The construct for this unusual and damaged protagonist, Mercy, is that of a vulnerable, strange and awkward individual living life in the dark shadows of the night, unable or reluctant to enjoy or live her life during daylight hours. Her raisin d’etre is to surreptitiously and furtively watch the lives of residents weaving her vivid imagination around their lives. A longed for friendship with another person results in an unexpected meeting with Louis who befriends her although soon exhibits a dark side that in a normal persons relationships would have rang alarm bells. The third participant in this chilling story is Nadia, struggling to manage a complex series of people and events in her life compounded by a growing sense of unease that she is being watched and under constant surveillance. A slow emergence of the background to events precipitating the strange behaviour of Mercy results in a well crafted conclusion only obvious in hindsight. Many thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

This story had a good premise and it started out intriguing and gripping. I then lost interest in the middle and the story arc ended up a little too predictable for me to stay gripped unfortunately. I wanted a little more from the characters and had lost interest by the end.

Not for me unfortunately!

I loved the author's previous book #TheRisingTide but sadly this one was not for me. The characters back stories were missing making it hard for me to get behind or invested in Mercy or understand Louis' motivations and what shaped Tapia. The 'People Watcher' element was interesting but seemed almost like a (long) filler to the main story. It was all just a little weird.

This book started off well in the prologue. I was intrigued. But then it skipped forward and was so vague I couldn’t tie it up with what I’d just read.
I read a couple of chapters but noting really happened and I wasn’t sure where it was going so I gave up I’m afraid

It’s been almost 4 years since I read The Memory Woods by Sam Lloyd and to be honest, the story still resonates in my mind, haunting me with the most complex portrayal of its protagonist. The People Watcher by the same standards is another example of phenomenal writing by the author whose central character carves a piece of your heart. Mercy Lake is a woman who has recovered from blunt trauma to her brain, with coordination and mobility issues, her vertigo hitting her at inopportune times and causing mayhem, her eyes suffering from heterochromia and to top it all her irrevocable fear of daylight leading to an invisible existence as a Night person.

Her life is Cranner’s Road is a lonely one but the simple acts of kindness she bestows on the people she watches at night give her a reason to plod thru and it is that loneliness that allows her to open up to Louis who walks in like an angel but soon becomes something more.

The story is engrossing and trust me, when I say this that you better get all your chores done before taking this up coz, no way you are gonna be happy about letting time come in between the events unfolding in Mercy Lake’s life. Sam Lloyd’s fantabulous writing captures the town and the residents that Mercy watches in all its technicolor and the nicknames adding to the charm of these people whose life Mercy intervenes in. The surprising twists and the revelations of the trauma that Mercy suffered are thru flashbacks and it takes its time to get there but the reader is made to feel the uneasiness of an explosion just waiting to happen as Louis begins to control Mercy’s action and takes it upon himself to play judge and jury.

A slow burn thriller that leaves you with goosebumps, The People Watcher is yet again a cracking page turner from Sam Lloyd.

Masterful indeed!
Many thanks to Net Galley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.

This review is published on my blog https://rainnbooks.com/, Goodreads, Amazon India, Book Bub, Medium.com, Facebook, and Twitter.

This is a story of a misfit living outside the social norms. Mercy has quite a bit of history leading up to this and when she meets Louis her life spirals out of control.
I mostly enjoyed this. It was a bit of a slow burner but it ramped up towards the end with some good twists.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

I loved The Memory Wood by Sam Lloyd so was instantly drawn to this and I wasn't disappointed. Mercy and Louis were great characters and enjoyed not knowing where this well paced story was going and how far his manipulation of Mercy's would go.

EXCERPT: 'Keira Greenaway?' demands the man.
I shake my head. 'Keira Greenaway is dead.'
He blinks, stares at me hard, decides that I'm lying. 'Keira Greenaway, I'm arresting you on the suspicion of child abduction. You do not have to say anything -'
I <i>want</i> to say something.'
He sets his jaw. 'You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defense if -'
'Don't take him back there,' I tell him. 'Please, it isn't safe.'

ABOUT 'THE PEOPLE WATCHER': 'I watch them because I think they need help.'
Mercy Lake likes to fix things. To fix people. Trapped inside during daylight hours, hostage to her phobias, she uses the cover of night to watch the people in her town. And if someone needs her help, she steps in - secretly and with compassion.
When Mercy meets Louis, her lonely, unusual life is suddenly filled with excitement. Because Louis likes intervening in other people's lives too, only he prefers a more direct - even violent - approach. As they grow closer, Mercy is enchanted but frightened by his actions. How many lines is he willing to cross? And how much is he prepared to risk?
And then there's Nadia. Nadia knows she's being watched, even if the police think differently. But with her own secrets to protect, she's not going to wait around for the watcher to make their move. She's going to stop them dead.
'Small acts of kindness are far less effective than fear'

MY THOUGHTS: This is certainly an original storyline, one that intrigued me at the beginning but had palled slightly by the end. I think it took far too long for the reason why Mercy was the way she was to come out. If that had been revealed at the beginning, I think it would have improved the outcome for me. It was made out to be some great mystery with small snippets of information being revealed throughout the storyline, and it really wasn't necessary to do it this way.

Mercy is a complex character. We know she has problems with her balance, and heterochromia iridium - which may be part of a genetic condition or may be a growth (iris nevus) or, in the case of Mercy, occur after an eye or head injury - she is prone to blackouts and has an irrational fear of daylight. She collects lives - other people's - and intervenes in them, kindly, trying to make a positive difference. I loved Mercy's kind heart, the nicknames she devised for those she watched, and had great hopes for her.

Louis was the character I had problems with. He kind of took over her life and manipulated her into doing things that she would never have considered on her own. Louis, I felt, was a little too extreme.

Having said that, the plot intrigued me, and I wanted to know just how far this couple would go. It was kind of like driving past a car wreck and not being able to not look.

I liked The People Watcher, but I didn't love it.

⭐⭐⭐.5

#ThePeopleWatcher #NetGalley

I: #samlloyd #randomhouseUK

T: @samlloydwrites @BantamPress

#contemporaryfiction #crime #mystery #thriller

THE AUTHOR: Sam Lloyd grew up in Hampshire, where he learned his love of storytelling. These days he lives in Surrey with his wife, three young sons and a dog that likes to howl.

DISCLOSURE: A huge thank you to Random House, Transworld Publishing, Bantam Press via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Rising Tide by Sam Lloyd. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Mercy was such an interesting character and it was good to see how everything tied together at the end.

Night eyes, is one of my favourite characters ever, she's weird, odd, quirky and loveable. Sam Lloyd has written another bestseller. This book is brilliant, highly addictive, completely gripping and totally unputdownable. It's deliciously dark and twisty. LOVE IT, PHENOMENAL READ.

Oh, wow! This is an excellent, riveting thriller about a young woman who has experienced severe trauma in her life and is living a new life, attempting to help others. A stranger enters her world and challenges her to think differently….. it’s so well written and had me spellbound throughout.

Thanks so much to Random House UK Transworld publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview this excellent 5* read and I wish the author every deserved success, fabulous!

For quite a bit of The People Watcher I was getting some pretty chilling vibes as if I were reading Dean Koontz or Stephen King. The People Watcher is, ultimately, a crime novel, but it carries with it antecedents of horror tinged with a suggestion of something other worldly.

It starts with a series of good deeds. Mercy Lake, a physically damaged soul, only comes out at night. A while ago Mercy suffered a traumatic brain injury which has left her with a damaged skull, poor balance and occasional black outs.

Travelling through her neighbourhood on an electric trike, with her trusty binoculars, she waits and watches and sees so much of the pain that other people go through. Then, with stealth, she sets out to give them small, anonymous, random acts of kindness. It helps her to feel that she’s doing something good to redress the cruelty in the world.

But there’s one family she watches daily and with whom she has to take special care. Ollie is just a child but he loves his visits from the woman who comes to him dressed as a fairy and who leaves him presents with the admonition that these visits are to stay a secret between them.

We learn that Mercy has previously been charged with kidnapping this child and has only recently completed a two year probationary period. She is of course, forbidden from going anywhere near Ollie and his family.

Mercy’s life isn’t full, but as long as she can see Ollie and carry out her small kindnesses, she feels she’s doing something positive in the world. Then Louis comes into her life and suddenly everything is ratcheted up a gear.

Louis rescues Mercy for the unwanted attention of some local boys and in the process he gets to know Mercy and helps and encourages her in her endeavours. But Louis is embracing Mercy’s mission perhaps a little too wholeheartedly and as she falls under his spell, she fails to ask herself who Louis is and what he wants with a damaged young woman like her.

Sam Lloyd’s writing effortlessly draws you into Mercy’s life, enjoying her night time adventures, and making you wonder about her past. The night time comes alive as we follow Mercy in her missions. This is a book that creeps up on you and takes you completely by surprise – in the best of ways.

Mercy is such a distinctive character and Louis, who travels in his classic, handsomely furnished campervan, seems made for Mercy – until he clearly isn’t. Sam Lloyd creates a breath-taking tension that makes us hold our breath as we watch Mercy and Louis’s actions change in temperature. The gradual reveal of what happened to Mercy answers some, but not all our questions and it is not until the final, shocking denouement that we understand fully what has gone before.

Verdict: This is a really propulsive, compelling read. Mercy is a great character and Sam Lloyd’s plotting is beautifully twisty, sinister and ultimately surprising. I really enjoyed this superb storytelling and beautifully put together plot.

I absolutely loved The Memory Wood by Sam Lloyd, but was unsure on The Rising Tide, HOWEVER, The People Watcher definitely had the same kinda feel as The Memory Wood, which made me one happy reader.

It’s a really unusual storyline that will dig its claws into you and make you not want to stop reading. Sam develops his characters perfectly and they all fit together like a jigsaw to enhance the creepy feel of the book. I found it incredibly exciting and will be recommending and buying a finished copy for my shelf!

I was really looking forward to reading this book and the beginning drew me in pretty quickly but the story then seemed to slow down in pace but I enjoyed the budding relationship between Mercy and Louis and finding out bit by bit about why Mercy only went out at nighttime. I was shocked to be reminded a handful of times that the story was set in England, as everything felt so American ie the names of places, the availability of 24 hour supermarket within this supposedly small town together with a convenience store with Texaco petrol station, the Cheater driving an American car which when the bonnet was damaged, could be replaced within days. The book felt like it had been written for the American market but nominally set in England to attract the UK market and for this I have deducted a star. I have also deducted a star for the rushed ending.

This was one of my most anticipated reads this month but unfortunately I just couldn't get into it.

Both the characters and the story had me intrigued from the start. I knew it was going to be a bit of a slow burn, not knowing where it was going or why Mercy was the way she is, so I did try to hold my patience and wait for the story to grip me more. But sadly, it just never did.

I just didn't find Mercy or her actions very compelling, so even the prospect of finding out what happened in her past didn't hold my interest enough. And while I liked the introduction of Louis and his darkness, I found him really underdeveloped and didn't really understand his purpose. The end was much too rushed for me, which meant the final twists felt underwhelming.

The story is definitely original and I did like the basic concept of it, but it's just one of those times that it didn't do much for me, although I'm sure many others will enjoy its dark characters and unique twists.

Another absolute smash from Sam Lloyd. I read this entire book without realised I'd already read and loved his two previous publications. The story was original, fascinating, excellently paced and brilliantly concluded. I will buy whatever Sam puts out in future.

The People Watcher by Sam Lloyd is the third book by the author and boy, is he on a roll!! Very different storylines, very twisty, a little dark and very engaging.

Mercy Lake has suffered a traumatic brain injury resulting in her living a shadow existance only leaving her home in the evening and avoiding any daylight for the past 5 years.

She watches people and tries to help them anonymously by fixing what she sees as being wrong in their life. Acting only kindly towards those she wants to help, until a chance meeting with Louis, where he suggests she could do more good by more direct, sometimes violent action citing 'small acts of kindness are far less effective than fear...'.

The story escalates and draws you in to an ending, which I didn't see coming, and that brilliantly drew all the storylines together for a breath busting climax.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an impartial review.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Another absolutely fantastic read from Sam Lloyd! This was exciting, scary, tense… an absolute page turner. Will highly recommend!

An engrossing story about a woman who plays a kind of guardian angel to people living in her town under cover of night. Ultimately the story is rather far fetched but that doesn't stop it being a very entertaining read. 3.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What an amazing read-it sort of crept up on me and grabbed me by the throat. Recommended.