Thank you HQ and Netgalley.
Wow, wow, wow what a thriller I couldn't put it down.
I devoured this book.
So many twists and turns I had to go back through to book to re-read parts.
Absolutely brilliant - more please.

I very quickly learned to read this book in daylight hours/ Do I need to say more? Chills, thrills, spills...oh my!

What's that old adage - if something looks too good to be true, it probably is...

Clearly advice that Cass seems determined to ignore when her long-distance boyfriend of just 6 months suggests they live together in a murder house!

Employed as caretakers cum inventory writers, Cass and James move into the dusty old pile meaning they can save up for their own place while living and working in Newington House.

Each wrapped up in their own grief and troubled family circumstances, Cass and James don't always communicate well and this paves the way for easy misunderstandings and unspoken concerns.

Louise Jensen skillfully turns this melting pot of scenarios into a tense psychological thriller that had me guessing all the way through, and being very unsure of who was trustworthy.

Louise Jensen has a wonderful way of drawing the reader into the story and I found myself quite cross with Cass and James jointly and individually - there was a delightful sense of unease and a strong undercurrent of building tension and darkness. I felt strongly that things were really not as they seemed and boy was I right but in a more sinister and depraved way than I could have imagined!

Overall, an intelligent and cleverly plotted psychological thriller.

A fantastic read with so much atmosphere. The writing makes you feel as though you're actually there in the house and feeling the same level of creepiness and unease as the characters. Slightly disappinted with the ending but a good read nonetheless.

What a twist! I was so confused I had to go back through the book and re-read bits to get my head around it. Brilliant turn of events.

Louise Jensen have never disappointed me. Another excellent read, fast paced, beautifully constructed.
Everyone has secrets. Sometimes they cause misunderstanding between people, lasting more than one generation's life, and then the situation turns out of control because nobody knows what really happened many years ago.

This book was exciting to read. The connection between the characters was excellent, and it shows that sometimes you will do anything to protect your family. I did get a but confused between the characters, and the end wasn't as good as I expected.

This book took me too long to get into and by the time I did get into it I was fed up with it. Thanks for the opportunity to read it.

This is one of the twistiest thrillers I have read for a long time. I was on the edge of my seat for most of this book and couldn't put it down!
I loved the dual narrative between Cass and James and found it such a compelling story. It got a lot darker than I was expecting too! Their stories are alternated with Zeta and Rose's narratives from thirty years before, detailing the events that led up to the Medley murders at Newington House where Cass and James are house sitting.
We are slowly drip fed information about what happened in both Cass and James' past and how these events are connected to the present day.
If you like creepy, atmospheric thrillers I would definitely recommend this one. I always enjoy books by Louise Jensen but I think this is my favourite one so far.

It took a while for me to really get into this one, I felt like the beginning had me almost predicting the ending from very early on, it did pick up about halfway through though and there were some good twists and turns to keep me interested.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Tense, fast paced, twisty, and gripping. A sort of gothic thriller very entertaining.
A more extensive review will follow
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

My thanks to HQ and NetGalley for a copy of “ The Intruders” for an honest review.

I already knew , from her past books , that Louise Jensen was a good writer , but this time she has excelled herself !
This was the perfect example of what a psychological thriller should be like., dark and puzzling.
I thought I knew what was happening with the story , when it took off in a completely different direction.
The book was totally absorbing and I expect it’ll be in my top ten reads of the year.

The Intruders by Louise Jenson is a psychological thriller and starts thirty years previously when the family who lived there were murdered.
Cass and James are invited to be caretakers in this old mansion house, where no one has lived in since the murders thirty years previously.
Is it a house of horrors or is someone watching Cass and James?
It is a very twisted and dangerous story, with events happening very quickly near the end. Will Cass survive or will Rose win.
So many twists and turns and only one person can survive.
Highly recommended

The Intruders by Louise Jensen

One night, at Newington House, the Madley family are disturbed by intruders. It’s the mother who first realises someone is outside and calls the police, but it’s a remote location and it will take them some time to arrive. Once the intruders are in the house they accost the mother downstairs and she sees them for the first time, in sheep masks and carrying knives. She tells them to take anything they want, jewellery and antiques, but they haven’t come for that. Now she’s sure she’s going to die. That night the only survivor in the family was the baby, placed in the priest’s hole by their sister waiting quietly for someone to find them. Written in blood on the wall is ‘tell me where it is’. Several years later, Cass is staying with her boyfriend James for the weekend when he suggests they go out for a drive. She’s surprised when he takes her to a hidden manor house on the edge of a village and tells her they’ve come to view it. An agent comes to meet them and shows them around and it’s weirdly still full of contents. The agent explains that it’s owned by a company who hope to turn it into a retreat, and while this is in the planning stage they need someone to caretake the house. They must live in it, as well as looking after and creating an inventory of it’s many contents. James wasn’t going to tell Cass straight away about the house’s sad history, but the agent does and at first Cass isn’t sure she could live somewhere such a violent act occurred. However, they certainly couldn’t afford anything like this normally. James assures her it will be fine and they agree to take on the contract, an easy thing to do in broad daylight on a lovely day, but Cass will be here alone while James is at work. Can a house hold trauma within it’s bricks and mortar or is Cass just being fanciful?

It doesn’t help that Cass’s father is very protective and isn’t sure about James or Newington House. James and Cass met in a club when she was standing in the shadows watching her friend enjoy her hen night and she is surprised when the attractive man she has just met, stands beside her and holds her hand. Yet it feels completely natural, like they’ve held hands before. Since then, her distance from James has been an issue as they can only see each other at weekends and Cass’s father worries about her travelling so far and being away from his watchful eye. It felt Iike there was something we didn’t know about her because her father’s concern seems out of all proportion. We start to learn that Cass has had issues with her mental health and there’s an allusion to her worrying that someone might be watching or stalking her. This really muddies the waters when it comes to knowing what is real and what is imagination as the couple move into Newington House. Cass is the one who has some strange experiences, perhaps because she’s home more than James or maybe because she’s susceptible to suggestion. Or is something more sinister going on and the house is singling her out? The house itself doesn’t feel creepy at first, but there’s always a sense that something more is going on than meets the eye, as if it’s traumatic past is still playing out within it’s walls. Like a faulty video recording that’s imprinted forever, leaving glimpses and feelings behind.

The previous family’s belonging don’t help, with Cass finding a long dark hair in the silver hairbrushes on her dressing table and the name Rose scribbled on a piece of paper that’s been left in the family suggestion box. The clock in the hall seems to keep stopping at 8.30pm, despite them winding it daily. It’s as if the house has PTSD and keeps experiencing flashbacks. The crime itself is terrifying, the strange addition of sheep’s masks feel so odd and out of place. In between Cass’s narrative we delve into the past with a young girl called Rose who is back at the village after a stint at private school. She doesn’t know many people of her own age in the village and while looking after the baby is fun, she doesn’t want to be a nanny all summer. She takes a walk into the village and meets two boys on the playing field, one of whom is really good looking. I found these sections so bittersweet, because she is a teenager with everything going for her, but we can sense how unsure she is about herself. She hasn’t had many interactions with boys and her innocence leaves her open to exploitation. She desperately wants to be liked, wants her feel that first kiss and know someone desires her. She’s sure to bow to peer pressure all too easily. I thought this character was written beautifully, really conjuring up those awkward teenage feelings. We know the name Rose has a resonance in the house, Cass can sometimes feel a sudden draft and the name comes to mind. Could Rose be the murdered girl at the manor and what is she trying to tell it’s new resident?

I was worried for Cass that perhaps an inexplicable evil lurks at the house, rather like the Overlook Hotel in The Shining where a terrible trauma seems to have infected the very walls of the building compelling residents to repeat history again and again. As the past and present narratives come together there is so much tension. We know the facts of what happened that fateful night but we don’t know the ‘who’ or the ‘why’ because it seems to have come from nowhere. I’m always desperate to know the reasons behind something, more than the whodunnit at times. This is where I felt a little bit lost, because I wanted to know if any of characters was the surviving child but the further we delved into the past the more characters seemed to be involved. My pet theory on why Cass was so vulnerable before meeting James was totally wrong! As we flipped back and forth in time I did have to go back and do some re-reading because I was genuinely confused. There were revelations I didn’t expect at all, adding more aspects to the case and the house than my brain could handle. It was like opening a set of Russian dolls to find that none of them matched the outside. However, the reveal of who was behind the masks was excellent and added an extra layer of danger to the ending. I think the moral of the story is that when you’re offered money to look after a mansion where murders have occurred, think twice. The old adage of ‘if something seems to good to be true it probably is’ really does apply here. I felt the best thing about the book was that sense of foreboding in the place where trauma has occurred, as if the violent acts of that night were imprinted on time like a photograph.

I really enjoyed this one and found it creepy and atmospheric. The way this turned out wasnt my favourite storyline but it was interesting to unravel. I also got a bit confused between timelines and people and who was who as they overlapped a bit so i found myself having to go back and re read chapters to make sense of it. 4*

A pacey thriller with interesting twists and well-written characters. It has plenty of intriguing ideas running throughout it and the mystery of the house and its secrets will keep you guessing until the end.
The exploration of family dynamics and repressive relationships add another dimension to the text and the interactions between the various characters have a good level of authenticity.
The clever manipulation of withheld information is perfectly plotted, changing the reader's perception of the key characters as further details come to light when the plot develops. The house itself is a suitably creepy setting for this dark tale of deception and submission and almost feels like it develops a narrative voice of its own.
The book is definitely worth a read and is perfect for an evening's entertainment if you like twisting narrative with a bit of bite and brutality.

I loved how tense and straight up scary this book was. I was actually getting too nervous to carry on reading!
Sadly i didn't really enjoy the main characters, they were okay but they didn't really feel too fleshed out.

I did mostly guess what the ending was but there was still a few surprises.
The ending did get a little confusing though, trying to work out who people actually were haha.

I loved the dual timelines and multiples POV's. It really is my favourite thing in a book. It was done really well in this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up.

The story unfolds through a dual timeline, offering intriguing glimpses into the past leading up to the murders.

While the narrative takes its time to build momentum, it truly captivates midway through.

Although the characters are decently crafted, Cass failed to resonate with me, her actions proving rather irksome.

Despite my attempt to unravel the mystery, the revelation of the surviving child caught me off guard, showcasing the author's adeptness at weaving twists.

Towards the conclusion, the complexity of character connections occasionally left me bewildered.

While the author delves into themes of coincidence and fate, some occurrences felt a tad far-fetched, especially the characters' reunion and subsequent visit to the Manor House.

Nevertheless, this novel, with its blend of supernatural elements and dark psychological intrigue, promises an engrossing read that will keep readers guessing until the end.

Cass and James take on a new adventure when they housesit an old manor house, Newington House, with a murderous past. Thirty years ago the Madley family were killed by an invader, but
the youngest child hid and escaped the onslaught. However, Cass is spooked when things start moving place and hearing noises. Cass and James are expecting their first baby and encourages them to look into their own family history and unearth some painful truths.
The book also features points of view from two mothers and their families from thirty years ago which implodes the whole plot. A gritty, dark psychological thriller that will keep you fixated on wanting to know the true events of that fateful night.
Louise Jensen always provided a first class read and The Intruders will blow your socks off!! 5 stars!! The book is fast paced, well written, has detailed characters that you really warm to. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

I enjoyed this twisty book but, not as much as her others as I guessed what was going on early on in the book. I found the main character quite slow and although it was a twisty read and clever it didn't live up to expectations. My thanks to netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.