Cover Image: Flowers for the Dead

Flowers for the Dead

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Member Reviews

Caroline Wilson was an outgoing, independent, slightly wild teenager who was going to become a space botanist until, aged 17 and home alone, she opened her front door to a stranger. Linn Wilson is a scared, anxious women, she doesn't work, rarely leaves home and at 36 relies on her husband for everything.

When a package arrives from her old neighbours she is almost too scared to answer the door but as she unwraps everything a repressed memory shakes her to the core and she realises she has to return to her childhood home after almost twenty years away.

I really liked the premise of this story and looked-forward to reading it story but I really struggled with it which is a shame as no book is written overnight and is a huge personal investment for the author. The chapters were incredibly long and had various points of view in them, could easily have been broken down so there was a natural place to stop. The main character, Linn, was very difficult to like or even feel sorry for and unfortunately I worked it all out way before the end.

There were some good parts, especially showing the way people change or are perceived to have changed over time. There were school friends and older acquaintances last seen through a teenager Linn's eyes morphing into their current day version all of which was well done and entertaining. I didn't feel the tension mounting in the way I know I was supposed to however, and some of the main threads were weak but frustratingly had the potential, with a little work, to be much stronger.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review.

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Mixed feelings on Flowers for the Dead.

I enjoyed the way it was written but my main complaint is the plot was obvious. Within a few chapters I knew how this was going to end. Then we have that final chapter.....erm it doesn’t make any sense?

Linn was a great character, a bit kooky and scared of the world I liked how she faced her fears. A quick fun read that I CAN recommend just not to regular thriller readers.

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A thriller set in two time periods, a before and after type mystery. After a horrible attack, a young woman's life is changed and no one is punished. When living with the unsolved crime is no longer tolerable, she decides she will investigate and insure justice is delivered. BUT, as CK Williams tells the story in parts, the jumps between time and characters is a little abrupt. I had to go back several times to figure out what was going on and where the story was going. In the end, this is a good read, worth your reading time.

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I’d like to thank Harper Impulse and Killer Read, One More Chapter and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Flowers For The Dead’ by C K Williams in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Nineteen years ago Linn Wilson was attacked in her childhood home in North Yorkshire, the police investigated but the perpetrator was never found. Linn has decided that after so many years she needs to go back and find out who ruined her life. She packs her bags, leaves a letter for her husband Oliver and moves back into the home that’s been empty since her parents’ death in a hiking accident. Linn is asking questions and someone is leaving her threatening messages telling her to go home.

‘Flowers For The Dead’ is a reasonably interesting story but although some parts are mildly exciting especially towards the end the rest is slow and laboured. The sentences are so short they stop the story from flowing making it difficult to read at times. I didn’t much like the characters who in my opinion were more like caricatures than real people. The novel didn’t come across as a serious thriller and giving Linn and Oliver the nicknames of Sweet-O and Linnsweet almost turned it into comedy. Although I read to the end it was hard-going and not particularly enjoyable.

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4.5 stars rounded up
TW: rape, suicide

This was an exhilarating read, everything I would hope for in a psychological thriller. It is the story of Linn, who as a 17-year-old was brutally raped. Nineteen years later and forever traumatized by what she can and cannot remember about that night, Linn decides to revisit the past and finally find some answers.

Williams deftly takes us deep into Linn's past and her friendships with Anna and Teo, and Jacob, whom she dated briefly. Minor troublemakers, as kids Linn, Anna and Teo played ding dong ditch throughout the town and had a very specific way of signaling each other through a three-count tapping or doorbell ring. This plays heavily throughout Flowers for the Dead, for while Linn investigates her past and that night, someone torments her with those same doorbell rings in the dead of the night.

I loved the character development in this story. Williams did a wonderful job of digging deep into Linn's trauma and reminding readers that unless you have experienced it, it's difficult to understand the reasoning behind some of the actions victims take (for example, and this is no spoiler, Linn chooses to stay in the house where the attack happened, despite there being no cell service).

I took off half a star because I knew the "whodunnit" about a quarter of the way through the book. Also, I wasn't crazy about the shift in narrators, particularly in the last quarter of the book. Despite those minor annoyances, Flowers for the Dead is a worthy thriller. I look forward to more by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Expected publication date March 30, 2020.

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I wish to thank Net Galley and the publisher HarperCollins for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

At age 17 Linn is brutally raped after coming home drunk from a party. Her doorbells rings and she opens the door and admits the rapist. When she regains consciousness sometime later she can remember very little of what happened to her. No one is ever charged with the assault. Nineteen years later Linn returns home to try to resolve the terror she still experiences.

This story grips you in the first few pages and keeps your interest to the end. The characters are easy to follow. Most characters are likable and you learn bits and pieces of the puzzle as you read chapter by chapter. I must admit I thought I knew the culprit and then thought it was first one character and then another. Isn’t this what makes a great mystery?

This book was not a fast read for me but one I was eager to pick up and continue. One certainly learns the lesson be careful who you allow to enter your home.

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Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author for this ARC.

I thought this book was an ok read. I felt it was disjointed at times, changing to different character points of view a little to often for my liking which made it a harder for me to really get into. The ending though .... wow, never expected that ! 3 stars

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#FlowersForTheDead #NetGalley
A good suspenseful book.
A teenager, Linn was attached when she was 19. She left that place and moved to a new one. An incident brought her memory back. Linn is determined to go to the bottom of that matter and wants to know who was her attacker. Will she find her attacker? Who was her attacker? Why he attached her? Go through this book to know more.
I love the character of Linn.
The pace of the story is slow in the starting but it becomes pacey after a few chapters.
Thanks to NetGalley and One More Chapter for giving me an advanced copy of this book.

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Linn was attacked when she was 19.
She moved away from the place where she was attacked. But one day something helps rejig her memory about the attack and she moves back home to try and work out exactly who her attacker was
But as she is uncovering this, she uncovers more secrets from where she lives

It was a good book. It was suspenseful. I did guess what had happened very early on in the book.

The topic of rape is dealt with amazing and shows the impact that rape can have on someone’s life

Overall. A good book.

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This is quite a suspenseful story, though it didn't feel as original and engaging as I might have hoped. I do read a lot of crime fiction, though, so I am quick to guess a lot of twist. I did think Linn was an interesting character, and though the plot was a little confusing at times, it was a well written story all in all.

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Flowers for the Dead is an intense suspense. Good plot. I received an arc from the publisher and Netgalley and this is my unbiased review.

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This book wasn't my usual genre. But still enjoyed it I recommend this book though because it was a good read 5🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

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Having just read this book I am not actually sure how I feel about it!

I found it a little confusing at times and hard to piece together and not sure how I feel about the ending!

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Flowers for the Dead is one of the best novels I read for 2019. The rough storyline hit a nerve and didn't stop until the end. I loved the strong and determined main character.

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Linn comes home from a party and answers the door bell believing it to be a friend but is raped. She returns to the village after many years in the hope of discovering who attacked her but who can she trust and who is lying? and then the bell goes late at night with the same sequence. Several tense parts but others are repetitive. All in all a good read.

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A deep, disturbing book about rape, relationships and lies.
Linn was raped as a teenager and the culprit is not found. She returns to her old home and Yorkshire town from London where she had been living with her husband Oliver for 19 years after discovering she can’t have children.
She is determined to find her attacker and visits her old friends, the policeman who investigated her attack and her counsellor.
Her story is completely different from what she has believed all her life.
Full of red herrings, twists and turns the narrative is told from several people’s perspective.
Linn discovers that many of the key characters have been lying for years, making her unsure who she can trust.
A great psychological thriller which will keep you reading until the last page.

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Linn returns to her family home 19 years after being assaulted there by what she thought was a stranger. A memory has come back that makes her think she knew the attacker, and she decides to find out who it was. I guessed pretty early on who it was, and I was kind of disappointed about that. There was one really gross character in this that I could not stand, and I know that he was supposed to be a creep, but yuck. I don't know how I feel about this because I liked reading it for the most part but was underwhelmed by the ending. 3 stars.

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This was an ok read for me . I struggled to kerp reading it and concentrate as it was a bit all over the place . The story line was ok but I would have enjoyed it better if it stayed on track . I finished it but couldn't say I will remember very much of it later on

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Initially, I was uncertain about the book's format, the way it skips PoVs, because that's just really not my preference. Despite that, however, this book drew me in.

It was a nicely paced thriller which, on the surface, was about a woman going home to uncover who raped her as a teen. Along the way it sneaks in commentary on covert racism, white privilege, male privilege, and the failure of the justice system. It touches on how people's biases and the idea of a "good man/boy who made a mistake that might ruin is life." And how push comes to shove, people are willing to through women and foreigners under the bus for the sake of the Good Old English Boy. It is also a story of how rape can effect someone's life, and completely change their trajectory.. A rape survivor is someone living with an open, weeping wound for years.

The book also lightly touches on how confusing teenage sexuality can be, and seizing second chances when they come by. Oh, and appreciate your friends.

And so, although the first couple chapters had me wary, I ended up loving this novel by the end.

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I enjoyed it but I didn't think it was amazing a bit too mixed up and hard to get in to the story. The ending however was mind blowing

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