Guilty is a gripping psychological thriller that starts with the disappearance of a teenage schoolgirl. The novel keeps the reader guessing til the end. Compelling characters and plot. I enjoyed it very much.

I chose to stop reading this about one-third of the way through. I found it to be poorly-written with too many non-credible situations and circumstances. The newspaper "clippings" interrupted what flow there was, and there was far too much exposition.

I was hooked from the very beginning, i love pscyological thrillers and this was definitely the book for me.

Twisty and quick moving, but a little too predictable.. However, I do believe Laura Elliott is a good writer with a lot of potential.

This is one of the best books I have read all year. 5 Star. I couldn't put it down. The plot is brilliant right to the very last page. Karl is happily married, he has a young daughter and is close to his brother and his family who live nearby. When his 13 year old niece Constance goes missing Karl is devastated. He shared a good friendship with her. This friendship is twisted by a crime reporter named Amanda Bowe and the more dreadful things she writes, the more everyone around him, even family, believe what is written. When Constance's body is found the police arrest Karl and he loses his whole world. He is innocent!! but Amanda Bowe still keeps up her campaign against him. When Karl has been in prison for 8 months he is freed as the killer is found. By then it's too late to save his marriage and relationship with his family. He vows to one day take his revenge on Amanda and waits until the time is right to put his plan into action! Brilliant!

This is a brilliantly written book with a very emotive theme. It demonstrates perfectly how vicious and fickle the media can be and instrumental in wrecking people's lives and/or reputations just to enhance their journalistic career. It makes you wonder about "Innocent until proven guilty" when the media wolves and the public start their hate-campaigns. I thought it was also brought out well how loyalties are often paper-thin during a crisis. Also how scarily invasive the media can be. It's really quite a scandalous read, very cleverly woven so you are stretched until the end to find out what is happening fully. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read it. I shall post this to GoodReads, Amazon and my blog.

Wow this was a book and a half...!

I've read a few by Laura and this newest offering certainly did not disappoint either.

Basically Constance Lawson is 13 and missing, her Uncle Karl Lawson is the person in her family she is closest too and he becomes prime suspect! She sneaks out late at night to complete a "dare" and doesn't come home and the search for her begins.

All fingers point to her uncle including the one dog his brother and his wife and a truly vile reported who seems to have it in for him for reasons we find out later in the book.

His life totally spirals out of control and it's just heartbreaking really, I felt more sorry for Karl than the girls parents who's child was missing.

The book is a great read, fast paced with lots of twists and characters to get into. I hated the reporter and wasn't too fond of Karl's brother or wife either but really gelled with him and found myself totally rooting for him. That's all I'm going to say as any more and I'll spoil it!

An exceptionally good read of which I devoured in one sitting, can't wait to read more from the author! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Constance found her parents boring and thought they were trying to stop her growing up.She felt she had much more in common with her hip Uncle Karl who wrote for a music magazine & could get tickets and backstage passes to the latest bands. She was thirteen when she went missing after her parents refused to let her go to a concert where he had supplied the tickets.

Karl suddenly finds himself in the middle of the investigation as prime suspect. Crime reported Amanda Bowe has her own axe to grind with Karl and with special information she makes sure the finger is pointed enough to get him jailed on suspicion of Constance's murder.

In a short while Karl has lost everything. His family, his job and his self respect. How can he reclaim his life and get his own back on the woman who destroyed him? Revenge is a dish best served cold and Karl is a patient man.

Although I found the first part of this book a bit slow going it developed into a real page turner. I had a great deal of sympathy for Karl, but really dreaded what he would do.

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for this nail biting story- definitely five stars!

I liked the premise of this book and it was well written unfortunately, the buildup towards the revenge was a very long and slow process and in the end I never found it to be a suspenseful thriller.

I was really surprised to discover this ISN'T a debut for that was the impression I got throughout. I've read many debuts in my quest to find new & exciting authors to add to my ever-growing TBR list and Guilty had that debut vibe.

An awful lot going on yet at the same time not much happening...
Character development was sorely lacking...
It was over before it begun. Quite literally at 35%!! Weird.

For me, this was far from being a psychological thriller and I was really disappointed.

Thanks to Bookouture for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Guilty by Laura Elliot
Publisher: Bookouture

Thanks to NetGalley for the ebook ARC of Guilty by author Laura Elliot and publisher Bookouture in exchange for an honest review.

The story begins with 13 year old Constance Lawson, who is reported missing. Days later her uncle, Karl Lawson has been swept up in media by journalist Amanda Bowe, implying that he is the prime suspect in her disappearance.
Six years later, Karl has lost everything, his marriage is over, his wife has taken his daughter away, he has lost his job.
Meanwhile, Amanda’s career is thriving, she has a successful career, a husband and a son.
Until one day, her world is turned upside down with just one phone call, and it is every mother’s worst nightmare.

This book is told in 4 parts. The first part is about the disappearance of Constance Lawson. And the climax of the book was revealed in part 1, less than half way through the book. The other parts in the story is about other characters in the book and steered away from the story of Constance.
To me this book, kind of lost interest and I found it a rather slow read. It was almost like I was reading a couple of different novels.
I give the book a rating of 2 stars, it just didn’t grab my attention the way other psychological thrillers did. I was very intrigued by the first part of the novel though, and it was well written. I did find that the author, did create and expand on a few of the characters very well.

This book started out brilliant for me and I was practically glued to the pages . Unfortunately however it faded a bit in the second half and at times I was struggling through it . I know others will love this book but it dragged a it for me .

I did not know I was owing a review for this book, which I should have posted months ago, I thought I had written it. It's so saddening when life gets hectic and you don't have the time to do some things or in my case think you've done it when you haven't!

This book was my first Laura Elliot book and I can only say that I was impressed by it. I suppose a lot of people should have read this book by now because it's published by Bookouture and they push out the best Mystery/Thriller books.

 Once I started reading this book, I didn't want to put it down for anything, I just wanted to take it in one go and figure out what was happening and why. This book is one hell of a captivating psychological thriller. 

Missing person books are also thrilling, especially when you want to figure out the pieces and actions that led to the disappearance. But this book is a lot different from that because it deals with how such an occurrence can change the lives of many people and is divided into four parts, that make it seem like we're reading different stories but is all the same, but ties of nicely at the end.

I do need to state that I for one felt sympathy for Karl and despise Amanda Bowe.

This book was a delightful read and I know it's a book that will generate a lot of mixed reviews, but I enjoyed it.

A child is missing! Thirteen years old Constanza leaves her home in the middle of the night and never comes back. Constance is very close with her super cool uncle who lives nearby. There is some evidence that she was on her way to see him. But she never came.

Seven days later, Constance’s body has been found. The media is all over the case. The reporter Amanda Bowe covers the story and she is literally bombing with accusations. She believes that Karl Lawson, Connie’s uncle is the killer. With that media coverage, Karl is convicted of murder.

Eight months later, new evidence appears and Karl Lawson is free. But he loses everything. The wife leaves him with their daughter, his brother doesn’t talk to him. He loses the house, nobody wants to hire him. In the meantime, Amanda Bowe works on the mafia case and threats start to arrive. She is pretty sure that Karl Lawson wants his revenge.

Does he?

This book is told in four parts. To be honest, I had very high expectations after reading the first part and I might have scored this one a bit higher also. But after that, the story pace became hot and cold. There were parts that were very slow and I was wondering about their place in the story. Then the story became interesting again (I won’t reveal more), raised my hopes again and then slowed again. It was hard for me to finish it and I couldn’t connect with it. I couldn’t connect with the characters either. A psychological drama might be a better description than a thriller. I am sure that plenty of people will fall in love with this book, but unfortunately, I wasn’t one of them. That’s why I rated it the way I did. That is just my opinion.

I didn't enjoy this book and struggled to finish it. the story wasn't captivating and I found it a bit boring. The characters were not very likeable.

The Guilty was exactly what I thought it would be, but in the best way possible. I had hoped for a fast paced page-turner, a clever mystery and engaging characters and that is precisely what I got! I was immediately absorbed by Karl and Amanda's stories and Elliot is so good at building the tense atmosphere to result in a memorable climax. Can't wait to read more by this author!

A good psychological thriller. Well written and enjoyable
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review

This was an intriguing story which was quite unsettling. It had me gripped from the start to the finish - I really enjoyed the ending which I didn't predict. It had a very unusual storyline with many twists and turns to keep you guessing.

The story clearly portrays the power of the media and how a story can be twisted to make great headlines. It is a fast paced story which is gripping and also pulls at the heartstrings.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Based on the book's description, I really thought I'd like this one. Karl Lawson becomes the prime suspect in the disappearance of his niece, mostly due to the work of an overzealous reporter. Six years later, he has lost everything that was important to him and the reporter who did it to him is thriving. I was interested for the first third of the book, but after that it dragged on and on and I was never sure which of the two main characters I was supposed to sympathize with. (After a while, it wound up being neither.)

Really good book, thoroughly enjoyed it. Characters were solid, love this genre.