Kate and Beth are twins celebrating their 40th birthday with a surprise party. They each have a 15 year old daughter, Teagan and Cally. The next day, the girls miss an important final dress rehearsal for a play and Cally is found unconscious under a bridge. It soon becomes apparent that there was more than an accident at play. The family has secrets and the novel alternates between the lead up to the fall and the aftermath afterward. It was immersive and gripping.

Having thorough enjoyed The Stolen Sisters by this author, I was excited to receive an ARC copy of this latest book. Sadly, I was not as enthralled with this title, feeling a little conflicted.
A very close family is portrayed - twin sisters Beth and Kate having daughters the same age - Tegan and Caily - all best friends. Caily has a distastrous fall and is left in a coma and suddenly there is distrust between all members of the family. Kate thinks their parents are taking sides, everyone has been keeping secrets - 40 years of closeness is suddenly ripped apart.
In order to keep the tense atmosphere the chapters are suddenly cut off and a new aspect from a different family member is cut in - this, for me, began to make the story disjointed.
Nevertheless, a good story - 3 stars for me.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Louise Jensen/HQ for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Kate and Beth are turning 40! Their families throw them a surprise party and everyone appears to have a good time. Next day Beth's daughter Tegan runs home in tears and Kate gets a call that her daughter Caily has been taken to hospital unconscious. It appears she has fallen from a bridge onto rocks below. Initial thoughts going towards foul play rather than accident.
And so begins a cracking tale full of secrets, lies and more than a healthy dose of dysfunctional behaviour as fingers start to point everywhere, as motives for who would want to harm Caily start to surface, tearing apart what, on the surface, was a solid, connected, tight-knit family...
I do love a dysfunctional family, and this one really takes the cake! Especially when it all gets a bit dangerous! Ok, so maybe it's all a bit OTT when you start to examine it, but I guess that keeps all the balls of suspects in the air for longer so that the real perpetrator is obfuscated for longest. I do admit to rolling my eyes on the odd occasion too.
But despite the story being a bit fantastical, I did have a cracking time with all the characters and their shenanigans, it was a quick read, the punchy style of writing suited the story for me, so it got on with itself very well without being too taxing.
All in all, a solid addition to an already impressive back catalogue. I do wonder what the author will serve up for next time. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Kate and Beth are identical twins, who have a surprise party for their 40th birthday. They and their children all live together on the family farm.

Soon after one of their daughters is found left for dead after an accident, after an anonymous tip off. As the investigation goes on it turns out everyone has secrets to hide, and they are perhaps not the close family they first appear.

I thought this was great. It is kind of a well tried premise so I thought I was going to guess the twist, but actually this book left me guessing till the end. I need to find more by this author as this was great!

The Fall Louise Jensen

Kate and Beth are identical twins who both had their daughters, Caily and Tegan at almost the same time. They have been together for all of their lives and their bond is almost telepathic so it is no surprise that their daughters arrange a surprise joint 40th birthday party for them.

The day after the party Caily is found comatose having fallen from a bridge and is rushed to hospital. It soon becomes apparent that Caily had not fallen but had been pushed and as the police start to investigate Tegan becomes one of the main suspects. This knowledge starts to tear the family and in particular the sisters apart. The situation is not helped when we discover that Beth, as a single parent is hopelessly in debt to a loan shark and Kate’s husband Matt, who has taken over the family farm, is struggling to keep his head above water. Despite the closeness of the two sisters, Beth cannot bring herself to tell Kate about her financial problems and as the book unfolds it becomes apparent that the family all have secrets that they are trying to hide.

The plot moves between the lead up to the fall and the fallout for all the family afterwards. This author is a master at leading you to one solution and then making you realise that you were wrong, always the sign of a good psychological thriller.

I loved this book and was also very impressed with the way the author sets out the extreme problems besetting the modern day farmer after the pandemic and also Brexit. This was not done in a preachy way but woven into the story when discussing Matt’s financial struggles.

I read this book in a couple of days and was completely thrown by the ending. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys this genre.



5 stars

Karen Deborah
Reviewer for Net galley

What a fantastic read. I’ve read this author before and always wonder if this is the time when I’ll guess the ending, no not this time. Louise Jensen really can build those plots, well written and very well constructed there are so many red herrings. Twin sisters Kate and Beth have just had a party for their 40th birthday. Their daughters Caily and Tegan are best friends and their parent live on the family farm with Kate and her husband Matt. A very close family. Or are they?

Briefly, just hours after the party Caily is found badly injured under a bridge and is rushed into hospital in a coma after an anonymous telephone calls is received. The police soon realise this was not an accident. As the investigation continues it is clear that so many people have deep secrets…

There are so many different thread to this story but they are all woven together seamlessly. It was a book of two halves, the first half was quite steady then the tension ramped up, no spoilers but lots of action! This was a great read, I was up very late finishing it, and what a shock ending. Brilliantly done.

A slow burn for me but boy did it build into a brilliant multilayered thriller with twists and turns aplenty

Kate and Beth are identical twins and have just had a surprise 40th birthday party. With all their family, friends and their children, Caily and Tegan sharing in the surprise, what happens after beggars belief.

We follow the sisters and cousins through what’s been going on in their lives and all the secrets that have been causing friction between the family.

This was an enjoyable story where the author peels back the layers slowly to solve the thriller. I did realise towards the end of the book who had done what but it didn’t take away any of the enjoyment from the story. This is a well thought out plot and I enjoyed seeing all the loose ends tied up gradually.

My thanks to HQ and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars rounded up.

At her surprise fortieth birthday party, Kate Granger feels like the luckiest woman in the world. But just hours later, her fifteen-year=old daughter, Carly, is found unconscious underneath a bridge when she should have been at school. Now, Carly lies comatose in her hospital bed, and the police don't believe it was an accident. As the investigation progresses, it soon becomes clear that not everyone in the family was where they claimed to be at the time of her fall.

Even though I felt this story dragged out and it was a little far=fetched, I still felt it worthy of 4 stars. There were so many twist and turns my head was spinning from them. With lots of secrets, and the mothers being twin sisters, their husbands, their teenage daughters, I wasn't sure who I could trust. There's also an odd subplot or two dotted around to make this read more thrilling. The characters are well developed and likable. But the too much detail at the end of the book quickly brought this book down half a star. I just felt it was full of unnecessary detail. This is a quick and easy book to read.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #HQ and the author #LouiseJensen for my ARC of #TheFall in exchange for an honest review.

Identical twins Kate and Beth are not just sisters, they are also best friends and will do anything to protect each other and their fifteen year old daughters Caily and Tegan who are best friends too. The family have organised a surprise party to celebrate them turning forty, the following day Kate's daughter Caily is in hospital in a coma after falling from a bridge but, as the police investigations get underway, it becomes clear that this was no accident...

The Fall is the latest psychological thriller by Jensen and, as I have loved all her previous work, I was excited to hear she had a new book due out. I was drawn into this story right from the prologue, it's a fast paced read with great characters that, considering they were a close knit family, were hiding a plethora of secrets between them. This is a dual timeline read, alternating between the lead up to the accident and the major fallout afterwards and is conveyed by various characters. Jensen is one of those authors that leads you to think you have it all worked out from quite early on but catches you out every single time and this one was no different, the twists just kept on coming and I was continually wrong on so many levels! Another intriguing, edge of your seat thriller with an emotional chapter that caught me offguard and I can't wait for her next book.

I'd like to thank HQ and Netgalley for the auto approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

A slow start and a bit of a slow burner. You have to hang in there with it.

Thanks to NetGalley and to the author for giving me the chance to read and review this book.

My thanks to HQ Digital for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Fall’ by Louise Jensen.

In this domestic noir/psychological thriller we are introduced to Kate Granger, who as she enjoys her surprise 40th birthday party, feels like the luckiest woman in the world. Well readers of this genre know that this feeling isn’t going to last.

Indeed, just hours later her fifteen-year-old daughter, Cally, is found unconscious underneath a bridge. She is badly injured and in a coma. The police reveal that they don’t believe it was an accident.

An investigation soon reveals discrepancies in a number of family members and friends alibis. Secrets come to light and the reader is aware of an unknown person who doesn’t want Cally to wake up. No further details to avoid spoilers.

Aside from the central mystery of Cally’s fall, there’s quite a lot going on in the novel including Kate’s parents, Mary and Patrick, who due to various external pressures are having difficulty with keeping their business, Marsh Farm, afloat.

There’s also Kate’s relationship with her twin sister, Beth, as well as the bond between Cally and Tegan, Beth’s daughter. Given Cally’s coma that is mainly explored in flashbacks to events leading up to the fall.

In her endnotes Jensen reflects that she was interested in exploring the cost of living crises in a tight knit family as well as the relationship between cousins.

As with other novels by Louise Jensen ‘The Fall’ proved a solid domestic noir/psychological thriller with short chapters and a character-focused plot that held my attention as its various secrets are expertly unravelled.

This was a slow burner which was more of a mystery than a thriller. It was a page turner as the author lured you in. I enjoyed this book which had a lot of twists and turns. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it

“Caily should be safe in the hospital but not everyone wants her to wake up. Someone is desperate to protect the truth and it isn’t just Caily’s life that’s in danger….Some secrets are worth killing for.”


100% worth every single star!

Louise Jensen knows how to get you hooked on the story. This was definitely one of those books that I didn’t want to put down. Her style of writing is addictive. The pace, the twists, the shocks, I loved it all!

The synopsis does a fabulous job of hinting at what this book is about. A young girl falls from a bridge, but this is not the only fall that is going to be brought up as the story of the girl and her family and relations is gradually teased out.

I loved what the author mentioned at the end of this book, she wanted to take a normal family and try to tear them apart and see if they could fit back together again! Did she succeed, well I think she definitely did!

Tegan and Caily are the best of friends and cousins. Their parents are twin sisters Beth and Kate. They live close to each other and the grandparents own a farm. The sense of family and the ties that bond is extremely strong. The twin connection is as well as the closeness of the cousins. Using the cost of living crisis as a way to stretch the family to the limits was a great way of testing how strong her character could become in times of crisis and adversity. Adding into the mix, a fall leaving one in a coma, the stresses of investigations and just that general feeling of one thing after another piling up. I do think the author chose a great idea and how she ran with it, or should I say, allowed her characters to run with it, made for very nerve-wracking reading.

It is good to come across a good-length book, this one is 448 pages so it gave me the chance to get to know the characters in more depth. There is a danger that a longer format can be filled with a bit too much padding, but not so in this case. It felt on point all the way through. There are things that made me sit on the edge as I tried to work out all the kinks and twists, I never got close to sussing things out by the way.

The author has taken this family and just piled onto them one thing after another. It really does show their strength but also the cracks are mounting, tempers fray and words are said. Stress, debt, illness and crime are all excellent nerve-jangling dramas for any family to deal with, having them all for one family makes for great reading.

Seeing this strong family begin to wilt and waver was particularly sad, but there was more to come. The ending of the story was a shocker and slowly all the nitty gritty bits and pieces were finally slotted into place. It made for a very sad but right feeling to finish the book.

If you like a fictional story that tests a family to its limits then this is definitely one for you. It has crime, mystery, family secrets and a threat looming over at all times. It just goes to show that you never know what goes on behind closed doors, even when those doors are close family! A fabulous book and full of tension that I would happily recommend.

Wow what a fantastic book. Just when I thought I had figured the story out it went in a totally different direction. Two cousins, close in age and ambition to twin mothers. One who married her childhood sweetheart and took over the running of the family farm, the other whose husband goes to jail. Secrets current and in the past get uncovered. This is a book that will encompass your every moment till you turn the last page.

I wanted to love this book but in the end I found it ok. So many strands that I couldn’t always work out straight away whose point of view I was reading about.

This is a good read but a bit of a slow burner.
Caily is found unconscious after a fall from a bridge and the Police are sure she was pushed.
With Caily in ICU no-one knows what really happened and her parents are desparate for her to wake up from her coma.
There’s other strands to the story and several characters are hiding secrets.
I enjoyed the book but struggled to connect with the characters a bit but I’m not sure why.
Overall a good read.
Thanks to HQ and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I wanted to enjoy this, but found it kind of boring. It was slow starting and didn't really pick up pace. The 15 year olds didn't feel like genuine 15 year olds to me. Although I did like the sister and cousin dynamics in the relationships.

I am afraid that I didn't connect well with this book. I found it overlong, and not as snappy and exciting as I hoped it would be, sorry not a good read for me.