Thank you for the ARC
A good read, but a little disjointed. Kept me guessing.
Recommended - but I only want to give it 3.5 stars due to it being disjointed!

Sorry to say I didn't really enjoy this one. The prologue didn't really make sense to the rest of the story and it was very disjointed, and then the crossword clues were quite grating.

A really good read
Will keep you guessing right up to the end
Would highly recommend this
A book you will not want to put down
Thanks NetGalley

Told by Amandas POV , it has short chapters. I didnt connect with Amanda. I found her to be unlikeable. I found it to be very slow. What I did like was how there was a crossword involved. I havent come across that element before.

This book has a palpable tension that keeps the pages turning…..simply brilliant… I had to finish this marvelous thriller in one sitting! Taut and incredibly suspenseful, every moment is perfectly crafted to keep me wanting more. An engrossing, spine-tingling read!

Nobody can send a shiver down your spine quite like thriller writer Diana Wilkinson and she chills her readers once again with her latest novel, One Down.

Crosswords are meant to be relaxing – they are certainly not meant to announce the date, time and location of your murder, but that is precisely what happens to Amanda, who cannot believe her eyes when she realises that all the clues in the day’s crossword point to her assassination at midday! Amanda is sure that somebody wants to kill her, but who could it be? The clues all point to her estranged husband Nathan, who is a crossword-setter by profession. But surely he wouldn’t be so obvious – or would he? Is Nathan going to exact one final act of revenge? Or could her potential killer be someone far closer to home?

As Amanda bolts the door and hunkers down in her home, she tries to do her utmost to protect herself and begins to count the seconds till midday. She has nobody she can call and nobody to rely on – and besides who would believe her? With the lady on the ground floor having left the building and her new boyfriend away on holiday, Amanda is all on her own. Is she about to get murdered in her own home? Or do further shocks and surprises await her?

Clever, claustrophobic and unsettling, Diana Wilkinson’s One Down is like no other thriller I’ve ever read before. As an devoted reader of the genre, I loved the ingenious and unusual set up in One Down and my heart was in my throat the whole time as I found myself completely consumed by this tense and terrifying chiller.

In an overcrowded genre, Diana Wilkinson stands head and shoulders above many of her peers and with One Down she continues to prove to be an original and intelligent voice in the psychological thriller world.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
What a good and creative read. The use of the crossword puzzles kept me hooked. I liked Amanda, the main character. I’ve read other books by this author and always enjoyed them.

This is a book that intrigued me from the very cover. I’ve read a few books by Wilkinson now and this is high on the list. This is an author who knows how to deliver.

This has been an interesting read, unique to others I’ve read. This has been fascinating to read and one I was unwilling to put down.

Amanda has been an interesting character, convinced crossword puzzles are aimed at her. On times this has felt quite claustrophobic and I’ve wanted to give her a big cwtch.

Amanda is quite unreliable. Yet it makes for great reading. There is tension and suspense which really adds an element to this book. Amanda’s flashbacks allow us to see exactly what ex husband Nathan is truly like.

This is gripping, full of tension and suspense. I cannot wait to read more by this author.

An absolute must for the TBR.

Trigger warnings: rape, loss of a child, infidelity, alcoholism

Amanda is obsessed with doing crosswords and discovers that someone is threatening to kill her through the clues. Unsure if it's her ex-husband or someone else, each day and each clue, set her more and more on edge.

A great read that kept me turning in the pages.

I had a hard time connecting with this one. Amanda was selfish and Edward just didn’t seem to care at all. I just couldn’t seem to really get into this one. But the writing was decent I just couldn’t connect with story line and characters.

An interesting thriller where a woman is convinced her crossword creator ex-husband is threatening her with crossword clues that hint at her death. But she is a less than reliable narrator as she struggles with her sobriety. The book taught me a bit about solving crosswords and that was a bonus.

"One Down" by Diana Wilkinson is very unique book. This book's themes involve solving cryptic crosswords puzzles and murder, two things I have never seen paired together this way in a novel. I enjoyed this book immensely and will be checking out other books from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

One Down is my first read from the author and absolutely isn't my last trial. The storyline kinda complicated with all crosswords and riddles as the main clues from daily banter until the investigation clues. I appreciate the unique plot and actually will mesmerized readers who love this kind of suspens.

I found this style isn't my cup of tea. I am feel lost at middle the information and sadly can't feel any connection with all PoV. I will try her another work for sure.

Thank you Netgalley and Boldwood Books for provided my copy. All my thoughts and opinions are my own.

Well deserved fove stars!!
My favourite thing about this book was its incredibly clever and unique plot. Solvong a crossword puzzle revealing your murder...It was fantastic.
This is my perfect kind of book, where you don't trust anyone and question everyone's motives..while gradually everything falls into place, and not the way you expect. Full of twists to keep you on your toes, I also found it pretty eerie.

I liked the sound of this. But sadly I found the beginning of this really slow. It spent a long time going not very far. Which I found really disappointing. It sounded really good but sadly didn't deliver for me. Which is a.shame. but you may enjoy this.

Amanda is a bit of an alcoholic and we know something has happened in the past year that has caused her and her husband to split. She has become a bit of a recluse and hardly wants to go out but there is a light at the end of the tunnel when she starts to get feeling and develop a relationship with her neighbour Edward. Her ex is one of the cruciverbalist (someone who makes crossword puzzles) for the local paper and it appears that he is speaking to Amanda through the puzzle, as some of the clues are really cutting, then the puzzles basically spells out that something is going to happen on May Third.

We are treated to a past an present story, though sometimes it wasn't obvious what time frame we were in initially,  I loved the premiss that Amanda is being targeted through the weekly crossword puzzle, and the story but what made it hard to read or rather why it took me a while to get through the book was the overly flouncy and long winded words, in hindsight after reading and finishing the book I can see why this was done it just didn't make an enjoyable read to me in the respect.

Overall it was interesting read and I honestly got it all wrong as to who had it in for Amanda! So that was nice little twist to the tale.

4 stars

Cryptic puzzles and psychological thrillers are two of my favourite things to keep my brain busy, so this was the perfect combination for me.

It's my first read by Wilkinson and certainly not my last. I flew through the book in an afternoon, I couldn't get enough of it. Cleverly plotted, with the authors own love of cryptic crosswords clearly evident.

Flowing along at a steady pace the story is told from several POV in past and present format. It has plenty of twists to throw you off kilter and an ending that, as always, I didn't see coming.

One Down is a compelling, twisty psychological thriller that I would definitely recommend.

Many thanks to Rachel's Random Resources for my tour spot.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was such an intriguing book with an unusual plot. Amanda's ex-husband, a cruciverbalist (someone who writes cryptic crosswords!), has been sending Amanda threats through the daily crossword puzzle....or has he? Just about everyone is a suspect in this story and I loved how it unfolds with scattered clues throughout. I learnt a lot of new words in this book and I found it very clever how the clues worked both in cryptic crosswords as I never knew before and also within this book. The author has obviously done a lot of research to make this book work so well.

This novel wasn't really my jam! I was slightly intrigued but wasn't racing to find out what was going to happen! Thank you to Netgalley & the author for the opportunity to read this novel for an honest review!!!

Amanda lives in Flat C in a 3-flat home called Silver Birch. Her husband, Nathan, left her some months ago. Amanda has long had a problem with alcohol and has tried to kick it.

Nathan is a puzzle setter at the “London Echo” newspaper. He is the one that got Amanda hooked on crossword puzzles. Now, when she works them each day, she feels that Nathan is trying to tell her something and she knows she’s in danger.

I found this book to be repetitive and bordering on being boring. Some fancy wording in the beginning had me rolling my eyes. As much as I enjoy puzzles, crossword puzzles included, I didn’t find these puzzles interesting. Amanda is a rather pathetic person and Nathan is a bully. In defense of the crossword puzzles, I did later learn that these puzzles differ in the US and the UK, so as an American, I see why why I was confused. My first book by this author and I would like to try reading another sometime as, hopefully. my reaction to this book was a fluke. Sorry.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.