Absorbing, Intense and Well Constructed

Safe No Longer is an extremely well constructed thriller that is evenly paced and ends with a shiver. This third novel by Gayle Curtis perfectly combines police procedure with suspenseful thrills in an entertaining story that showcases good character development, haunting pasts, dark secrets, and terrible lies.

The story starts with the murder of a young boy, Raymond, and the disappearance of his best friend, Cara. The children had been on a sleepover, camping out overnight in the garden one balmy summers night. The situation eerily echoes another girl’s death many years ago. DI Rita Cannan leads the investigation but will she be able to find the perpetrator in time?

This book rebounds around between timelines and the story is unusually told in a way that presents the case first and foremost, introducing the pertinent characters, and lining up the suspects and possible or likely motives. Chapters five years after the occurrences are also interspersed, told to a TV interviewer by DI Cannan. It was a technique that worked for me and zhooshed up the story as well as making it more credible.

Safe No Longer was a puzzle with so many pieces that I enjoyed trying to put together. By and large, a fantastic, intricately woven, worthwhile story.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Amazon Publishing UK via NetGalley and this review is my unbiased opinion.

Two kids- Raymond & Cara both are best friends & an amazing gymnasts who had been choosed to be trained at Adrian Player's private gym, which is a dream for many. One evening both were camping out overnight in the garden at Raymond's house while in the presence of his mother Kristen. As same day it was Kristen's birthday so she was a bit drunk so she somehow felt asleep & when she wakes up in the morning she finds out her son had been murdered & Cara is missing.
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DI Rita Cannan is appointed to investigate Raymond's murder & find Cara alive. But the case carries echoes of another girl's death that rocked the close knit decades ago. There are so many connections & mysteries hidden for almost past 3 decades which includes serious crimes including sexual offences & pedophiles luring as young as 5yrs old kids in their trap.

The story & plot had been amazing but it fell badly downside. Ok, so the story has been presented through 5 POVs and 2 time lapses. You're figuring out 1 POV then you've to jump to 2nd, you are trying to make connection b/w the 2 of them you need to jump to 3 & so you've to maintain 5 of them and then when you're getting some idea about a time you're made to jump into 5 yrs later one. It's like you've an amazing story but probably in nervous state you're stretching the story through flip flops for 1st half & then you suddenly gets excited making a fast run in 2nd half again with quick flip-flops but there comes a time you feel exhausted so you just ends it. The ending really didn't made any sense to me. It wasn't like I was expecting happy ending but still it was like 'What did I just read? Can I get any help to understand it ?

Found this book a very confusing read. I’m not sure if asked that I could actually tell the story. The blurb sounded so good and maybe with someone to organise the ideas it might work but just not as it is. It for me at least.

A confusing read. There are too many characters and too much happening to get fully into this story. I could not get interested in the characters and that meant that I struggled to read to the end.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

It starts with the murder of a young boy, Raymond, and the disappearance of his best friend, Cara. This is so very reminiscent of another girl's death many years ago.

DI Rita Cannan is leading the investigation and finding that everyone has secrets ... including herself .. that may affect her ability to find the killer / kidnapper.

I found this to be well-written, in a way that presents the case up front, introducing relevant characters, and lining up the suspects and motives. Interspersed are chapters 5 years after the fact as told by Cannan to a TV reporter. It was a unique take on crime solving and made the story more credible. This kept me glued to the pages until the very last gripping ending.

Many thanks to the author / Amazon Publishing UK / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

I DNF this title. It didn't grab my attention right away. I might end up revisiting this title.... Thanks for the review copy.

I found this to be a very convoluted story that was very difficult to follow. Parts of the story were interesting and I felt that there was a lot of potential for it to be a great thriller but it just missed the mark. The ending was very unsatisfying and left a lot of loose ends. As I was reading the story I was hoping for more than it had to offer unfortunately.

Honestly....? I didn’t finish this book. It started off okay but then it switched to the future and some events were revealed that we didn’t know in the beginning. It just threw me off, leaving me confused with what was going on. I hate not finishing books, especially arcs but I just couldn’t get into this one.

My attention kept wavering and a couple of things were not making sense which is why I had to make the unfortunate decision to not finish this book.

Oh boy... This was one heavy, intricate read.

Quick disclaimer: it revolves around sensitive subjects, such as child abuse.

I absolutely loved this book. It was hard to digest, given the aforementioned reasons, but it was extremely well written and captivating. I found it a bit difficult to keep track of all the characters (there were plenty) and it always took me a second or two to figure out who was who, but I felt something for most of them. Hatred, mostly hatred. There are some abhorrent characters here. I had particular distaste for Gloria. How can someone be so worthless and manipulable??

“Safe no Longer” speaks of the heartbreaking reality most of us are oblivious of. It might seem a bit far-fetched, for lucky, sheltered people like me, but it covers things that do happen. The world is full of horrendous people

5 stars for Gayle Curtis’s prose and courage in the approach taken.

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for this ARC!

When ten year old Raymond invited his best friend Cara for a sleepover towards the end of the summer holidays no one could have imagined the devastating consequences which would come to haunt the town of Green-on-the-Sea. With no witnesses to what happened or why why, Detective Inspector Rita Cannan is faced with an almost impossible task; to find a killer and a missing child while, for the first time, being the Senior Investigating Officer on a case which happened near to where her parents live.

The premise for this book is very good but there is too much happening. Everyone involved has their own agenda and there was only, so far as I could see, two integral characters who shouldn't have to undertake some serious jail time. Yes, everyone has secrets, real life is hard and there are some seriously creepy and flawed people out there, but this novel was swamped with them. Adding that to a two timeframe storyline and things get a little muddled. With a few less people involved the story might not have seemed as jumpy and an indication of when the current day returned to the time of the crime five years earlier would have prevented confusion.

Unfortunately there wasn't very much to like about any of the main characters and I felt no increase in tension as the story moved towards its close. DI Cannan had very little going for her which was a shame. Overall the main story seemed drowned out by the other things going on and I wasn't really bothered if a culprit was discovered or not. This is a shame because a book isn't thrown together, a lot of effort is required, it becomes personal, and many people are invested in the outcome.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review but was left with the impression of a story which tried too hard to do itself justice.

If you're at the end of your list, for quarantine reading, then you may want to give this one a try. After reading enough British mysteries in the past 7 weeks, you'll quickly have an idea of who the suspect is, and then when more suspects come out of the woodwork, you may get 2 or 3 working theories instead, and thus not be surprised at the ending. It's a decent workout for your brain, but not a book that is memorable,

After reading the blurb for this book I had hopes, unfortunately for me it did not deliver. A real struggle to finish it. I thought I owed it to the author to persevere but alas it did not get any better. The story was continuously going backwards and forwards in time which I can put up with if the story needs it. For me it was the characters and there are plenty but I felt that I did not have the chance to get to know them better as the story moved on so quickly. In my opinion it was rushed. Saying that I am sure other readers will enjoy it more just not for me.
Thanks to Amazon Publishing UK and Netgalley for the ARC.

This is the first book I have read by this author and while the idea behind the plot is a good one it didn’t really hit the spot for me.
There were a couple of times where I thought the story was a little confusing and I had to re-read and think about how the jigsaw pieces fitted together.
Having said that I will try other books by this author.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more into romance stories and girlie books therefore am extremely pleased and grateful to them for opening up my mind to something totally different.

I enjoyed this very much. 4 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Unfortunately this one just didn’t do it for me. I had a hard time relating to any of the characters. I found there was a bit too much going on in one small town to really make this one believable. There also didn’t seem to be any sympathetic characters. I would still check out other work by this author to see how she develops as an author.

Safe No Longer by Gayle Curtis initially lured me in with an appealing cover and with the promise of a compelling plot. Unfortunately, this one was a bit of a miss for me. It might very well be my quarantine induced fug, but I just could not come to grips with a storyline that, more often than not, seemed to be cluttered and chaotic.

DI Rita Cannan is called to investigate the murder of a young gymnast, and to find his female companion who has also gone missing on the same night. The circumstances are hauntingly similar to a case from years before, when another young girl was found murdered. Secrets rock the small town, and DI Cannan finds herself in a simultaneous effort to solve the current case, while also reconciling herself with the past.

This is a well-written and ambitious read although, for me, the dual timelines were difficult to balance, and the story felt somewhat confused and difficult to follow. Admittedly, it was very possibly only me who was confused, but this one was not a good fit. I would be interested to read more from Ms Curtis in the future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This book wasn’t really for me. Too far fetched in places.
I kept on reading wanting to find out what happened to cara and Raymond. The ending was very much like most of the book too unbelievable.

It just didn't grab me like a books needs to in order for me to finish it however it was well written and not terrible that's why I gave it 3 stars.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. If you want a thriller with twists and turns and great characters you will really enjoy this book. I loved it.

I can see by other reviews that I am not the only one who found this book lacking. Just couldn’t get into the book.i received an arc from the publisher and this is my unbiased review.