The idea of being trapped in a confined space terrifies me.  It’s one of my worst fears.  And it’s one of the things I like to read about least.  Which made me wonder when I read the opening to The Death Knock just what I was letting myself in for.

Ava is a young woman, alone, scared and confused.  She has no idea how she got into the wooden box she now fines herself trapped in and, when her captor finally lets her out, how she will escape the small room he keeps her locked in, especially when he tells her about the other women who have already been in her shoes.  

One of those young women is haunting local TV news reporter Frankie, whose story alternates with Ava’s as one woman tries to survive and the other tries to find out the truth without losing her mind as she digs deeper and deeper into a world where men seem to want to do nothing but bring women down.

It’s a compelling story, one that feels a bit ripped from the headlines with it’s use of blogs and social media to push the story forward and create a hidden killer who no one can track down. It means there are plenty of suspects but no one I could pin down as “the one” because I was never sure who was lurking behind a computer screen.

As characters, I connected with both Frankie and Ava and their fear and it wasn’t a particularly nice place to be.  I could have maybe done with a little “light relief” in another character to cut through the darkness but then it probably wouldn’t have been as good a book if I’d gotten my wish.

And it is a good book.  It’s the second by Elodie Harper and the second of hers I’ve read.  The first, last years The Binding Song blew me away and I still flash back to it even now.  One of the things I’d loved about it was the slightly spooky element.  That’s missing from The Death Knock but the darkness of The Binding Song is still here, as is the great writing, which puts this book above others of it’s kind despite a plot that is similar to others I’ve read.

Rating wise, this is probably a 4.5 versus a 5 as a result but that’s still pretty good in my book, making this a read I would really recommend.

Enjoy!

Emma x

About the book…

Three women have been found dead in East Anglia. The police deny a connection. TV news reporter Frankie smells a story…

Ava knows that the threat is real. She’s been kidnapped by someone claiming to be the killer: a stranger who seems to know everything about her.

As Frankie follows the case, she enters a terrifying online world where men’s rage against women may be turning murderous – and where her persistence might just make her a target. And Ava must struggle not only to stay alive… but to stay sane.

Publisher: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: 12th July 2018
Number of pages: 336
Genre: Suspense / Thriller
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Find on: Goodreads / Amazon UK / Amazon US

Note: I received a copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review.  All thoughts, feelings and opinions are my own.