Watch Me by Angela Clarke is the second book in the Social Media series that features Sergeant Nasreen Cudmore. A breathtaking and eye-opening thriller that had me on the edge of my seat throughout and was truly addictive, Angela Clarke has done an absolutely superb job with this book.

When the novel first opens we meet Nasreen Cudmore who, at the age of 24, is just eight weeks into her new job with the team that forms the specialised Cyber and e-crime Gremlin task force. Arriving late to the office after a night out with colleagues which ended in her having a one-night stand with Jack Burgone, her new DCI, she’s feeling a bit worse for wear and certainly not prepared for what will turn out to be the biggest day of her career to date. Starting the day with a team meeting to discuss plans for a talk to be delivered to local schools following the suicide of Chloe Strofton whose suicide note was shared via Snapchat, things soon go from bad to worse when each member of the team receives a new notification on Snapchat. It appears to be another suicide note in which it is revealed that they have just 24 hours to save the life of the girl involved.

What follows this somewhat dramatic opening, is a fast-paced investigation that takes place over a 24 hour period. As a book which is told in this way, with each chapter counting down how much time they have left to save the girl’s life who also happens to be DCI Burgone’s younger sister, it is possible to really feel both the character’s tension and desperation. This, in addition to twists and turns galore which made the book completely unpredictable meaning that I genuinely couldn’t figure out who was responsible, created a real page-turner of a book that was impossible to put down.

Having not read Follow Me, the first book in the series, I read Watch Me as a standalone novel. Whilst I did so without too many problems, I would recommend reading the previous book for background information and also to appreciate the characters and discover their histories. Where the characters were concerned whilst I can’t say that I always warmed to them I did think that they all worked well as a team although the way in which the men treated Nasreen did somewhat irk me.

As a book that highlights the very real dangers that exist from society’s obsession with social media, Watch Me is an incredibly gripping novel that is guaranteed to keep you on your toes, get you thinking and put you off Snapchat for life! Having well and truly fallen for Angela Clarke’s writing throughout Watch Me, I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into Trust Me, the third book in this series when it’s released later this year.

A fast paced story that carries you along, I couldn't put it down. I enjoyed the previous book from this author and this book has the same lead characters, highly recommend.

Fantastic thrill ride of a book, It pulls yo in and keeps you guessing right up until the end. I cannot recommend this enough!

I love this series by Angela Clarke, its probably one of the most relevant to today’s world of technology where people live out their lives online, often without a thought that once its out there that’s it, forever sitting in a dark corner if the internet! There have been so many cases of “revenge porn” reported in the media recently, a crime that most people had never even heard of until a few years ago.

We are back in the company of Freddie and Nasreen, last seen hunting the hashtag killer back in Follow Me. Don’t worry if you havent read that book though as Watch Me works perfectly well as a standalone. This time Snapchat plays a huge role in bringing the crimes to the attention of the police. Nasreen is battling a few personal quandaries but these need to be put on the back burner when a countdown timer begins to save the life of a young girl. And that countdown certainly wracked up the tension as we watch Nas and Freddie dig deep to solve all the clues before its too late. All I can say is don’t start this book if you want a decent nights sleep! You will either be up most of the night just reading “one more chapter” or even if you do put it down, this plot will be swirling around your head making it impossible to relax. I think its the realism that makes it so scary, that crimes can become so accessible though social media. And Angela Clarke knows her stuff here, keeping her storyline fresh and current with her intense writing style and chapter cliffhangers. I had no idea where the plot was heading so just sat back and let it build up to that brilliantly gripping conclusion.

I really enjoyed this and can’t wait for another foray into the darkside of internet technology. These books are very of their time but I think readers of all ages will find them absolutely fascinating, I know I did! Definitely recommended by me!

A nail-biting story of cyber crime. I didn't realise this was the second book in a series but it didn't spoil it for me.
Angela Clarke is an author to watch

A second absolutely fantastic, nail-biting, roller-coaster of a thriller from Angela Clarke. The plot - 24 hours to save a kidnapped girl - perfectly lends itself to another fast-paced, unputdownable story.

This time round the book focuses slightly more on Nasreen than Freddie, but both characters are given plenty of opportunity to shine. It's well-plotted and totally full of menace and tension.

It's at times uncomfortable, disturbing and difficult to read, but it's also clever, witty and gripping; it makes you think and it kept me glued to the page. Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins UK, Avon and Angela Clarke for the ARC of Watch Me.

Another absolute belter from Angela Clarke. I enjoyed her debut Follow Me and Watch Me was as good, if not better. Clarke is bang up to date, on trend and slaying the modern thriller genre. Superb.

This book has been written well, and is contemporary in the sense that it surrounds the dangers of social media, but unfortunately this book was not for me. The story takes place over a 24 hour period as the unit races to find the girl alive which I found rushed. I prefer when a story is more drawn out. It delves into the shadowy world of hacking & cyber shaming but I tired of this quickly especially with so much technical jargon. There’s a small cast of central characters so we get a sense of what makes them tick, but I could not connect with Freddie, I found her irritating. I'm sorry there is nothing wrong with the book, it just wan't to my personal tastes. I think this would serve better marketed as YA fiction.

This was the second book about Nasreen and Freddie, but the first I've read. It wasn't a problem though, everything was explained very well and it was easy to follow the story with out having read "Follow Me". From the start I was drawn into the story and couldn't put the book down. I had to know what happened and why someone targeted Nasreen and her friend. And how everything was connected with Apollyon. A real page turner and also fast paced, this book was a great read and I highly recommend it to everyone.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, Avon!

Brilliant from the start. A fast paced very well written modern novel. A brilliant and novel idea to use the internet and social media in this way. I really liked the writing style. It drew me in and kept me reading. This is the first novel I have read by this author and I would definitely recommend it and read another one by her. I found all the characters believable and really enjoyed reading this book.

Amazing story that leaves you breathless . You will reconsider how you use your phone and what you share . Really hope there is more to come in this series

What a unique premise for a book! Following her earlier novels set in the murky world of the internet this takes this up 1000 notches! - Snapchat - something I am not really familiar with but am now, is at the centre of it all. I tell you something if you are older than a teenager, you are going to be so pleased you are not that age anymore. Bullying just got a hell of a lot worse. Suicide notes which disappear after six seconds? Revenge porn pics on line for all to see? When I think back, my school days were tame in comparison - this new world is darker, grittier and a whole lot more dangerous.

It's an interesting concept to highlight in a novel and in a crime novel even more so - the police are seen to be dealing with this, trying to work out how to catch these faceless, anonymous internet users. Their methods, frustrations and blind alleys are evoked with fury and careful attention. Which challenges does this new internet age throw up?

Very disturbing in places but the plot wraps its warped subject around your neck quickly and efficiently. A very well thought out novel, with a warning for those in the digital age. You wont think of Snapchat in the same way again.

What a cracker of a crime novel this is – it was so hard to put down and I found myself zipping through the pages totally convinced by the frightening scenario and thrilled by the all-action narrative. ‘Watch Me’ is the second novel in the Social Media Murders Series and a worthy successor to Angela Clarke’s runaway success, debut novel ‘Follow Me’. I liked the references back to ‘The Hashtag Murderer’ and the first murders and the hint of a mystery as to whether there could be a second serial killer on the rampage, playing a haunting game of cat and mouse with the investigative team.
The premise for this second case for the talented and highly vaulted team of DS Nasreen Cudmore and journalist Freddie Venton is the tragic death of a 15-year-old girl who apparently committed suicide. Upon further investigation questions remain unanswered and just at that point another girl is reported missing. She is the younger sister of a high ranked Metropolitan Police officer, which stirs the team with fury and determination to save this young woman. Could it be a case of revenge porn? Certainly the media is flooded with intimate pictures and untraceable email accounts. The whole affair is appallingly frustrating and frightening, just like all cyber crime, so well hidden and seemingly untraceable. This is all social media under the spotlight – bang up to the minute, a contemporary crime novel for our times right now. Then an odious message is delivered to every member of the team personally. It appears that the Countdown has already started and the task force have only 24 hours to find the serial killer or rescue the desperately frightened kidnapped girl.
With chapter headings that count down the time towards 9.30 am, the activity is frantically accelerated. But the perpetrator is always one step ahead. With a possible ID on the table, the detectives are stonewalled again and again by the invisibility and cleverness of a determined revenge killer with a vast technical knowledge and fierce determination to outwit an entire police force. The story is unnerving, the suspense chilling, the story utterly compelling. I absolutely loved it, every delicious page of it. The storytelling is wonderfully involving, just totally absorbing in the most horrible nightmarish way. The characterisation is amazing, each character at once familiar yet diverse, interesting and totally committed to success.
I would like to thank NetGalley and publisher Avon for sending me a copy of ‘Watch Me’ by Angela Clark in return for an honest review. This novel is unmissable, unforgettable and buzzing with energy. I would unhesitatingly recommend it at all lovers of the crime thriller genre.

Watch Me is the second in Angela Clarke's Social Media Murders series (the first was Follow Me). If you haven't read the first one, don't worry as this can easily be read as a standalone. Follow Me focussed on a race against time to catch a murderer leaving clues on Twitter. In Watch Me, the criminal is using Snapchat as a means of communication. The two main characters are friends DS Nasreen Cudmore and journalist Freddie Venton and I really enjoyed finding out a bit more about their background in this book. They have 24 hours to find teenage student Lottie before she may be killed. The countdown in the title of the short chapters made this a very fast-paced story. Following Nas and Freddie over this fraught 24 hours as they tried desperately to find Lottie made for a gripping and tense read.

Angela Clarke's first book in this series passed me by, which was a shame as events that happened there were important as to how the characters were at the time of this story. Having said that, this was a cracker of a book!

Do you know who can get hold of your online information? Do you know what they can do with it? I'm just thankful I'm at an age where the daft things I did were not in the digital age! I hate bullying, but cyber-bullying takes it to a whole new nastier level. When a victim of this is found dead, the police are called in to investigate. The lead detective's sister was an internet fitness vlogger. When she goes missing the team have twenty four hours to find her.

The countdown to her fate running throughout the narrative ramps up the suspense. With great characters and an interesting plot this was a great five star read. Thanks to Natgalley & the publisher for giving me the chance to read and review it.

Watch Me by Angela Clarke

Fifteen-year-old Chloe Strofton is found dead, pumped full of drugs, twenty-four hours after she sent a suicide note around friends and family using social media tool snapchat. Not surprisingly, Chloe’s death is regarded as suicide. But when a second teenage girl disappears and a similar note is sent around, the police have no choice but to sit up and listen. The girl is Lottie, the little sister of DCI Jack Burgone, chief of the unit specialising in cyber and e-crime, and there is an extra note, warning the police that they have 24 hours to save Lottie’s life. The clock begins to tick.

DS Nasreen Cudmore picked the wrong night to get drunk and the wrong morning to wake up beside her boss DCI Burgone but the indiscretion is the last thing on Burgone’s mind when he and the members of his team receive the snapchat messages from Lottie’s phone. Fresh from solving the Social Media Murders, the warning bells have gone off in Nas’s head – she suspects that she is the link between Chloe and Lottie but she’s afraid to admit the reason why. She needs Freddie Vinton, a social media expert still in recovery from the Social Media Murders, to help her find Lottie before the countdown stops. If this means that Nas has to follow her own path, away from her police colleagues, then so be it.

Watch Me is the second novel in Angela Clarke’s Social Media Murders series and is hot on the heels of the excellent debut Follow Me. I was so pleased to see Nas and Freddie again. These two have quite a history, one that you can understand Nas wanting to keep hidden from her colleagues, but the spark between them is part of what sets this series apart. There might be warts and flaws galore but there is a strong sense that Nas and Freddie both know that it is time for them to put all of this right, whatever the cost. And the cost has been great.

While Follow Me was about Twitter, Watch Me is about snapchat, something new to me that I will be avoiding at all costs. There is an added immediacy to the book and to the case because of the twenty-four hour deadline and the whole novel takes the form of that countdown with all of the action taking place over one day. The tension rises and rises. Angela Carter is so good at raising the pulse and keeping it pounding. The action is taut, well-structured and fast.

Follow Me was a very hard act to follow and I don’t think that Watch Me quite matches it. That would be a tall order indeed, especially considering how original and unusual Follow Me felt at the time. I did find Nas and Freddie a little irritating at times in Watch Me. They certainly felt very young and not far removed from the school playground. Nevertheless, the social media background to the novel remains a fascinating and topical one and is put to good use again here. The murder mystery is compelling and the pages fly through the fingers. I’m really interested to see where this series goes next.

Other review
Follow Me

The second book in the social media murders. I loved the first one - probably one of my favourite book I read last year. I was very pleased to get an opportunity to review the second one. The characters are well drawn out and I love they way they interact and their quirky bond. The initial part of the book sets the scene to fill in from where the last one left off. Once the scene is set the pace quickly picks up and never lets go until the very end. It is rare a book is impossible to put down but this is the only way to describe the writing style and tensions that builds. The book twists and turns until the final ending.
I hope there are many more in the series - they remind me in some ways of Net Force by Tom Clancy...only better!
Will be one of my must reads of 2017.,

I thank god I didn't grow up as a teenager with social media and feel sorry for the young people of today who have to do this as this book highlights the pressures and how it can be used in negative ways. I enjoyed the pace of the book and the relationship between different characters. I also thought it demonstrated the lingering impact of trauma well - rather than some books where characters can bounce back without any impact.

This is the second in the 'Social Media' series featuring Sergeant Nasreen Cudmore. Though I'd not read the first in the series I found it read really well as a standalone.

'Watch Me' highlights the dangers of the internet when used by someone with an axe to grind. 15 year Chloe Strofton is already dead, apparently having committed suicide after being bullied via a new app, and another girl has been abducted.


The cyber and e-crimes unit, of which Nasreen is a team member, receive a message that the latest abductee is the sister of DCI Jack Burgone, and not only that, but they're given just six seconds to read the message before it disappears, and just 24 hours to find her or she dies!

Nasreen and her old pal Freddie Vinton were responsible some years before, for putting away 'The Hashtag Murderer' and Nas begins to see a link between that case and this more recent one. Could he be responsible? He's still in prison with no access to the internet, so how likely is that?

The action takes place over a twenty four hour period, and what a twenty four hours it is! Fast paced, edgy and with tension and dread filling every page, it's hard to put it down.

Though it puts the unsavoury subject of revenge porn under scrutiny, especially as some of the victims are young teens, it is, without question completely gripping.

Might have to go back and take a look at the first in the series, as this one was so good!

*Thank you to Netgalley & Harper Collins UK Avon for my free copy in exchange for a fair and honest review*