What You Left Behind
by Samantha Hayes
Genre: Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Crime
Release Date: April 14, 2015
Series: DCI Lorraine Fisher #2
Synopsis:
Two years after a terrifying spate of teenage suicides, the remote village of Radcote has just begun to heal. Then a young man is killed in a freak motorcycle accident and a suicide note is found among his belongings. When a second boy is found dead shortly thereafter, the nightmare of repeat suicides once again threatens the community.
Desperate for a vacation, Detective Inspector Lorraine Fisher has just come to Radcote for a stay with her sister, Jo, but the atmosphere of the country house is unusually tense. Freddie, Jo’s son, seems troubled and uncommunicative, and Jo is struggling to reach out to him. Meanwhile, Lorraine becomes determined to discover the truth behind these deaths. Are they suicides, or is there something more sinister at work? Finding answers might help Freddie, but they’ll also lead to a shocking truth: whatever it is–or whoever it is–that’s killing these young people is far more disturbing than she ever could have imagined, and unraveling the secret is just as dangerous as the secret itself.
REVIEW: (spoiler near the end!!)
First of, thank you “Jasmine of jasminepearlreads” for the copy of this book! ❤
I’ve loved reading thriller books(like from Lisa Gardner) since I was in elementary school. There’s something exciting about all finding out all those mysteries and solving them! What You Left Behind is one of the best. I love how the story developed. It goes around the suicides of this rural village and how the residents cope with it. It’s new to me because there isn’t any romantic relationships centered(which I really hate sometimes because love will always be the flaw or the problem of the characters). It was all about the mystery of the suicides and someone saw something out of the box.
(spoiler!!) I was actually thinking that Frank was the one who killed the lads because from the start I knew it wasn’t a suicide. Just from the way he looks and acts, he could snap you in to two easily. Creepy. Gil was very fragile and special. I like him. The girl on the motorcycle with Dean was a mystery to me. I was guessing while reading it. I would not have guessed that it was Sonia. Wow. Just wow. I was surprised there. Haha
All in all, it was a good book with a promising plot. I thought it was a stand alone novel! turns out it’s part of the DCI Lorraine Fisher series! What You Left Behind will play with you through the end. It was equally thrilling and mysterious.
MY RATING: 4 OF 5!!!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
“I grew up in the Midlands with my parents and younger brother. I always wanted to be a writer and pestered for my first typewriter when I was ten. It wasn’t a clear-cut path to my dream career and it took several decades longer to get there than I’d anticipated. But along the way I had many experiences, met a host of intriguing people, lived in several continents, and had my three beautiful children.
Over the years I’ve worked as a private investigator, bar maid, car cleaner, fruit picker, accounts clerk, nursery nurse, waitress…and I learnt to fly a plane before I could drive a car because for a while I wanted to be a pilot.
I travelled the world and spent an eye-opening time living on a kibbutz, where, having always written as a child and teenager, I was inspired to write longer fiction. After some more backpacking and a stint living in London, I moved to Australia for three years, having a glorious time in Brisbane and Melbourne.
Between 1991 and 1998 I had my children. I lived in the UK and the USA, where my youngest daughter was born. After Seattle, I returned to England, finally settling back in my home county of Warwickshire, where I’ve since renovated several old houses.
Throughout the years, I always strived to improve my writing. In 2003 I won a short story competition and subsequently had a novel published by a small independent press. It’s out of print now. Since 2007 I have had four novels published by Headline under the name Sam Hayes—BLOOD TIES, UNSPOKEN, TELL TALE and SOMEONE ELSE’S SON.”
CHECK OUT THE FIRST BOOK OF THE DCI LORRAINE FISHER SERIES!
Genre: psychological thriller, mystery, crime, fiction, suspense
Release Date: April 15, 2015
Series: DCI Lorraine Fisher #1
Claudia Morgan-Brown finally has it all. Pregnant with a much-wanted first baby of her own, she has a happily established family of two small step-sons and a loving husband with a great career. But she is also committed to her full-time job as a social worker, and her husband travels often. So when Claudia hires Zoe to help her around the house in anticipation of the baby’s arrival, it seems like the answer to her prayers. But despite Zoe’s glowing recommendations and instant rapport with the children, there’s something about her that Claudia cannot trust.
Moreover, there has been a series of violent attacks on pregnant women in the area, and Claudia becomes acutely aware of her vulnerability. With her husband out of town for work and her family far away, who will be there to protect her? And why does she feel unsettled about Zoe? Realizing appearances can be deceiving even in her seemingly perfect world, Claudia digs deeper into Zoe’s blurry past and begins to wonder – how far would someone go to have a child of her own?
mrylsliest 