NOTE TO PUBLISHER I am part of the blog tour for this book so will publish my review on my blog on 9th May as part of the tour - here is what I've written ....

I’ve been lucky enough to be one of the very first to read his new book and I’m delighted to report it’s as excellent as his previous work which include his debut The Magpies and the terrifying Follow you Home.
My Review
In his latest psychological thriller Mark draws on his experience as a writer and bases his newest work around a writers retreat in Wales. A book with a small group of authors as many of its main characters makes the keen reader feel instantly at home and that’s how author Lucas feels when he arrives at the writers retreat run by Julia but his peace of mind is soon to be shattered by a plethora of inexplicable and spooky occurrences. As an established horror writer Lucas should be used to strange goings on but a recent tragedy, the death of his girlfriend have left him shaken and mistrustful.
Perhaps this is why he feels drawn to Julia, owner of the old country house she has recently opened the doors of to a host of writers. She too knows the pain of loss, she has never come to terms with the deaths of both her husband and her only daughter Lily. Despite the 2 years have passed since the dreadful accident which took them both from her she is unable to accept that Lily is actually dead, especially since her body was never retrieved from the swollen river which swept her away and in which her father drowned trying to save his daughter.
Rural Wales is brimful of legends and myths which should provide the ideal inspiration for Lucas’ writing be he struggles to find the right words, his writing muse has fled. So he immerses himself in local life and listening to the scary legends which include the Red Widow who steals young children and consumes them.
Hi fellow writers turn out to be a disparate bunch with whom he has less in common than at first he hoped, and he soon becomes enamoured with the beautiful Julia and takes it upon himself to try and help her by secretly investigating the mystery which remains around her lost daughter. With the help of a young private eye he sets out to find what really happened to Lily, hoping to provide closure for Julia, but he opens up a whole can of nasty wriggling worms that twine ever more tightly around him and he ends up making matters between them worse and even putting his own life at risk.
Local residents are deeply superstitious and secretive and he realises more is being concealed than revealed as he doggedly battles on to uncover the mystery around Lilys disappearance and that 35 years earlier of another pre pubescent girl.
It would seem that nobody can be trusted. Nobody is telling the whole truth and it appears that local legends which indicate something supernatural going on seem to have some foundation after all. Despite his sceptiscism, after all as a horror writer he knows things that go bump in the night are firmly made up just to scare people. But when the truth is finally uncovered its far more terrifying than anything he could have dreamt up.

I’ve only read one other Mark Edwards book so I was intrigued enough to give this one a go. Unfortunately though, I didn’t gel with it. Missing child books have been around a lot lately, and I just didn’t get on with this one. Yes, in parts it was atmospheric, and I like Mark’s writing style, but I wasn’t gripped by the plot unfortunately. Fans of the psych chiller genre will love this one, but it wasn’t for me!