<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53138118-possession" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Possession" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1595210071l/53138118._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53138118-possession">Possession</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14205906.Katie_Lowe">Katie Lowe</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4272421117">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Interesting who done it when Hannah's husband is found dead and a neighbor accused of his murder. Untill a podcast clears his name, that is. This puts Hannah back in the spotlight but the trouble is...she can't remember anything. Meanwhile, several people who are close to her begin to doubt her innocence. This book kept me guessing and I enjoyed reading it.
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Yes! This was everything I needed to start off spooky season!

I like the podcast aspect those have been nice additions to books recently. I loved that it was a crime thriller. I honestly thought something different from the cover but I still enjoyed this.

I would recommend this for a fall spooky read.

If you love true crime/murder mystery podcasts you’ll enjoy this book. I was surprised by all the twists the story takes. Overall I enjoyed the story.

Thank you to the Publisher and Netgalley for the advanced e-reader copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

DNF - did not finish. I could not connect with the writing style/plot so I decided to not pick this one up. Thank you, NetGalley and publisher for the early copy!

So for me, this book was just okay. I thought the mystery was good in the beginning, but then it just kept circling around the same things. While the tension was building, the pacing felt rather slow. I liked how it ended, it just took too long to get there.

The twists and turns in this story rival any roller coaster. I was breathless, I read some of it so fast. And the ending was absolutely obvious, except that it really wasn't. I want more like this!

This book is also marketed as 'Possession' in the US.
This is another mixed one for me.
The plot drew me in straight away. I was hooked. But then the pace slowed massively and dragged at at times. I know I have a high standard for what I call pow-pow-pow thrillers and this didn't deliver on this for me.
The introduction of the true crime podcast Conviction was a great tool, but for me didn't have enough involvement. I am a huge fan of true crime podcasts and I loved the idea as a way of adding up the clues as the story progressed, but I found it didn't really all work together until the finale, and could have been executed a little better.
The main character Hannah was mostly likeable, but the book definitely delivered on the intrigue and the 'is she an unreliable narrator' scenario.
I'm unsure if this book will be memorable for me, as I feel it could have had better execution, and was rather disappointing.

Hannah Catton woke up one morning and discovered her husband dead in their bed. There was an investigation that eventually linked Mike Philips to the crime and he was convicted for a burglary gone wrong. She moved away from London and started a new life away from everything that happened.
Anna Byers has just helped release a wrongfully convicted man using her true crime podcast, ‘Convicted.’ She takes an interest in Mike Philips’ case and sets out to prove his innocence. (Leaving Hannah as the only other suspect)
As the episodes of Convicted get released, Hannah’s sanity beings slipping and some lies come to light.
Throughout the story, you get the feeling that nothing it quite what it seems. It was a domestic thriller with a podcast element and turned out to be very entertaining.
I really enjoyed Possession, I thought it was quite the suspense novel and it left me guessing until the very end.

Twisty and turning plus somewhat confusing. I really enjoyed parts of the story, some more than others. I would definitley love to read more books by Lowe.

3.5/5

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I gave up about halfway through the book. I wasn't a fan of the back and forth in timelines. I was also really bored. I ended up not caring about what really happened. I also had a hard time believing that the police investigation would be wrapped up so quickly. I honestly didn't care to find out what really happened.

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟.5
Content Rating: 18+
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Contemporary
Published: February 9th, 2021, by St. Martin's Press

Possession, written by Katie Lowe, is a psychological thriller about Hannah, whose husband, Graham, was murdered in their home. The catch is Hannah was the only one, besides her sleeping daughter, in the house at the time. But somehow, she doesn't remember anything about the night of the murder other than waking up to find her husband stabbed to death.

"Tap. Tap. Tap. It's the sound of my husband's blood on the floorboards that wakes me. Like a dripping faucet."

Fast forward ten years, Graham's killer is behind bars, Hannah has left London and all the horrid memories that it holds, and has moved to Derbyshire with her daughter. She has moved on with her life and is in a seven-year relationship with a wonderful man, Dan. Dan adores her daughter Evie, and Evie loves him too. Hannah has an admirable job as a psychiatrist at an eating disorder clinic and is happy until Conviction, a true-crime podcast, starts looking into her husband's murder. With every new episode of Conviction, Hannah becomes a little more psychologically unhinged. I feel like I can't say anything more about the plot without giving too much away.

What I loved about this book was its depth of detail that Lowe puts into Hannah; she was the perfect unreliable narrator. I felt Hannah's sanity slipping away bit by bit. Hannah was not a very likable character, but I did find myself weirdly drawn to her.

What detracted from the book was the pacing. The book starts with a bang and then kind of drags in the middle. I felt as if Lowe gave us too much; sometimes, less is more. However, there were twists, turns, and lots of misdirection throughout, and that did keep me reading; I wanted to know "who done it." But at the same time, a lot was going on in this story, different timelines, side stories which made it a bit hard to follow. However, in the end, Lowe did pull it all together. The ending was good, and it did surprise me. But again, there was something a bit off. Maybe it was some of the unrealistic aspects of the book that didn't add up. This book was written as true fiction, so in my mind, it needed to be believable.

Possession is the first book I have read by this author, and I did enjoy her writing style. However, for me, this was a mixed bag of a review, some things I liked and other things not so much. Overall, this was an entertaining read, with excellent character development and a well-thought-out storyline. If you are willing to put aside some believability, you will enjoy this book.

* Please note the quotes in my review are subject to change once the book is published. *


** I kindly received this galley by way of NetGalley, Katie Lowe, and St. Martin's Press. I was not contacted, asked, or required to leave a review. I received no compensation, financial or otherwise. I have voluntarily read this book, and this review is my honest opinion. **

Ten-years ago, Hannah's husband, Graham, was brutally murdered in their London home. Hannah, along with their baby girl, Evie, were also in the home that evening, but Hannah claims not to remember. I love an unreliable narrator! Someone took the fall and Hannah tried to move on. She keeps getting flashbacks to that night though.

Cue a True Crime Podcast about the case.

I was all in on this one. Read it!

This sounded really interesting but I had the hardest time getting into this, the ending was predictable and not satisfying.

For fans of murder-y podcasts, this book is probably a winner. I was hoping for a hook that would get me interested, but I just can't seem to get into the world of murder successfully!

Hannah lost her husband in a brutal murder ten years ago, and picked up her daughter and left their London life behind for a peaceful existence far, far away from the prying eyes of investigators and former friends. But now, Conviction, a huge true crime podcast, has taken an interest in the story of Hannah's husband - and Hannah's possible involvement. As the story unravels, you find that Hannah is not the picaresque grieving wife she seems to be - and now the world wants to know exactly why.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for advance access to this title!

I was hooked from the first page. Blood, murder, amnesia, what's not to love. Who can be trusted in this twisted tale of deception and betrayal? I was surprised by many of the twists and could not put it down! Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my ARC.

I was interested in this because of the podcast element, but unfortunately this book fell pretty flat for me. It was a little too slow and predictable in a way that made it boring for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this copy of Possession by Katie Lowe.

Man oh man, I loved this book. I read a lot of thriller-type murder mysteries and am always looking for a new twist on the usual plotlines. For me, Possession delivered, big time.

Possession tell's the story of Hannah, both while she's married to Graham and then ten years later when she is living with her partner, Dan. In flashbacks we learn what happened on the night that Hannah's husband Graham was murdered, a night that Hannah has no memory of. When a podcast begins a season featuring Graham's murder and the apparent innocence of the man imprisoned for it, Hannah has a terrible foreboding about what will happen to her life. There's also a creepy old house involved in this complex story of what happens when a person gets out of a damaging relationship only for it to keep haunting you years later.

Lowe did an amazing job unspooling Hannah's memories in a way that kept me constantly guessing. I will say that one of the major plot twists was pretty easy to spot but the detailed and accurate way that the author describes, from Hannah's perspective, the creeping way that emotional abuse and gaslighting can turn into something much more dangerous in a second was engrossing. Five stars from me!

Hannah Catton woke up one morning and discovered her husband in their bed, a knife in his neck. The detectives looked at her as the killer, of course. They always look at the spouse. But eventually the investigation went another way, and DNA evidence linked Mike Philips to the crime, and he was convicted under the theory that it was a burglary gone wrong.

That was ten years ago. Hannah has rebuilt her life, to make things better for her daughter Evie, who was just a kid when her father was killed. Now Hannah works as a therapist for troubled teenagers and is in a stable relationship with Dan, a journalist. The past ten years were not easy on Hannah. Beside all the media coverage of Graham’s death, she also had to contend with a big loss at work when one of her teenaged patients died.

She moved away from London and found a new job, but when she goes on her runs, she secretly finds being drawn back to Hawkwood House. A former mental hospital, Hannah dreams of turning the crumbling institution into a place where her patients could heal in safe, comfortable circumstances. But that’s not the only reason she comes. Her grandmother had been a patient there back when it was open.

Meanwhile, successful podcaster Anna Byers is riding high on the latest season of her true crime podcast Convicted. She has just helped to release a man wrongfully convicted of a crime, and now she’s got her eyes set on Graham’s case. Mike Philips has always said he was innocent, and Anna wants to prove that’s true. But in looking back at the case, the only other suspect had been Hannah.

As the episodes of Convicted get released week after week. Hannah listens along with everyone else. And she becomes increasingly frightened that Philips will get released. She has no memory of that night, but she keeps heading back to Hawkwood House, where her grandmother had been locked up. The newspapers said that her grandmother had killed her husband and her kids, and then just walked away. Is it possible that it somehow got handed down, and Hannah is a killer too?

Katie Lowe’s Possession is a powerhouse of a thriller where nothing it quite what it seems. Part domestic thriller told slowly, part crime revisited through podcast, and completely entertaining, Possession is a convoluted story that weaves together in the end as the secrets come to light and the lies get exposed by the truth.

I loved Possession. I thought it was complicated in the best possible way, and it truly left me guessing until the end. But the way Lowe finally reveals all, showing off the deft hand that kept all the right plot points hidden until it was time to reveal them, like a magician showing the card they had up their sleeve the whole time, shows the genius of her plotting. Deft and dark, chilling and thrilling, Possession is a story that has it all.

Egalleys for Possession were provided St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.

This book was such an amazing roller coaster of suspense and emotions that I don’t even know where to start. Except just to say that I loved every minute of it.

When Hannah’s husband was murdered 10 years ago, she immediately came under suspicion, but was cleared when the evidence pointed to a burglary gone horribly wrong and someone else was convicted. But now a popular podcast is determined to reopen the case and not only prove that the young man behind bars is innocent but that Hannah herself is to blame. But the biggest problem is that Hannah can’t really contradict them - because she can’t remember anything from that night. And her family has a dark past eerily mirrors her current situation.

The story is told both in the present and through a series of flashbacks to various points in Hannah and her late husband, Graham’s, life, giving readers a picture of the kind of relationship the seemingly perfect couple had, and it’s a doozy. I don’t want to give away too much, but as they say, no one really knows what goes on behind closed doors. Add in the fact that Hannah (in the present) seems haunted by not only Graham, but by her murderous grandmother and things get really creepy really fast.

I loved how the author let things really simmer and pulled away at the people in Hannah’s life as each episode came out - you could just slowly see her unraveling as each piece of her life fell apart. It was really something.

I highly recommend this one. You won’t be disappointed and i look forward to seeing more from this author. She’s going on my must-read list ASAP.

Hannah’s husband was murdered 10 years ago. She does not remember what happened and the police had found the murdered and imprisoned him.
Suddenly, a popular podcast called "Conviction," has begun focusing on her story and declaring the suspected murderer innocent. Hannah becomes more and more entwined with past memories as the entire town listens to the podcast. Her work and personal life are thrown into disarray, but what can't she remember? What if she is the guilty one?

I am not a fan of the trope of the woman struggling against the world because of forgotten memories but this book was quite well done. Many twist and very thrilling - it keeps you guessing until the end. Highly recommend.