When words fail to capture the emotions after reading a story…. A story of such depth and intensity, a story of a mother who can turn to a ruthless monster to protect her children, the story of a young autistic woman who believes that each person should be accountable for their own actions, a story that carves something deeply in your gut and make you feel wanting!

After reading Sarah Hilary’s FRAGILE, I had wished for something lighter in the story for me to get my overwhelming emotions under control, so when I began Black Thorn and found a character like Errol, I was thankful to the author. Errol is the breather that I didn’t know I needed whilst reading this chillingly claustrophobic novel. The knuckle-biting tension that the author creates in the story is simply mind blowing, the story is infused with a sense of foreboding and darkness like the churning seas that the houses are built near. Sarah Hilary is a master at intrigue, the threads of the story coming from different directions thru different POVS and timelines that the reader is left grasping at straws to know the outcome of this gripping thriller. Every single time, a puzzle piece falls into place another one joins it and the reader like Agnes is left utterly confounded with no exit sign visible, and the more you seek an answer to one question, a million other questions join the queue.

All the characters in the story evoke profound feelings, be it Agnes with her silence knowing what treachery hides behind the face of her father’s friend, be it Christie, a young 13 yr old boy, angry and disturbed and seeking validation from a viper, then there is Ruth, who comes across as glacial but one who reveals herself as terrified mother and of course, Adrian whose entire hopes and dreams of building Blackthorn Ashes as a paradise on earth comes crashing down leaving behind a shell of a man, unable to go on. Errol, Bette, and Trevor all have their arcs and even Iris leaves behind an impression with her drive to know the truth.

The author’s portrayal of the crack in the relations was top-notch as Agnes tries to be there for her broken family and heal the frosty and fraught relationship she shares with her mother. Black Thorn is not your usual thriller, it is a multilayered intricate tale of a family going thru the wreckage of the past and the present with shattered dreams and life falling into ruins kinda scenario. The raw and unrelenting pressure that the author excellently built into the plot reveal was superlative.

A crime thriller that is not a crime thriller, Fathomless!

Many thanks to, and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.

This is a very clever, slow burn psychological thriller. Brilliant characterisations, especially Agnes. Setting the story amongst families moving into the ‘perfect’ new housing estate that is full of faults and secrets as much as Agnes and her family have themselves, is perfect.

I thoroughly enjoyed the way the story went back and forward in time, gradually bringing the story together all the while keeping the reader intrigued and guessing as to what comes next.

This book was beautifully written with exceptional plotting. It was multi-layered and it pulled me deep within its pages. It tells the story of Blackthorn Ashes a luxury private estate on the cliffs overlooking the sea. For Agnes Gale and her family it was supposed to be their forever home. Unfortunately, six weeks after moving in six people have lost their lives and the estate is abandoned.

The story moves back and forth, before abandonment and after abandonment, and in doing so weaves a cleverly plotted psychological tale of what really happened.

The tension was palpable throughout the novel and the character of Agnes is spectacularly written. All the characters come alive on the page in this story of disaster, its aftermath, and of course how it began. I was glued to the pages of this book and the writing really is so well done. There were twists and turns and guesses I made that proved to be wrong. I couldn't put it down. It was definitely going to be a 5 star read expect for the ending. I really hate open endings. If you don't mind them, then I highly recommend reading this book.

Blackthorn Ashes was meant to be their forever home. For the first six families moving into the exclusive new housing development, it was a chance to live a peaceful life on the cliffs overlooking the Cornish Sea, safe in the knowledge that it had been created just for them. But six weeks later, paradise is lost. Six people are dead. And Blackthorn /ashes is left abandoned and unfinished, its dark shadows hiding all manner of secrets. One of its surviving residents. Agnes Gale is determined to find out the truth about what happened.

It's an exclusive development of new homes, the beauty of the surrounding scenery holds a terrible secret, the houses have been built on contaminated land. And just six weeks later, six residents are dead. Agnes Gale has autism. She knew there was something wrong at Blackthorn Ashes, but no one would believe her.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #PanMcmillam and the author #SarahHilary for my ARC of #BlackThorn in exchange for an honest review.

This is a true psychological thriller. Sarah Hilary really gets into the minds of the characters and the tale is driven by how they see the world and react to events. I thought the premise unusual; a new build community in a stunning coastal location, designed for the occupants to live there as a supportive group. Great idea and it all sounded too good to be true.

Things start to goo wrong fairly quickly, but as the reader, it’s difficult to know why. There are dual timelines as secrets from the last resonate through to the present and bit by bit, the layers are peeled away. There’s a real sense of tension, suspense and a claustrophobic badness about what’s happening. The plotting is superb because there are few early clues and I love the fact that the chatpracters are just a bit igpff centre. Their skewed view makes a gripping read. Really enjoyed this.

This is a superb novel from the excellent Sarah Hilary, perhaps her best yet. It is beautifully written, the characters are vividly drawn and the plot is intriguing. The titular new-build development is billed as a wonderful new start but things rapidly start to go wrong, both with the houses and those who have recently moved in. A little piece of heaven soon becomes hell on earth. Relationships are torn apart, secrets are revealed and the dark storyline has the reader gripped. I loved it!

This book started off really strong. It had a lot going on during the first part of the book, but then it lost my attention as it went on. Sarah's writing is gripping and atmospheric. The scene is believable, vividly described, and the characters are well formed. My mind re-created these at ease!

Blackthorn Ashes is a newly built community overlooking the cornish seas with a promise of a high life. It was meant to be a fresh start for the Gayle family, but disaster strikes. This is no paradise. People are dead, and the mystery must unfold itself, but who is to blame?

Although the drama happens early on in the book, the actual story reveals itself slowly. You know that tragedy has hit, murders have occurred, but it takes a while before any of this is explained fully and unfortunately causes some repetition and appears slightly disjointed at times. The story does have lots of twists and turns, which manages to keep you on your toes.

There's a lot of tension created in this book. You get the true feeling of how fractured the Gale family are and how distant each member is from each other. It does demonstrate the strangth of a mother and her willingness to protect her children.

The story is told between past and present tesne. This was clear and easy to follow. However, personally, some of the past was left slightly unfinished. I had unanswered questions.

Overall, I did enjoy this read and wouldn't be put off reading another Sarah Hilary title. The story perhaps just wasn't for me.

Sarah Hilary’s writing is exquisitely painful. Her characters are so well formed that you can’t help but be drawn into their lives but more than that, she has a facility to put you in the heads of her characters and that’s a very special kind of writing.

Sarah Hilary in Black Thorn is writing about fracture. Fractured relationships; fractured families and fractured promises. Her ability to create a very real tension that sits somewhere between your gut and your heart is second to none.

Blackthorn Ashes was a really big promise. An exclusive new housing development set on top of the Cornish cliffs promises a fabulous new life to anyone who signs up for one of its houses. It’s not the easiest place to find, but that is outweighed by the fantastic location. Sarah Hilary lets us know early on, however that not all is as idyllic as it promised to be.

Black Thorn moves between timelines, each described as a time before or after abandonment. By moving between timelines, we learn that something has gone seriously awry, though exactly what we have to wait to find out.

At the centre is a family who have committed everything to this new opportunity. Adrian Gale invested in this new scheme with his friend and developer, Trevor. Adrian sold the houses as Trevor was building them. His wife Ruth tried to raise more funds when the money ran short. Christie, Agnes’ young brother, wrote his name on one new brick for every house that was built. Adrian moved his family into their new house as soon as he could. A new start for them and unexpectedly, a new start for the whole family, because their daughter Agnes has come home after both losing her job and breaking up with her girlfriend.

It is through Agnes’ eyes that we understand most of what has gone on. Agnes is autistic and because of that she was the first one to realise that not all was well with the houses on Blackthorn Ashes. On some level, each one of her family will seek to blame her for that realisation.

Sarah writes Agnes with such clarity and precision that you really do get a sense of how she sees and experiences the world around her. When things got bad and the family had to move into the caravan, it was Agnes’ role to look after Christie; specifically to stop him getting into trouble. But Christie has not forgiven Agnes for finding faults with the development and now he’s drawn back to the forbidden site where he left his hopes and dreams. For a 13 year old, it is all too much.

Agnes has a refuge in Bette’s caravan, where Errol, always beautifully attired, knows just what is good for Agnes and has the smooth, rounded edges she needs when everything else looks jagged and sharp to her.

Errol is the one she can talk to about her autism and also about how difficult it is to be blamed for everything, when none of it was of her creation.

Sarah Hilary makes these experiences vivid; full of colour and detail even as she allows you to experience the dread that Agnes lives with – the tension that builds in her like a pressure cooker, the smells, sounds and sheer claustrophobia of living in that caravan. I defy you not to feel compassion for Agnes.

The tragedy of multiple deaths is bad enough; the tragedy of living in a deeply fractured family is unbearable. As Agnes tries to moderate Christie’s behaviour and keep her father from falling further into his depression, it becomes clear that more is at play here than just environmental factors. Blackthorn Ashes is hiding more secrets than anyone might guess and now Christie and Agnes are enhancing the sense of jeopardy that has always pervaded these houses.

Verdict: Sarah Hilary builds the tension as it strains and twists until the suspense is swirling and seething in the atmosphere. This is a true psychological thriller; one that delves into the mind and uses the dark plot strands to enhance the characters’ fractures. Blackthorn is considered bad luck in Celtic tree lore. It represents transformation, but through the hardening of strife. It is associated with death, battles, and transformation and it is the perfect symbol for this deliciously tense, atmospheric, jaggy book which is a must read for anyone who loves excellent pros

Once in a while, an author comes up with a completely different way of telling a crime fiction story. 'Black Thorn' is one of those stories. Crime fiction, yes. But with a twist.

Blackthorn Ashes was supposed to be a fresh, new start for the Gale family. An exclusive new housing development on the cliffs overlooking the Cornish sea promising all sorts of things. But paradise, this is most definitely not. Something rotten is going on behind those glossy exteriors and a mere six weeks later, six people are dead, all the houses have been abandoned, and the Gale family is living in a caravan.

At the centre of the story is Agnes Gale. Agnes has autism and is able to pick up on certain things that most people would not. She knows Blackthorn Ashes isn't right, but nobody believes her. Her little brother positively hates her for ruining, what he believes to be, a good thing. Agnes' relationship with her mother has always been fraught, and now her father is sinking into a deep depression. Agnes believes that the only thing that can help her family is to find out what really happened on the night six people died. But the truth is far uglier than she expects.

The chapters alternate between events leading up to the collapse of the happy place, and everything that happens afterwards. The cracks and faults aren't just in the houses. Many can be found in the complicated, and sometimes rather toxic, relationships between these characters. All of which are complex and multilayered, and show that you never really know people. There are lies and secrets galore, many I failed to solve before they were revealed to me. I often felt I thought I had it, only to find out I was on the wrong track completely.

If you're looking for a fast-paced crime fiction story, this isn't it. I will admit to struggling with it a little bit at the beginning. 'Black Thorn' is incredibly character driven. Oftentimes quite thought-provoking as well in that whole "how far would you go to protect the people you care about" way. All throughout the story, the author lays bare weaknesses, and how this cast of characters deals with those, and also past events that come back to haunt them.

This is a story of families falling apart, of dreams crashing down around you, of your life going completely off the rails. It is a dark and sad tale, full of intrigue and psychological insight. This is not your usual crime fiction story, as I said. It goes way deeper, it is clever, and it is brilliantly written with a fantastic main character in Agnes at the forefront. So very different from the Marnie Rome series, yet quite possibly even more absorbing, evocative and just plain top-notch. Highly recommended!

Not quite sure how I feel about this one! It was a very slow burning and unusual read that looked at what lengths a mother would go to to protect her child. Not what I was expecting at all!

Think this is a marmite read it was unusual and I found it a bit slow going it was as if all the drama was released too early.

I think that it would have added to the story if more characters points of view were written about.

It was great to see a lead character with ASD to bring awareness and acknowledgement to the condition.

I’m afraid this was an OK read for me. It started off well, with a delivery driver arriving at a seemingly idyllic small group of houses in Cornwall, but, there is a strange feeling surrounding the environment…..

Unfortunately, for me, after this I struggled with both the writing style and characters and found it a difficult book to finish.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview, just, not one for me.

I’ve long been a fan of Sarah Hilary’s writing. I loved her last standalone, Fragile, and especially her Detective Marnie Rome series. Her latest novel, Black Thorn, is very different to her previous work. It is a much more character driven story. The story revolves around a tragedy that takes place at a new exclusive housing development called Blackthorn Ashes, located in an idyllic Cornwall setting overlooking the sea. Families have moved already moved in, hoping they have found their forever home and hoping to make new life long memories there. But six weeks after the first families move in, six people are dead and the future of the development, still unfinished, hangs in the balance.

We meet Agnes, one of the original residents of Blackthorn Ashes; her father was one of the original investors in the project. After the horrors of what happened at Blackthorn, Agnes is now living in a caravan, and she is seeking answers. She wants to know what went wrong at Blackthorn, and what caused the six deaths, and she is determined to get to the truth. I loved the eerie atmosphere that Sarah Hilary creates in this book, in both the before and after segments. Sarah takes the novel back in time to before the horrific events at Blackthorn take place and in the aftermath of what happened. The tension builds with the chapter headlines as it counts down towards abandonment.

The story does take some very dark turns as Sarah Hilary gradually reveals what has happened, as Agnes fights to get the truth, and the revelations are darker than Agnes ever expected.

Sarah delves into the relationships of the families at the heart of this novel. She brings to life really well how what has happened at Black Thorn has affected each of them, and the decision to leave Black Thorn comes close to tearing Agnes’ family apart. I really felt as though I was emotionally invested in their lives as I was reading.

Like with all of Sarah Hilary’s novels, I thought Black Thorn was beautifully written, and I thought that it had a deep emotional core that kept me hooked. I am a big, big fan of Sarah’s books, and I’ll be eagerly waiting to see what Sarah writes next.

Although a bit bit of slow burner, it is well worth sticking with this book. Beautifully written and truly a masterpiece.

This is a standalone set in Cornwall. It starts with a street party in a small new build estate. One of the children cuts her hand on a can in a sandpit. Another neighbour has broken his leg in his garden and is not happy with the builders.
The story swings between the before and the after abandonment. There is something strange afoot and Agnes, who happens to be the prodigal daughter of Ruth and Adrian, one half of the building team. Her much younger brother, Christie, regularly returns to the houses after abandonment to take treasures which he keeps hidden. The reader learns that Agnes was diagnosed as Autistic quite late and has a strained relationship with her mother. She has returned from London due to losing her job and then her girlfriend.
She is wary of Trevor, her father's best friend and partner in the building venture. Something happened between them before she left and she felt that she wasn't believed at the time.
The story's suspense builds quite nicely, but I was slightly disappointed with the ending, but still a good read.

I have reviewed Black Thorn for book recommendation site LoveReading.co.uk. I have chosen it as a LoveReading Star Book and Liz Pick of the Month. Please see the site for full review.

I am going to start this review quite simply. I really enjoyed this book. Beautifully written, thoughtful and the kind of story that stays with you, causing you to think long beyond the turn of the last page.

And that is kind of where I got stuck, and have been for a few weeks. Maybe less is more but given my usually epic reviews, that might imply that I didn't enjoy this as much which is most definitely not the case. But I'm also afraid of not doing the book justice. It is not your typical crime story, although it is undoubtedly crime fiction. It is not your average suspense fiction either, although the twisting and turning, the myriad lies that colour the story, certainly add that edginess and suspense to the story. Sarah Hilary makes it clear to us as readers very early on that a tragedy has occurred, without immediately spelling out just what that tragedy was. And yet, the more we learn, the darker the story becomes.

It is a textured, or multi-faceted read, laced with subtle moments that inform our understanding far more than any one off moments of shock, even though they too exist. The story opens on a scene of idyllic harmony. Mostly. A brand new community in the perfect coastal location in Cornwall. Isolated, but not too much. Everyone's dream new home. But, like all dreams, it comes at a cost - one that given a chance to do things over everyone would say was too high a price to pay. It is this revelation, this slow movement from idyll to tragedy that drives the sombre tone of the story, but also creates that sense of intrigue which keeps you turning the pages.

Sarah Hilary has always excelled in creating character and in this case has perhaps outdone herself. Agnes, a young woman on the autism spectrum who has just returned to live with her parents after her life in London fell apart, is one such character. It is fair to say that, due to her condition, Agnes feels things far more acutely than most. She knows, instinctively, that there is something amiss, and it is her determination to get to the heart of what really happened that informs the lion's share of the story That drives that sense of jeopardy and danger. Then there is her younger brother, Christie, who acts as a catalyst for much of what comes to past. His reluctance to give up on his haven, his home, leads the pair into discovery of some secrets many would rather remain buried. There are many other characters who add light and shade to the story. Those whose loss amplifies the melancholy and others whose very presence adds some much needed colour and heart in amongst the darkness.

This is a story in two halves - the before and the after of the tragedy. An exploration of family and the sacrifices that parents will make for their children. A tale of possession and loss, of dreams shattered and turned into a waking nightmare. There is an air of inevitability from the very first chapter, but also a feeling of senselessness that seeps from the page, creating quite an impact on me as I read. The setting is perfect, the coastal location echoing the switch in mood, from beautiful and joyous sunshine to, dark, atmospheric melancholy. It's another very skilful and assured novel, evocative and memorable. Definitely worth a read.

I'm not sure where I've landed on the rating scale with Blackthorn. This is a very slow burn with a somewhat irritating amount of repetition within the dialogue and character behaviours, however the plot itself is a good one.

I'd very much enjoy a screen adaptation of this story, Hilary sets a vivid and believable scene with the build of an idyllic, gated community for families who appear perfect from the outside... but they never are are they?

Several tragic events befall the small group of neighbours in this unfinished paradise, some of which were dragged out far too long for their predictable revelations but Hilary balanced the scales by with shocking me with a few truths nonetheless.

Main character Agnes is autistic which I personally thought was written accurately from my own experience with relatives though I'm not well versed.
Hilary squeezes the heart with Agnes younger brothers reaction to his sister and her behaviours, I felt Christie was perhaps the best written character of all.

Unfortunately the Gale family drama that Blackthorn centres itself on gets quickly dull and repetitive. With a timeline switching to before, during and after their six weeks of life in Blackthorn Hilary has ample opportunity to utilise cliff hangers but failed to do so in a way that enticed me to read on.

I pushed on to discover the truth behind the shocking events at Blackthorn through sheer determination but the pacing of the book almost had me walk away several times.

I probably won't read another title by this author.

I’m a huge fan of the author’s Marie Rome books so was looking forward to reading something a little different with Black Thorn. This is different than a typical thriller and I thought the plot was very original and compelling. I liked the way the book is structured, chapters moving between before the houses were built and after the abandonment, gradually revealing the truth about what happened. This is a gripping read.

One of the first things that attracted me to this new title was the rather unique setting. I've read so many thrillers set in hotels, country manors, churches and apartment blocks, but I don't think that I remember reading one set in a brand new housing development. The setting was completely central to the plot of this novel and so it led to plenty of original ideas.

The other thing that I really liked about 'Black Thorn' was its strong characterisation. I didn't necessarily warm to all of the characters, but I do appreciate that they were believable and well-developed. The relationships were relatable and relevant to the plot line.

The idea of using flashbacks and flash forward doesn't normally bother me although, personally, I found them to be rather choppy and disorientating in this novel. There was also a huge amount of repetition, for example, the constant return trips to the houses and Agnes' meetings with Errol.

Overall, this was a decent read but I did find myself not really bothering about what would be revealed in the ending.