Devil's Lair by Sarah Barrie... wow!! I love a good Australian story and this one just sucked me in. It is first book by this author that I have read and I will certainly be on the look out for more now. I loved the rural settings and the character story in this book. It had such a dark and spooky feel but at the same time I could imagine the beautiful surroundings it was set in. Once you start reading this you are instantly caught up in Callie's world and pray that things work out well for her. I really liked this character and hope we will see her again.

The story starts in the gorgeous Hunter Vally, one of my favourite places to visit (and not just for the wine!!) it is a lovely part of Australia, beautiful scenery. Callie and her husband Dale run their own winery and Bed and Breakfast and are happy. Until one night when Callies world is turned upside down. Everything that she thought she knew is shattered and her life changes forever. She flees to Tasmania with her friend Paisley to try to escape the media and start her life over. Paisley arranges for her to live in a cabin on the grounds of her family's estate. A lot of new characters now come into play and it took me a while to keep them all straight and how they all linked. But as I kept reading it all became clear. Callie starts working as a landscaper in the grounds of the hotel and starts to feel happy and safe again. But then gruesome murders start to happen around her. The spooky stories and happenings have her questioning her sanity. And there is a new man in her life, but she is not sure she is ready for that just yet.

The ending of this book had me gasping! I certainly did not see it coming and it was brilliant. I was pulling for Callie, she is a great character that has had a tough life and deserves to be happy again. There is a lot of character development in this story by I found it to be a quick paced book that I just wanted to keep reading. I hope to see a follow up in the not too distant future.

Thanks to Harper Collins, HQ Books and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased

This was my first Sarah Barrie read, so I wasn't sure what to expect, however I knew that the blurb intrigued me and I needed to read it.

What a dark, psychological story with touches of the gothic.

Callie's story is not a fun one, she has really been through the wringer yet come out the other side, ready to move on with her life.

Witches, monsters, all that she never believed were real have come out in force to mess with her mind. And all the while, these monsters are humans.

There are so many characters written into this story, it could at times leave you scratching your head wondering huh?, however the story it sold with such pace you are never left wondering for long, as you are swept up in the next intrigue of the story.

There were some twists and turns, and I really did not know whodunnit until Ms Barrie really wanted us to know. So many red herrings had me wondering if I knew anything!

I did have a couple of WTF moments as things were revealed - and that is a good thing. Usually I have a pretty good idea of who did it or at least where the story would go, but this time I wasn't even in the same postcode!

I enjoyed this story, and look forward to reading more of her work in the future.

“Devil’s Lair” is a tricky novel to review; I found it something of a potboiler, overheated, and stretching credulity too far, and yet it was very hard to put down while I was reading it.

Callie is happily married, running a business with her husband Dale, with no clouds on their horizon. And then a dreadful tragedy leaves Dale dead and Callie facing unimaginable problems. She winds up in Tasmania, fleeing from her past. She thinks she’s found a haven on Connor’s property – a hotel and restaurant, which also offers rural activities for guests.

But has her past followed her there? Or did something dark from this place of beauty and peace reach for her on the mainland?

The characters and their relationships are the greatest strength of this novel. The growing friendship between Callie and Connor is powerful, and the attraction between them leaps off the page. Their romance is the most believable part of this novel, and I found myself hoping for the best for them.

Other characters are well drawn, and their quirks and behaviour are believable and help to bring Callie and Connor into focus. I enjoyed reading about these people and their lives.

I found the thriller/ mystery elements of the novel a lot weaker. I picked up on a couple of key elements fairly early on. Although the middle section was well executed, with genuine tension to it, the revelations at the end just went over the top. I found it hard to credit the “solution” to these elements of the plot, and the way everything got piled on in the last part of the novel... well, it just didn’t work for me. It didn’t feel credible or real.
But this novel is highly readable, and the combination of a strong writing style and the vivid relationship between Callie and Connor made it hard to put down. It’s just that when it was finished, I felt dissatisfied and a bit jaded.

If you like books with strong relationships, you’ll probably enjoy reading “Devil’s Lair”. If you’re more of a crime reader, you’ll probably find yourself pulled along to the end – but you may not be very satisfied when you get there.

Sarah Barrie has very quickly become a must read author for me, and I've been looking forward to her newest offering.

Devil's Lair, takes us back to Calico Mountain and the friends we made in her previous book Bloodtree River.

After her husband's violent death, Callie is desperate to start over. Her friend, Paisley, sets her up in a cabin on her family's property in Tasmania. It's a quite place for her to regroup, figure out what she wants and how she can achieve it.
Over at the Calico Mountain ranch, Connor is still reeling after the events of Bloodtree River and Jules' betrayal.

I find it a bit hard to judge whether this would work as a standalone book. You're definitely better off having read Bloodtree River to get an idea of Calico Mountain and the events that Connor has previously experienced.

Highlights of this book:
I love the Atherton family interactions. Logan, Connor and Tess are great, fun characters and their interactions are realistic, they behave like a loving, caring family. It just doens't feel fake, they feel like real people.
Also on that note, the return of Indy as a character. I seriously love her. She's just so awesome and kickass and take charge. I love that her story hasn't ended and hope we keep getting to see her.
The vivid descriptions of the Tasmanian countryside. Barrie does a beautiful job of bringing this town and it's inhabitants to life. I can completely visualise these places.
The creepy nature of the suspense in this one. It just felt so much for vicious than that of Bloodtree River, and so completely juxtaposed to the beautiful surrounds and lovely people. I love it.

Lowlights:
Paisley. I really struggled with her as a character.

A good, creepy tale, with just a dash of romance.

Callie Jones has never had any reason to mistrust her husband Dale, until the day that derails her entire life. How could Callie have been so wrong about the man she had chosen to spend the rest of her life with?

Fleeing from the eyes of the press after Dale’s violent death, Callie takes up the offer of a friend to stay in a cottage in the grounds of a lovely old mansion that has sadly been allowed to decay in the hands of its elderly owner. It’s a lovely place for Callie to rethink her options, and she is not deterred by the spooky stories attached to the main house and surrounds. Small Tasmanian towns can keep their secrets just as well as anywhere else and Callie now has enough of her own to protect. As she begins to become aware that someone is watching her and moving creepy toys are around the cottage as she sleeps, Callie increasingly no longer feels safe in her remote rural hideaway. The creepy neighbour who won’t take no for an answer is unsettling enough and those weird markings around the doorways and windows? What on earth are they meant to ward off, or allow in?

Nearby Calico Mountain is a hive of industry and the family that run the tourist lodge always have a million ongoing concerns. Manager Connor Atherton though is beginning to seriously rethink his decision of participating in a project that provides work opportunities to ex prisoners. The slaying of a beloved horse, the disappearance of one of the new workers plus a murder all adds up to chaos and the possibility of the tourist lodge losing both custom and solid employees. Thank heavens Connor now has Callie in his life to help him sort it all out.

Author Sarah Barrie has written a large cast of characters into this book and it can be a bit of a challenge to keep them all in sharp focus as you read DEVIL’S LAIR. Granted there are threads included for future works featuring secondary characters, which are easy enough to flag as you encounter them.

The book jaunts along with jarring death after jarring death which do not sit well alongside the otherwise cozy narrative of a woman finding love again after trauma. The two worlds do not collide so well in DEVIL’S LAIR which struggles to keep an ongoing momentum with the slayings that should have attracted a huge police presence, not just the attention of local country cops, and the budding romance of a widow with the local gorgeous bachelor. Can absolutely see this book as a fully formed romance novel without were it not for the crime elements being introduced, but cannot see that DEVIL’S LAIR would be convincing in reverse.

If you like character driven dramas set in small communities, you will appreciate DEVIL’S LAIR as it is rather sweet and dialogue driven and does not spend time delving into all the gritty details of a detailed homicide investigation. This is not a suspenseful read by any means but you will quickly become invested in seeing a happy ending for Callie after all that she has experienced.

Following her husband Dale's violent death at their Hunter Valley winery, Callie Jones has run away from the media attention to Tasmania hoping to start a new life and return to her previous work as a landscaper. Her friend Paisley has arranged for her to stay in an old cottage on her father's property Waldron Park where she can live quietly while the media frenzy dies down and look at starting up her new business. After meeting the nearby Atherton family at Calico Lodge, a farm and tourist resort, she finds their groundsman has been injured and she is soon happily occupied landscaping some new garden areas for them.

While she makes new friendships at Calico Lodge, particularly with handsome Connor Atherton, Callie's life at Waldron Park is not as peaceful as she would like. She has tried to befriend Paisley's father who lives a solitary life in the old, crumbling mansion but although he accepts the meals she brings him, he has little to say. Then there are the strange noises in the night, sinister stories of ghosts and witchcraft, and unsettling dreams.

Sarah Barrie has written a spooky, gothic mystery set in rural Tasmania. As strange happenings escalate, the suspense builds and events become more unsettling, eventually erupting into violence. A surprising plot twist will have you re-evaluating everything you thought you knew and drive you to the nail biting climax.
Highly recommended for those who enjoy a suspenseful murder mystery.

‘Forever, she thought, sounded just perfect.’

Life in the Hunter Valley for Callie and her husband Dale is idyllic. They have a winery, a beautiful home and gardens, a successful business. And then Dale dies violently.

Two years later, Callie takes refuge in Tasmania. Her friend Paisley has arranged for her to stay in a cottage in the grounds of an old mansion in southern Tasmania. Could this be the new start Callie is looking for? But the old mansion has a history, of witchcraft and murder, and that history threatens to overwhelm the present.
What can I tell you about this book without spoiling the suspense? Almost any description will give away some detail which will (trust me) be important in appreciating the story. Callie is driven to question her own sanity at times: she’s willing to think that she might have an overactive imagination, but some events defy any logical explanation. And, at the same time as Callie is trying to fit in and find her own place, others are having their lives destroyed.

I found it easy to get caught up in the story, to allow the setting to transport me into aspects I usually would not enjoy. The pace of the story didn’t allow me time to bring my usual cynicism to tales of witchcraft and trying to understand who murdered whom (and why, as well as who might be next) kept me turning the pages. And the ending? You’ll need to read it for yourself to find out.

If you like gothic settings, if you enjoy suspenseful mystery with a twist (or two), then you may enjoy this novel as well. Just pick it up, start reading and follow the story.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith