The Killing House by Claire Mcgowan is book six in the Paula Maguire series, with each book surpassing the last.

Paula Maguire has moved with her daughter Maggie to London from Ballyterrin when she is asked to return home to help try to identify two bodies found buried on a farm that is being renovated. One is an adult man who was a well known IRA member missing since the nineties, the other a young female who they are struggling to identify. Following an anonymous tip, Paula discovers that her mother who also disappeared in the nineties could also have been buried at the farm.

As Paula delves into the past, all is revealed with regard to Paula’s mother, who kidnapped her and whether she survived her ordeal.

Another excellent read in the Paula Maguire series, Paula is a feisty character who never gives up even while putting herself in danger. This is a compelling story with numerous twists throughout the book culminating in a surprising ending. Is this the last we see of Paula? I hope not.

A brilliant “conclusion” to Paula Maguire’s journey. A genuinely compelling and thought provoking series overall and this one had me on the edge of my seat to find out if Paula would get her happy ending. Y’all better read to find out..

From the first book to this book, the stories have been absolutely gripping – each separate mystery brilliantly plotted and compelling – throughout though has been the thread of loss- what did happen to Paula’s mother? Every book has had a moving forward of sorts, now here we are and the end is in sight…

Claire McGowan writes with a quiet intensity that just draws you in, her characters are beautifully flawed and authentic, the Irish setting comes to life not only in style but in substance. There is an underlying emotional sense to these books that is really impressive. Poor Paula, she has been through the wringer over the years, with her relationships and her difficult career – the author offers no guarantees that the rug won’t be pulled out from underneath her yet again in this final reckoning – so to call it a page turner doesn’t really do it justice. You honestly wont be able to put it down.

As a reader who has followed these from the start I was very emotional myself when I got to the end of The Killing House – whether in a good, cathartic way or a completely destroyed sobbing heap way I’ll leave you to find out for yourselves – but I HIGHLY recommend this and the books leading up to it. If you haven’t read them yet get the lot, go on a binge read, it’ll be more addictive than anything on Netflix I can promise you that. If you, like me, have been waiting for this “closure” then you won’t be disappointed. Absolutely and completely brilliantly done.

I’ve been following this series from the start and can say that this is the best of the six books. McGowan has always been superb at conjuring up the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and this book, especially, deals with the politics of the peace process in a knowledgeable and sophisticated fashion.

In the foreground are characters and families traumatised and torn apart by their history, trying to build and re-build lives shattered by violence. For all that, Paula has been an inconsistent main character: her role as a psychologist has never really fitted into the structure of these books as she does no ‘psychologising’ and seems to spend all her time conducting her own investigations which the PSNI never try to stop. That said, she seems to have dropped her most irritating traits in this book and is at her most sympathetic.

With a local plot intersecting with the long-term question of what happened to Paula’s mother, this book seems to bring things to a satisfactory and emotionally rewarding conclusion. I hope McGowan isn’t tempted to renew the series: as it stands it reaches the end of a narrative arc and is best left there: 4.5 stars.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Headline for an advance copy of The Killing House, the sixth and possibly final novel to feature forensic psychologist and missing person expert Dr Paula Maguire.

Paula is bored in her new job in London and jumps at the chance to consult with her old team when she returns to Ballyterrin for a wedding. DI Helen Corry has an interesting proposition for her, instead of finding a missing person she uses her skills to identify bones that have been found on a local farm with IRA connections. Could it have something to do with her mother's disappearance in 1993.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Killing House which is an absorbing novel with plenty of twists and turns. It reaches deep into the past and shows that The Troubles have cast a long shadow which still permeates present day life in Northern Ireland. It seems to me that Ms McGowan does this in a very practical way, choosing to highlight individual experiences rather than concentrating on the politics, although the brief mentions the politics do get made me see them in a different light. It's an extremely complicated and emotive subject but I have to admire Ms McGowan's skill in making it easily understood.

The novel is told in the third person and alternates between Paula's present day investigation and personal problems and her mother Margaret's experiences in 1993. Somehow the two narratives dovetail extremely well and had me gripped. I felt as if I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to find out what was coming next. It is, however, not an easy novel to read as the casual violence is upsetting and the fear felt during The Troubles almost palpable. Apart from this atmosphere it requires a fair amount of concentration to keep up with the characters, their motivations, secrets and intertwining relationships.

The novel is not without its moments of humour. The descriptions of the run up to Avril and Gerard's interfaith marriage are amusing and all too believable (I walked the same tightrope 30 years ago), deadly because they are so unimportant in the grand scheme.

Paula is an interesting character. Her life is overshadowed by her mum's disappearance and she is fairly obsessive about finding out what happened to her, regardless of the consequences. I'm unsure of how to view this obsession. Is it incredibly selfish or will it help her to heal and allow her deal with her chaotic personal life? Ms McGowan is at pains to point out some of the pitfalls and pain it may cause so I suspect she may be in two minds herself.

The Killing House is an excellent read, thoughtful and exciting at the same time, which I have no hesitation in recommending.

Stunning, Mc Gowan goes from strength to strength as does this series. So many long running series get a bit lost, that's certainly not the case here. My family lost me for the hours it took me to read this.