The Heights: From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Our House comes a nail-biting story about a mother's obsession with revenge

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There's nothing quite so chilling as the roar of mother tiger love. Louise Candlish had my heart in my throat. Dizzily dark. Dangerous. Deadly' -- Jane Corry, author of The Lies We Tell In Part 2, the perspective shifts to Lucas's father, Vic Gordon, Ellen's former partner. While the fundamental events remain constant, Vic's story leads us to begin questioning Ellen's perceptions and her actions towards Kieran. With all of this being said, I did like the way this story was formatted; the way Kieran's relationship with Ellen's family was revealed, the tragedy that changed everything and the revelations at the end. This book is told in three parts through Ellen’s memoir, a magazine article and through the perspective of Vic, Lucas’s father. Ellen is not a likable main protagonist, which might be difficult for readers to get behind. However, Candlish seems to realize this is the case and actually pokes fun of it (see quote above). It is a slow burn and takes a long time for the mystery to unravel. There are several twists that I was able to predict and one that actually caught me off guard! I do think this book could have been edited down a bit, but overall I enjoyed it! The Only Suspect is the sixteenth novel by British author, Louise Candlish. When his wife’s activist group succeeds in their campaign to get a local walking trail reopened, Alex Parker gets nervous. Even though he and Beth have only lived in Silver Vale for ten years, he knows a lot more than he’s letting on about the murder that happened twenty-five years earlier, and he’s worried what might be unearthed if someone starts digging. Avoiding having his photo appear in the media is also a priority.

I thought the end, like literally the last 10-15%, brought something interesting that I wasn't expecting, but other than that I found this to be fairly boring and at times annoying. Only thing I didn’t like was Ellen’s characterization which was a little bit annoying. I couldn’t relate with her and Vic! A woman glimpses a man on a roof terrace. Strange thing is, she knows he's dead. And she knows because she killed him... From the award-winning author of Our House' * The I * She couldn't talk her son out of spending time with Kieran. All the insisting didn't get the point across and ended up with Lucas being in a car accident with Kieran.Well, my goodness! I don’t know what this says about me- but I liked this novel- a lot! I think I might have been under the impression this was a different type of revenge story when I started reading it, but I was way off base. It is a story of obsession, revenge, and hate- no doubt, but one is never sure who is trustworthy- if anyone is. Listening to Ellen and Vic’s POV was so surreal. I was totally invested in Ellen’s recounting. I even sympathized with her. Agreeing with some of her actions, because any good mother would go to great lengths to protect their son from someone that was considered a danger or someone who would drag them down. But when Vic described his version it was like a lightbulb had switched on and I saw the other side of a coin. There are literally 2 sides of the same story. The important details are the same but the way they both viewed things was so different. Sure, he's aged and other things about him seem a little off as well, but it's definitely him. She would know him anywhere. As always, Candlish's characters are intriguingly multi-layered and fully developed. Vic and Justin are believable as the men who have loved Ellen for years, accepting her as a high-strung, protective, but unquestionably devoted mother. They have always tolerated what they perceive as her quirks. They fail to share Ellen's extreme concern about Kieran's potential impact upon Lucas and their family until it is too late. Bestselling author Louise Candlish's latest novel, The Heights, is a book within a book, as well as a family drama. The protagonist, Ellen Saint, is a participant in a writing seminar, drafting a memoir. As the chapters of Ellen's story unfold, they are interspersed with excerpts about it from a feature in the Sunday Times, the reporter's commentary adding interesting color to the tale.

A buddy read with my friend, Marialyce, we both found this to be interesting and entertaining, as well as thought-provoking. This was my first book by this author and won’t be my last.Alex lives a comfortable life with his wife Beth in the leafy suburb of Silver Vale. Fine, so he’s not the most sociable guy on the street, he prefers to keep himself to himself, but he’s a good husband and an easy-going neighbour. This book is told using multiple POV's. This adds some meat and detail to the story. This was another solid read by Candlish but not my favorite by her. I am not a slow burn fan, and I wanted this book to hurry up at times. But there is a nice payoff at the end with the reveal. That was a nice touch and one I didn't see coming. Very nice touch, Candlish, very nice. I would like to point out that I am very much alone with my thoughts on The Heights, and that just about everyone else has loved this book. But sorry, it just didn't work for me. However I will be right there in line for whatever Louise Candlish writes next.

However, the main characters were just so unlikeable, and I felt little connection with them. Ellen particularly put me off. I expected to empathise with her as she was angry and grieving, but she was just so filled with hate, bitterness and prejudice. I didn’t like her at all, her pov brought me down, it wasn't a nice experience to be in her head, to be in her world. I also didn't feel like I got to know other characters well enough. Impossible to resist, impossible to predict, impossible to put down…this is an author at the top of her game.” — Erin Kelly, author of Watch Her Fall Ellen's fixation on Kieran becomes increasingly pronounced as Lucas grows distant and defiant. Both Vic and Justin love Ellen in their own ways and have, over the years, developed mechanisms to copy with Ellen's anxieties and neuroses. They have found that confronting her with facts and logic is counterproductive so, rather, they appear to be supportive of her machinations. In Vic's sardonic first-person narrative, he details the ways in which he manages Ellen, noting that he probably should have drafted a "how to" guide for Justin. Although they are also concerned about Lucas, neither of them are as alarmed by his friendship with Kieran as Ellen is, which she finds utterly exasperating. Justin chastises her for characterizing Kieran as "evil," put off by what he deems to be histrionic behavior on Ellen's part. He believes that Kieran makes Lucas and his friends laugh and poses no real danger to any of them. "What is it going to take for you to start believing me? When something really bad happens, will you believe me then?" Ellen demands. THE AUTHOR: Before writing fiction, I studied English at University College London and worked as an illustrated book editor and advertising copywriter. Bestselling author Lucy Foley is a huge fan of Louise Candlish’s writing and so am I! The Only Suspect is a tantalising domestic mystery that had me on edge from the very beginning of this story to the end. A tale of jeopardy, passion, fixation, lies, deceit and envy, The Only Suspect is a duplicitous piece of modern psychological fiction.Not only is Candlish a terrific storyteller, she has the gift of making you care about unlikable characters' Guardian The premise for this sounded so good to me, and the opening was exciting, reeling me in! But that was where my excitement faded.. This was an overlong and slow moving book, which took me a week to read! I found it easy enough to read, but it had no real drama, tension or suspense 😢

And who sparked a police hunt for a murder suspect that was never quite what it seemed. It still isn’t. Alex is living his best suburban lief with Beth until the creation of a nature trail is announced, threatening to expose decades-old secrets. THE NEW CAUTIONARY TALE OF OBSESSION, LOVE, JEALOUSY AND DECEPTION FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF OUR HOUSE AND THE OTHER PASSENGER Everyone taking the course has a story to tell, for all of the attendees have been impacted by crime. As Ellen works her way through her story she is being observed by a feature writer from the Sunday Times and is about to become the subject of a big article in the national newspaper’s colour supplement. It’s the first hint that her tale is a little out of the ordinary.

No surprise who the bad boy was and even in the end, he didn't get his just desserts. And neither really did she. (Whatever her name was-she had that many.) The Only Suspect is a slow burn - a very slow burn, well, more of a simmer, really - that doesn't really get interesting until over half way through. By that time I was well and truly into 'yeah, nah' mode and wondering if I was reading the same book as everyone else. The story relies heavily on that increasing doubt with every turn of the story, and the uncertainty enhances the suspense and tension as Ellen and Kieran battle wits. Not knowing how reliable Ellen's narrative is increases doubt about who is telling the truth or can be a trusted character. I was questioning what was real or what was Ellen's anxiety and if Ellen's obsession with revenge clouded her judgment. The Heights is told weaving present and past through 2 POV’s, Ellen and Vic who share a teenage son, Lucas from their past relationship. Kieran became Lucas’ best friend in what I believe is Englands equivalent to Junior High (I have read a lot of books the last couple of years that take place in England and I still don’t know their school system 🤦‍♀️). Their friendship becomes an instant thorn in Ellen’s side. She feels with all her heart Kieran is not good for her son. All her efforts to put a wedge between them are thwarted and their friendship continues. After a catastrophic accident involving Kieran and her son Ellen is on an angry path, hell bent on her need for revenge. She will go to any length to get the retribution her family deserves. Louise Candlish is a British author. She resides in south London along with her family, which consists of her husband as well as her daughter. Many of the books that she has written have gone on to achieve best-selling status