This story centres around the question: why? Why was Sarah Hopewell murdered, and why did Bradley Stanfeld do it (after all, he’s been convicted and in jail), but why does he keep denying killing Sarah, while at the same time admitting to a handful of other murders? And why now, after fifteen years, did he agree to tell Sarah’s younger sister where he left the bodies? Why is the family not talking about Robert, the brother?
A lot of unanswered questions and there are even more secrets. The tension builds up with every page, every twist and turn, everything we learn and even more, everything that we do not know yet. This one would do very well as a mini-series too. I can hardly believe it is a debut and I’m very much looking forward to reading more of this outstanding author.
Thanks to Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for this review copy.

The unnamed narrator is the sister of Sarah, the popular, outgoing sister who the MC looked up to as a child. As an adult, the narrator/true crime reporter interviews Bradley Stanfield, a serial killer and the presumed murderer of her sister. In true Silence of the Lambs fashion, he toys with her, offering up information if she will visit him on consecutive days.

But there's a twist (you knew that was coming !) With the serial killer in jail, bodies of women who look just like Sarah are surfacing in Golden State Park. Did the police get it wrong? Is Sarah's killer still out there? And why is Stanfield intimating she should dig deeper, while her family says leave it alone? The final reveal will answer all of your questions.

Thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for this interesting debut novel from Charlotte Roddy.

Wow ! This was such fun read. I loved it from beginning to end. It was totally addictive. With the different parts of the book, the transcripts, the journals, the media's articles. It was all so engaging.

The story hooked me from the start and with Roddy's writing had me flipping those pages like none other. Let me tell you once you start you won't stop until you finish. The twists and turns in this book are non stopped, I cannot believe this is a debut. There was some predictability but honestly the way it was done ended being unpredictable, if that makes sense 🤣

The characters were great, well developed, you got all the insight on why they did the things they did. All super flawed which I adore.

The ending, what the F*... it is completely mind blowing and utterly unexpected. It was so well done!! Although some might find it too much, for me it was AMAZING, very well done!!

If you're looking for a fast paced, thrilling, non stop twist and turns type of psychological thriller DO NOT MISS OUT !

A Sorrow Called Sarah by Charlotte Roddy was Soooo good I ended up reading it to the very early hours of the morning. This was an excellent thriller and a great page turner, that will have you hooked from the very beginning especially as it was full of great twists and turns throughout and will have you sitting on the edge of your seat!
One of the best books I have read this year.

I highly recommend this book especially as Charlotte is a new author and what an excellent first book A Sorrow called Sarah was.

I loved this book cover - very clever.

Big Thank you Netgalley, BooksGoSocial the publisher and the author for a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was an amazing book, starting off strong right from the beginning. It was well-written with a story I was invested in--and a main character I was intrigued by. However, I have a love-hate relationship with twists, and while I did manage to correctly guess some of the ending Roddy laid out, I thought the rest was too complicated and wasn't as much of a genuine twist as it was a few...weaving twists? (I'm trying not to say tornado or twister, here.) I'd still highly recommend it, if just to see what others think about the ending. I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

🗯️ "Monsters should have to pay for their sins."

FMC is a crime reporter who wants to locate the body of her big sister, who went missing 15 years ago. She starts by interviewing the serial killer who was convicted for the death but quickly discovers she needs to be interviewing the people closest to her if she wants answers, because nobody has been honest.

This is one of those types of thrillers where you 1. could try guessing the whole time what is going to happen, or 2. sit back and just enjoy the rollercoaster of a ride the author takes you on, and you'd enjoy the book either way you approach it. My brain was working overtime trying to figure out the twists before they happened; when I thought I had something solved I was only halfway right because there'd be another twist piggybacking off that one.

With fairly short chapters, flashbacks, and newspaper articles about the second serial killer at large this was really easy to digest and picked up momentum with every revelation.

Our FMC (and unreliable narrator) is never named, which I thought was genius since the whole novel is about her living in the wake and shadow of Sarah. Keeping the MC nameless emphasizes her own belief Sarah is more important.

I loved this book and it being a debut makes it that much more impressive to me. If you enjoy psychological domestic thrillers, dark family secrets and sleuthing don't miss this one.

Everybody loves Sarah! Sarah Hopewell, the golden child, her parents' favorite, popular, smart, etcetera etcetera… and then, Sarah is gone… the victim of a serial killer. It’s 15 years after her death and now we focus on Sarah's sister who is a journalist and to this day, is tormented by the mystery of her sister’s death. Her greatest desire is to locate her sister’s body in order to bring closure. Thus, she begins visiting the prison housing the serial killer convicted of her death. As she digs for information, she learns her sister was not what she appeared to be on the surface. No Sarah was a bit of a bad girl type. Weirdly, now someone else is currently murdering women who happen to look like Sarah.

This is a intricate story filled with twists and turns of the two parallel mysteries. One, what happened to Sarah's body and two, who is currently killing women and dumping them in Golden Gate Park?

Reading her interviews with the killer Bradley Stanfield felt like the Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lector scenario. Her,(she remains unnamed throughout the book), father is a retired police officer, and urges his daughter to stop digging into Sarah’s disappearance. She can’t, she has a strong compulsion to find out what happened before she gets married. Bradley denies killing Sarah and tells her to talk to the police officer that handled the case. She doesn’t want to believe Bradley but now more women with long black hair and blue eyes are turning up dead in Golden State park, so she begins her own investigation and what she finds is shocking!

The resolution of the two mysteries came so fast and furious I could hardly wrap my head around it all.

This is a marvelous debut novel. Get ready to be shocked by the ending.

A Sorrow Called Sarah by Charlotte Roddy is a gritty, dark psychological thriller.
Set in contemporary San Francisco, a city I know well, it grabbed my attention with powerful early chapters, and the rich, complicated POV of Sarah’s sister, a true crime reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.
Sarah has been missing for 15 years, a serial killer is on death row for multiple homicides, including presumably Sarah’s, and her sister wins a series of interviews with the manipulative prisoner to dissect and reveal each one of the murders. But there is more, as another series of victims is being discovered in Golden Gate Park right now, and they all have dark hair and blue eyes, like Sarah!
Thus this story takes off, revealing, in 5 parts with short, staccato chapters, details of the past events, present murders and the major players—Sarah’s sister, her brother Robert, her SF police detective father Patrick, his one-time partner Detective Hayes, and the sister’s fiancé, William.
The characters are well fleshed out in past and present, and the twists unfold in surprising ways!
I really enjoyed the descriptive writing and skillful use of metaphors to illustrate everyday situations and memories.
No spoilers here—this book is so skillfully written and plotted that it makes for an immersive, edge-of-your-seat read, and a stunning debut novel!
I highly recommend this to readers looking for intelligent, if dark, storylines with strong character development. I look forward to more works of suspense from this promising author!!

Thank you to Charles Port Press and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

This is a case of a good book, wrong reader, and I know I’m the outlier in rating this book in the three star category. I like twisty, psychological thrillers, and as other reviewers have mentioned this book is that.

The story begins when the FMC, a true crime journalist by trade, begins looking into the murder of her older sister. She meets with the convicted killer and discovers that everything she thought she knew could be wrong. The unfolding narrative requires that she investigate nearly everyone she knows, including her own family.

It’s a debut novel, so some of the dialogue does feel forced, but that wasn’t the reason this one didn’t totally win me over. I’m intrigued by serial-killer stories and amateur detective stories. But for some reason, I don’t love when the serial killer has a voice. That said, I recognize how essential the serial killer’s voice was to this novel. The intermittent journal-type entries written from the killer’s perspective gave me Silence of the Lamb vibes that I’m sure most thriller readers will love.

A Sorrow Called Sarah was a three and a half for me and a novel I’d recommend to readers who love Peter Swanson, Taylor Adams, or Verity. If you’re looking for a dark narrative with a clever plot, A Sorrow Called Sarah is worth looking into. Readers of this one need to make sure to read it all the way to the end, because the twists do not stop. I expect to hear more buzz on Charlotte Roddy’s novels in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and Books Go Social for the DRC.

As a debut novel by Roddy, I am super impressed. I am into thriller and crime stories, so this was right up my street. From the start, you are made aware that the narrator's (whose name we never learn and makes me wonder if the author gave her a name) sister, Sarah, went missing when she as younger and the body never found. Someone is in jail for other murders and it's believed that he also killed Sarah. However, nothing is as it seems and there are so many twists and turns that I didn't see them coming! The book is split into sections and focuses on the characters in those sections, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I look forward to the next book this author brings out.

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

I could not put this book down, I loved it! I liked the characters. I sympathize with these characters because their backstories are well written and explained. Although I had my guesses about the end that were true, there were still twists that I absolutely was not expecting.

Sarah Hopewell was the golden child - her parents' favorite, popular, smart, creative...or so it seemed - until one day she goes missing at the alleged hands of a convicted serial killer. Fifteen years after her disappearance, Sarah's sister is a journalist still tormented by the mystery and hopes to get Sarah's body back for closure when she begins visiting the serial killer convicted of her death. Yet, Sarah's sister begins to uncover and realize that Sarah wasn't quite what she seemed as secrets begin to unearth of who she truly was. Meanwhile, someone else is murdering women who happen to look like Sarah.

Told from the POV of Sarah's sister (who remains unnamed throughout the book, which annoyed me at times, but I get what the author was doing...), some chapters as articles the sister writes about the present-day murders, and some chapters are anonymous/disturbing journal entries. The book was also split into different parts that highlight men who are in the sister's life, but also potential suspects. This was filled with twists and turns of the two parallel mysteries: what happened to Sarah's body (if she was murdered) and who is currently killing women and dumping them in Golden Gate Park?

The serial killer interviews with the sister-journalist give Silence of the Lambs vibes and plant the seed of doubt in the sister's brain of who Sarah was. As the story continues, readers learn about the dysfunction of the Hopewell family, the growing number of people on the suspect list and how they all seemed to have a motive. With how much detail there was throughout the book (and even some of the article chapters seemed repetitive), the ending felt a bit too quick with the revelations spaced within a short span of each other. As long as you can get over the nameless MC, which caused some annoying syntax moments, some odd stilted dialogue, and a couple plot holes...this book threw me for a loop and I couldn't put it down once the ride started. Overall, a twisty book with a full cast of untrustworthy and, at times, despicable characters, Solid 4 stars!

Creepy, serial killer mystery with a journalist tries to find out what happened to her sister.

Slow in the middle but excellent ending. Still not sure if I enjoyed it!

Thanks to Net Galley and BooksGoSocial for the chance to read and review.

I can't believe this is a debut novel. It was so well written - the characters were great, the plot was excellent, and I loved the twists and turns throughout the book. There were a lot of parts to Sarah that the main character knew nothing about. I liked how the book was broken down into parts, mainly focusing on a particular person in Sarah's life that has been keeping secrets. The ending was a shocking surprise that I didn't see coming.

This book manages to stand out of the very populated serial killer market, by adding genuine heartfelt writing and managing to transport you in to the book. Filled with twists, turns and shocks this book doesn’t give up any pace until the last word.

Such a brilliant read that will stay with me.

Bradley Stanfeld is a known serial killer who’s incarcerated for killing several women with long black hair and stunning blue eyes. Sarah Hopewell matches this description and since she’s disappeared without a trace 20 years ago, her sister is destined to find out what happened, even if it means to talk to Bradley in prison.

Her father, a retired police officer, urges her to stop digging into Sarah’s disappearance. She can’t, she needs to find out what happened before she gets married.

Bradley denies killing Sarah and tells her to talk to the police officer that handled the case. She doesn’t want to believe Bradley but when more women with long black hair and blue eyes turn up dead in Golden State park, she begins her own investigation and what she finds is shocking!

There’s multiple POV’s and we follow Sarah’s sister, who never had a name in the book, as she investigates each person. It’s crazy how much information she digs up from people that have been keeping secrets for 20 years. The chapters were short but twists and surprises lurked throughout them.

The ending was a little far fetched and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it but I can’t believe this is a debut novel! This was one of my favorite books this year and I can’t wait to see what other novels Charlotte Roddy comes up with.

This is probably one of the best books I have ever read. The voice was like a mix of true crime and your standard murder mystery/thriller. I also appreciated that the whole book was told from one character's perspective instead of jumping around.

Although certain aspects were predictable, I didn't see the ending coming and the storyline was so well written. It is hard to believe this is the author's fist published novel. I cannot wait to read more from Charlotte Roddy. I will be recommending this book to every thriller lover I know.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, BooksGoSocial, and the author, #CharlotteRoddy, for providing me an electronic advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Finished ✔️ A Sorrow Called Sarah by Charlotte Roddy

4 ⭐️’s
Publish Day: April 18th, 2023
Kindle Unlimited: No

A twisty and shocking psychological thriller
The characters were interesting in more ways then one
As I was reading it definitely had me thinking
I didn’t see any of the twists and turns coming
I definitely kept thinking why was her sister trying to confront her sisters killer
Confronting a killer isn’t the most genus idea
The characters were typically of a thriller
I kind of hated Sarah’s younger sister
Yes, I’d recommend

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A very well written suspense. I throughly enjoyed the plot and the well developed characters. My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley. This is my unbiased review.

“A Sorrow Called Sarah,” debuted by Charlotte Roddy, is a thrilling novel. Consequently, this exhilarating novel is full of detrimental secrets, mazes of deceptive lies, gnarling twists, and covert deceit. As a result, this is a story of intertangling whodunit.

Who murdered Sarah? Who murdered the young women in San Francisco who resembled Sarah? If you desire the answers, please read this debut novel that you will not be able to put down.

This novel is recommended to those who love mystery, psychological thrillers, whodunit, and a book you just cannot put down!

Thanks to NetGalley and Charlotte Roddy for an ARC to read and give an honest review.