Penguin and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

What an absolute belter of a read. I became totally immersed in this from the start. With so many strands interwoven so beautifully, it was hard to put The Half Burnt House down.
I found this quite a thought provoking read as it made me consider the impact of past actions on the present and although I have no truck with determinism, that theme lent an intriguing twist to the plot.
With mysteries, long held secrets, uncanny happenings and human nature being unpredictable this was a read that kept me turning the pages well into the night as I savoured the dilemmas and tried to piece the fragments of clues together.
The sort of semi police procedural element worked well to pull ideas together and the coincidentals made it feel quite an edgy sort of read.
The subject matter of serial killers and twhat makes them, has always fascinated me and The Half Burnt House offered a unique more philosp[hical slant on that theme.
Thoroughly enjoyed this!

4.5 stars
We start in the past. When Katie ditched her younger brother Chris to be with her boyfriend Sam. A decision which would haunt her for the rest of her life as, without her, Chris was attacked and disfigured. Surviving physically but suffering mentally ever since. Both things contributing to their estrangement back in the present.
Until one day Katie gets a call from a cop trying to find Chris. It appears he was possibly involved in a crime. A nasty one, in which he appeared on the CCTV. Alan Hobbes, distinguished academic Professor has been brutally murdered and Chris is a strong suspect. One that Det. Laurence Page is determined to get hold of. Katie, still with Sam after all these years, is unwilling to believe the bad of her Chris. Especially when she finds out that the man who attacked Chris is now free...
Things take a bit of a strange turn when it turns out that Hobbes knew he was about to be killed - predestination or coincidence? And then there's Hobbes's obsession with all things Jack Locke - the serial killer known as The Angel Maker...?
This book was a bit of a slow burner. It is also very busy and you really do need to have your wits about you reading it as it is rather interconnected and convoluted. But your attention and patience will pay off when things really start coming together. It also gets you thinking (should you choose to read it on that level) about fate and destiny and whether choices are really choices or if they are predetermined? Is there such a thing as free will?
It's also about family and secrets and, well you know how that one goes!
All in all, a solid read that although took up a lot of my brain power, the destination was well worth the journey. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

The story involves multiple narratives where atleast two are going back and forward in time, which became confusing for me and I eventually got frustrated. At the same time as this, I also felt sometimes the writing pulled me out of the story as it would occasionally use too many descriptions similar to the stage directions you get in a play e.g. “Gets into the basket; they cover him with foul linen”. Thankfully though towards the ending the flow improved and the pace I was going through the pages picked up significantly. The dialogue was also brilliant, which along the unexpected twists made this worth a read.

I loved The Whisper Man, so I was looking forward to reading this. At the start, it looked promising with creepy scenes, police investigation and puzzling mysteries. But then it got really hard to follow what’s going on with multiple timelines and characters. Then it started talking about a serial killer from another timeline and all the characters from the period, all while switching back and forth with other timelines and characters. By halfway point I was just completely confused. Maybe this book is for smarter people but I’m not too bad with other thriller books, so I’m thinking the execution of this book wasn’t that great. I don’t know.

One good thing about this book though is that Alex North’s writing. It coveyed the creepy mysterious vibes reall well.

All in all it’s 3 stars. Thank you for the copy!

Half Burnt House by Alex North
I give this book 4 stars

Katie Shaw left her younger brother Chris alone one afternoon and he was savagely attacked. He hasn't spoken to her since.
Now a mother,she receives a call from the police.They're investigating a particularly brutal murder, in a half-ruined house,and their prime suspect is her brother .
The detective wants Katie's help finding him.But soon it becomes clear that the killer isn't finished yet…..

The author delivers a sinister and complex psychological thriller told through multiple POV’s and moving back and forth in time (so pay attention) .The characters are well drawn and the pace is perfectly plotted. Be prepared for a multi layered creepy mystery that is woven together in so many ways and will make you question everything…….guilt and trauma,revelations and deception.l particularly enjoyed the house and the serial killer Jack Lock sections.
With thanks to Netgalley,Alex North and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for my chance to read and review this book

Alex North has once again served up a twisted, and often chilling, psychological thriller that really keeps readers on edge. I can honestly say that, as I started reading, I had no idea where this story would lead. The opening scenes are somewhat misleading, quite the mundane, everyday situation - older sister fed up at having to look after younger sibling, makes one fated decision to do what she wants just for one - right up until the moment that it's not. The moment that changes their lives irreparably, but that also holds the key to what is yet to come. Although what that might be is far from obvious. Let's just say that hindsight is a wonderful thing and that there are no loose ends left by the end of the book.

Now, for me, this was a book which I had to work my way into. There are several threads to the book - the opening chapter in which Katie's makes what could be the biggest mistake of her life, the murder investigation that throws Katie's present day life into turmoil, and some scenes set in the past where we meet two brothers whose father has a somewhat disturbing pastime. It's not easy to see the connection between them, and they did, initially, seem like very separate stories. If anything, I was more caught up in the scenes from the past, having as they did, a kind of gothic edge and the kind of darkness I really enjoy in a book. But as the link between the separate stories started to become clear, and the roles that the characters of the present day play in the story are properly revealed, the more I settled into the book as a whole. I even found the pace of the book picked up, as did the sense of tension and intrigue. The second half of the book really flew by and, despite being certain I knew where the story was leading, there were still some very dark and disturbing revelations to come.

Alex North has created a perfect setting in the eponymous 'half burnt house'. I think that as a setting it would be ominous enough, quite foreboding in its size and clear grandeur. But the fact that it has lain in almost ruins for so long, that one man, the victim that Katie's brother Chris stands accused of killing, reside in such a place, confined to what can only be described as quite chilling quarters, just adds a layer of mystery and tension to the book, as well as a really chill down the spine. The more I learned of the house's history, the more unsettling the story became and, the more I became invested in the story. Yes, I am twisted, and yes, I do love the dark side of fiction.

With the majority of the story told from the perspectives of Katie and Detective Laurence Page, it is important that theses characters are compelling, that we feel a connection to them. And I did. Whilst Katie's actions did seem a little reckless at times, she is driven by guilt, the sense that she let her brother down. Whilst reluctant at first to get involved, with her mother's encouragement, she becomes invested and, as a result, so did I. Detective Page is a strangely likeable character. He has an unexpected link to Katie and her brother, and there was something about his style that I couldn't quite put my finger on, but which drew me deeper into the story. As for some of the other characters who feature throughout the book, they have the right balance of creepiness and intrigue, and I wanted to know just how, and where, they fit into the whole case.

This is a multilayered story of murder, fanaticism and revenge, one which is framed by beautifully descriptive language and the perfect tone for creating unease from the very beginning. I think for some, the slow start and the multitude of perspectives, back and forth in time, may be off-putting, but it is worth investing your time and watching the story play out. It really does start to pick up in pace and those fractured scenes that seemingly come from nowhere, start to become clear as we head towards the chilling and tension laden finale. If you've liked the author's previous work, this will be right up your street.

Unfortunately I wasn’t a fan of this book. Even though it seems the majority of people enjoyed it for me it fell down in a number of places. Firstly there are a number of storylines that are running concurrently with a vast array of characters, however it’s not always clear which timeline or storyline they belong to. Secondly I found the whole book to be quite slow. I was almost at the point of dnf but carried on but felt disappointed by the whole book. Thank you to NetGalley, Michael Joseph Penguin Random House and the author for the chance to review.

I enjoyed this book as a slightly creepy thriller, with some interesting twists. I also found the ideas of pre-determinism interesting and well explained, although it felt slightly removed from the plot and I would've liked more discussion as to the way it motivated some of the characters., particularly Jack Lock.
Thank you to netgalley and Michael Joseph for an advance copy of this book.

The Half Burnt House is the third book by Alex North and both starts and finishes well but is let down slightly in the middle which I felt was a bit meandering and confusing at times especially when with the story being told from different characters’ viewpoints.

So whilst I enjoyed books 1 and 2 this this one did not quite hit the high standards of the earlier novels but is still a good book.

The half burnt house - Alex North

Having previously read The Whisper Man and The Shadow Friend and being satisfyingly creeped out by both I was so looking forward to Alex North's new book The Half Burnt House..... and it did not let me down!

You will need to give this book your full attention as there a few different peoples POVs but it is definitely worth it, the story line was perfectly paced and kept me engaged throughout and led me to a very appealing ending. As previously mentioned I do find that this author gives me chills in his reading just the perfect amount and this book was just the same, in particular references to “The Angel Maker” and the eerie mentions of the red car sighting at the school and house! Such a great read, loved it! Thank you so much Michael Joseph & Penguin Random House for the ARC in return for my honest opinion.