I enjoyed this book though it could occasionally be a little plodding, it caught my attention and I wanted to read more!

An okish psychological thriller but not as god as some
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

This book is proof that sometimes you should really mind your own business and not nose at what is going on around you.
The Watcher by Ross Armstrong really is, A dark addictive thriller with the ultimate psychological twist.

When you sit down to read this make sure you have the time to finish it. you wont want to do anything else.

What a great interesting read.

Not a book for me im afraid. I really didnt like it and i would rather not give bad reviews.

She's watching you, but who's watching her?
This book is quite hard to review as i don't want to give anything away and spoil the twists that make this a great book. The reveals are brilliant and i certainly didn't see what was coming!
If you like books like Girl on the Train and Gone Girl this one is for you.
It stands out from other books in the psychological thriller genre which is a rare treat as this book is told as a first person narrative, completely from our protagonist Lily. Almost reminiscent diary style but in a free flowing form.
The book’s structure is another feature that makes this book stand out from the others in this heavily populated genre. Other than a prologue the book leaps back in time to over a month before 'The Event’.
Of course we don’t know what that is because each day / section is prefaced as ‘42 days before it comes; 15 days before it comes‘. And so forth.
Then when we reach 9 days before it changes and Lily starts narrating forward.
It can get a wee bit confusing at times and will have you wondering what on earth is going on, but trust with me, don't give up and you will be rewarded with the last section of the book!
There are hints through out that narrator Lily may not be entirely reliable, trustworthy, or even sane! She has a very unique take on things.
Lily is a quirky character, some of her thoughts and ideas are quite amusing.
I REALLY enjoyed the style of writing, and found Lily’s pondering's to be surprisingly insightful and intriguing.
From the title of the book Lily is a watcher, she is a keen bird watcher but she also takes delight in watching her neighbours, so when a neighbour is murdered Lily becomes obsessed with finding the killer.
Lily is convinced she has seen things through her window that could help solve the case and takes it upon herself to investigate more with no concern for her own safety.
It is from there that the book starts to get interesting with plenty of twists and turns that keep you guessing and thinking down the wrong path entirely.
It's not very often that a book comes along that throws you a massive curve ball but this book manages just that.
It is fantastically creepy with a thrilling atmosphere that you can't help but get totally absorbed in and Ross's ability to build up such a strong sense of dread, fear, suspense and confusion is just great!
This is defiantly a book i will be recommending to my friends and family and i will be watching out for Ross Armstrong's next book :-)

I struggled to get into this. I didn't like the characters. I was also confused majority of the time. I felt it was too slow paced for me and didnt get me gripped.
This was a let down. I had high hopes for this.

Sorry, not for my taste. Could not get into the style. Not sure if this was just me or the writing. Found myself skipping pages. Perhaps not a good sign.

Having finished the book, I can see why there is such a disparity of reviewers liking and disliking this one. At just under a quarter of the way in I could so easily have decided it was a two star read and given up. At a third in I began to get some enjoyment, and at nearly three-quarters through I got it, all was revealed, the reason why the beginning is so confusing all comes together. This really is a book that you just have to trust and go with, it doesn't matter too much that some things are a bit perplexing and you don't understand something, it all comes together later.

The chapters are written in the number of days countdown until 'it comes' starting at forty-two days before. I was guessing at all sorts of things 'coming' but I didn't guess the real outcome. Lily and Aiden live in an apartment block, Aiden barely leaving the flat because he's writing a novel and Lily spending nearly all her time 'bird watching' but with binoculars trained on the windows of her neighbours in the high rise opposite. She makes up stories about them and gives them nick-names, and then one day thinks she's seen a woman murdered. At the same time, there is unrest between neighbouring flats which are due for redevelopment and Lily gets herself involved with some of the residents who have not yet moved out. One such neighbour is Jean, an elderly lady who is found dead the morning after Lily has visited her.

Lily doesn't have good experiences with the Police, they fob her off, don't believe her, and even to us readers she blatantly tells a few fibs. She holds back information, does a bit of house breaking and who can blame the Police for not taking her seriously. She's certainly a strange and complex character. Once we've gone through the chapters counting down to the day 'it comes', things slot into place. Lily's father, who lives in France and she has been estranged from, comes to stay and then the action really takes off. I will say no more, but this really is a book you have to stick with and look back on for things to slot into place. By the end I did enjoy it but it's not one of my favourites 3.5 stars.

Loved this book thought it was totally different to some of the books that have been out lately that all seem a bit "samey"...it's a fast paced and tense read which will keep you guessing until the end, I couldn't put it down a great book and fab read!

I couldn't get into this book at all. There seemed to be a lot of words which were saying very little and the story wasn't progressing

There is one slight problem about reviewing a book like The Watcher, you have to be really careful not to give the plot away. For me this is a bit of a conundrum because I do like to rabbit on when I write a review.

So I am going to try and waffle without revealing too much. (I’m not sure I am even capable of that *grin*)

It’s written in first person, so initially the reader isn’t sure whether the main character is a woman or a man. All they know is that whoever it is spends a lot of their time at the end of a pair of binoculars. Lily watches her surroundings, she watches her fellow humans, and of course the occasional bird.

The problem with secretly watching the people around you is that sometimes you see things you shouldn’t see or weren’t supposed to see in the first place. Things like abuse or perhaps even murder.

Lily finds herself in her very own Hitchcock scenario when she witnesses something shocking and starts to suspect her neighbours might be more than just harmless individuals. She does find some vigorous opposition in her husband and her father though. They both believe she is slightly obsessed with watching others.

Without delving further into the plot let me just say the author does a really good job of keeping the reader questioning the whole plot and perhaps even Lily at times. Has she got an over-active imagination or is there something nefarious heading straight her way?

The Watcher is subtle, sneaky and unobtrusive. The author manages to create an atmosphere of fear, suspicion and paranoia. It is certainly a different kind of read. Quirky, and yet strangely moving and personal.
*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my copy of The Watcher.*

The Watcher begins with a cracking Hitchcockian prologue then jumps back in time to tell the story of how Lily - a keen birdwatcher - becomes convinced a murder has been committed within the estate opposite her flat. The plot is a slow burner, both disorienting and claustrophobic, and layers on a sense of creeping unease with Lily's growing obsession. The reader is left - deliberately - with some questions by the end and occasionally the story may be a little too slow, but Lily is compelling and the mystery is sound. Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin (UK) Limited for the ARC of The Watcher in exchange for my honest review.

https://lynns-books.com/2016/12/31/the-watcher-by-ross-armstrong/
The Watcher by Ross Armstrong quotes in the blurb ‘The Girl on the Train meets Rear Window’ and although I haven’t read the first book I can definitely agree with the Rear Window vibe which runs very strongly throughout this story.

Lily and her husband Aiden live in a newly built-for-purpose apartment in North London. Unfortunately an old estate is being demolished to make way for this new development, not the first or last time that that will ever happen I grant you, and feelings run high on the remaining areas of the estate where some of the tenants are hanging onto their homes until the bitter end. Lily and Aiden have an easy going relationship. Aiden is a writer, a little down on his luck but with previous successes behind him which enabled the two to buy this luxury home. Lily goes out to work to support the two of them and every day her journey takes her past the estate and her feelings of guilt rise to the surface! One elderly lady called Jean has become something of a celebrity on the estate, speaking out about the new development and Lily feels drawn to her and pays her a visit one evening. Unfortunately, the next day Jean is found dead – murdered – and Lily takes to talking to other people on the estate which leads her to the suspicion that somebody from the new apartments is the murderer. This is the point at which Lily starts to use her bird watching equipment to spy on her neighbours to try and follow the trail of breadcrumbs to a murderer. Is she putting herself into danger though?

Okay, this might sound like a standard murder mystery with a curtain twitching nosey neighbour, but, what actually raises this book above the norm is the way in which the story is told. The narrator is basically unreliable and even at this point I’m not entirely sure which aspects of her story I can really trust in. This is definitely the sort of book that could quite easily lend itself to being reread – yes, you would lose the surprise that certain twists in the story deliver, but I think there would definitely be things that were overlooked on a first read – particularly for me, as sometimes I find myself racing to discover what’s going on in a book of this type. On top of this the chapters are all headed with a rather ominous set of titles that seem to count down the days – until ‘something’, whatever that might be, happens. So, for example, ‘7 days till it comes’. What? Until what comes?? *Queue inexplicable sense of dread and unease.*

Anyway, not to ramble. It’s pretty difficult to say too much about this without giving away the tension that an unspoiled read will create so I’m not going to go any further into details of the plot.

What I can say is that the author has managed to create a wonderful sense of anxious anticipation. The book begins fairly calmly and allows you to settle in, then gradually the tension starts to creep, little niggles, doubts and question marks start to pop up. You experience moments of absolute astonishment as Lily seems to put herself in the most remarkably dangerous situations which have you wringing your hands and shouting instructions at her like a maniac ‘run’, ‘get out of there’, etc, until finally the plot crashes out of the station at breakneck speed to the final reveal.

The setting is really well drawn. I had this image of a fairly run down estate jostling cheek by jowl with a worksite and a number of already completed luxury apartments. It gives the author such a lot of potential to lead Lily into dark and creepy situations. On top of that the view from Lily’s window where she stalks her neighbours. It all feels so claustrophobic and, lets face it, a little voyeuristic and completely lends itself to the overall state of fear and panic that the author gradually builds.

Lily, well, she’s a conundrum. I’m not going to give anything away about her. She’s incredibly foolish for someone who is trying to outwit a killer. Can you rely on her? In fact how do you know she’s not implicated? Well, I’ll leave that up to you to find out.

I found this an engrossing read. I read it almost in the blink of an eye and it was a lovely change from my predominantly fantasy reads. If you enjoy a good mystery, one that will be a little different than the norm due to the narrator’s state of mind – then give this one a go.

I received a copy courtesy of the publisher, though Netgalley, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.