‘ The whispers’ is an entertaining read that nicely fits into the psychological fiction genre.

The plot is based on the friendship between Anna and Grace, who has been as close as sisters during childhood but who drifted apart when Grace’s family emigrated to Australia when the girls were 17.

Now the women are in their thirties and reunited when Grace moves back to the hometown where Anna still lives with her husband and son.

While Grace hopes the friendship could be picked up where they left off, she finds that Anna has a new close-knit friendship group who fail to welcome Grace into their midst.

The first half of the story is narrated by Grace and tells the story from her perspective, the second half told by Anna throws a real curve ball and alludes to the darker side of teenage friendship.

This is a really engaging book that sees author Heidi Perks going from strength to strength.

My thanks to NetGalley, publisher and author for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.

Yet another blisteringly charged and insightful look at the relationships between women. Women who while they may have grown up together and have a special bond outside factors can cause those bonds to be stretched to breaking. Told from the perspectives of both Amy and Grace ,it tells their story of what they individually thought their friendship meant to themselves. It also conveys to the reader what each woman thought that their friendship meant to the other. How two women can share same experiences as children yet see them in two totally opposite ways. It explores how both women navigate their lives now that they are thrown back into each other’s company and how memories can be clouded by time and distance. The book slowly unravels those feelings and other threads start to appear. A bit like when you are untangling twisted necklaces, you pull one strand for a totally different one to fall loose. As the tension over Anna’s disappearance gets to Grace we start to see cracks in her demeanour. Does she know more than she is letting on or is it just she is so terribly worried about her friends welfare. The more fraught Grace becomes the more the book takes on a darker tone, a darkness that rears its ugly head as the book speeds towards its climatic ending. Having read all the other books by the author I was yet again drawn into the pages of a book that I couldn’t put down. A book that took me back to being a mum stood at the school gates in a huddle with friends, and how we would gossip and embellish on what we heard.

Well that was a struggle! It seemed to drag on and on and then ended like a wet rag. So disappointed #TheWhispers #NetGalley

Another winner from Heidi...! Well written and the characters were fab, told from 3 different points of view I thought it was a steady paced read but that didn’t stop me enjoying it immensely. I wasn’t quite sure who was lying to be honest and I enjoyed the fact I didn’t guess until the end, then I was annoyed at myself for believing the “liar” for quite some time 😂 a really good thriller once again, fab!

Anna and Grace were best friends as children until Grace's parents decided to relocate to Australia when the girls' friendship was severed. Now, they are thirty-something women with families of their own and Grace is back in Clearwater near Weymouth, Dorset. She wants her and Anna to continue their friendship, picking up from where it was left. Anna, who has a new posse of friends doesn't seem particularly keen and is keeping Grace at arm's length. Grace, however, is determined but when Anna goes missing after a night out, she will need to keep her wits about her to find her friend.

I loved this multi-layered novel which was full of unreliable characters and misplaced assumptions. The story is told using a narrative split between past and present so that the reader is able to view Grace and Anna's relationship from then and now. I revelled in this dark, ominous tale of toxic friendship. Well plotted with some great twists, I will definitely be reading more from Heidi Perks.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Random House UK, Cornerstone/ Century via NetGalley and this review is my unbiased opinion.

The Whispers by Heidi Perks is a unputdownable thriller. The book is written from two points of view and we just don't know what character to trust.

We are introduced to both Grace and Anna. Grace has returned back home with her 8 year old daughter after living in Australia with her family. She wants to rekindle the friendship of her childhood friend Anna. The two were inseparable throughout childhood. Grace wants everything to go back to normal but Anna has a new life, a husband, a son and new friends. You are left feeling sorry for Grace.

Anna invites Grace out to drinks with her circle of friends to the pub, but Grace feels like the odd one out in this friend circle and doesn't enjoy her time at all. Anna disappears the very same night. With every question left unanswered Grace stops at nothing to find the answers.

This book is so full of twists and turns and you just don't know who to trust in this story. I enjoyed reading the whole book from the start. I recommend reading this book if you enjoy a great psychological read with some friendship drama involved.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for the advanced copy for an honest review.

A story about lies, toxic friendship and school gate politics. I could not relate to the characters and the storytelling was slow. Three stars.

I found nothing new in this read, nothing original to my mind. It was written well, but the story was not particularly suspenseful, and the characters all not very likeable. I was wishing for a freak accident to take all of them at the end...but that's just me. Not my cuppa, and there are enough 4/5 star ratings to justify this book if it's your type of read. Many thanks to Netgalley.co.uk, the Publishers and Heidi for allowing me to review an ARC of this book.

This book was great! With three POV's and an unreliable narrator (which one?) this book has all it needs to be a good thriller read! And it was! I was eager to know what happened to the Anna, and who is behind it. The twists in the book were amaze and I loved reading it so much, I finsihed the book in just one sitting. (It may have hurt my eyes a little but the book was worth it!)

The characters were built brilliantly and the storyline was gripping. The POV's of Anna and Grace were so good, I believed the liar for a while!

I think that this book is amazing for people who are venturing into the thriller genre. Since I have been reading a lot of thrillers, I could guess what was happening in the end. This book has the second condescending character I'm meeting in a row, so it was easy to figure out the ending. Nonetheless, it was an awesome read. A good ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 read for me!

Thank you #netgalley for advanced copy to read
This is quite a disturbing novel it follows two girls from childhood Anna and Grace they grow up like sisters living entwined in each other’s lives until Graces family move to Australia
But then Grace moves back with her daughter Matilda and Anna’s world is tilted
It shows how much control Grace had over Anna even as a child and Anna starts to realise this she now has her own group of friends her husband and son and Grace is not involved in any of this and is not happy
Grace goes to great lengths to get Anna back but Anna is scared and resists
Will they become best friends again like Anna wants?

Thanks to Net Galley and Random House UK for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
A psychological suspense filled thriller. What happened to Anna on the girls night out, where did she go when the others left in a taxi? Has she been the victim of a horrible crime?
Her friends are concerned, as is her husband Ben, but they all seem reluctant to report her missing. Grace, her childhood friend who has recently returned to the area is frantic with worry and feels the other woman are hiding something, she has been trying to renew her friendship with Anna but there doesn’t seem to be a place for her amongst Anna’s new group of friends.
A twisty tale which includes the tale of Anna and Graces’s childhood friendship which will keep the reader guessing right to the end
This is my fourth book by Heidi Perks and I was not disappointed. Strong characters and a clever plot.

The book opens with the discovery of a woman's body at the bottom of Crayne's Cliff, an area that is known to be dangerous. Three weeks ago, Grace Goodwin had contacted the police about a missing friend …
Clearwater is a typical small seaside village, rather overshadowed by its more popular neighbour Weymouth. Now married with an 8 yr old daughter, Grace has returned to Clearwater, where she lived as a child before emigrating with her parents to Australia when she was a teenager. She is looking forward to re-connecting with Anna, her childhood best friend. However, Anna has a new group of friends and Grace is not made as welcome as she had hoped.
When Anna goes missing after a night out with friends, Grace feels like she is the only one concerned about her. Nobody else seems overly concerned & Anna’s husband hasn’t even contacted the police yet - but Grace knows that something is wrong. Anna would never leave her son. At the school gates, it's not long before the whispers start…
Grace is sure that somebody knows more than they are saying and takes it upon herself to uncover the truth - after all she’s the only one who’s ever really cared about Anna …
The main narrative starts in September & we follow it over a period of 4 months until the body is found on New Year’s Day. Throughout this period, the point of view changes between Grace, Anna (with her close circle of friends), and the collective whispers of other parents at the school gate.
The characters feel very stereotypical and lack depth, but as you delve a little deeper it becomes apparent that this is actually a clever study of certain types of female friendship, jealousy, obsession and manipulation. It will leave you pondering how well you*really* know your friends. The plot is unusual and the twists come just as you are completely sure that you know what has happened! I really liked that the inclusion of the prologue as we know a body will be found. This is not a “happy ever after” story - but whose body is it?

@heidiperks #randomhouseukcornerstone @HeidiPerksBooks @PenguinRandomUK

DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book free from the publishers via Netgalley. Whilst I am grateful for the opportunity to read it, all opinions are my own.

Overall this book was ok, I think my main let down was I could not relate to the characters. Being a mum myself I am very aware of the school mum friendship groups however I have not seen mums link arms, plate each other hair in the playground, I know this group acted like children at time but this was a little far fetched.
The pace of the book was steady and the writing was good.

Sadly, this book just didn’t work for me. I’m not sure which feature didn’t strike a chord but the action took a long time to get moving and the narrative suffered from significant repetition. At heart, I think the main problem is that I just didn’t care about any of the characters or what had happened. I suspect that this may be a marmite kind of thing. I leave open the possibility that there may also be a gender issue in terms of subject matter, although I recognise that this may be a controversial thought.

Huge thanks to the awesome Rachel at Penguin Random House for taking a chance on this very slow, book reading idiot and inviting me to read 'The Whispers', huge apologies for the delay, I wanted to do the book justice and it seems that my concentration is not the greatest at the moment.

This book shines a light on the toxic nature of not only female friendships, but the way it is used to control and manipulate the narrative around women.

Forced together out of necessity -at the school gates-or by intervention-a move back to your country of origin-this novel starts with a gripping crime scene discovery, of a body, at the base of a cliff and leaves us, perilously dangling with fingerholds into the plot, to the very last page.

Between Grace and Anna's now/then chapters, there are the whispers as the interludes, a veritable Greek chorus which does a grand job of fleshing out the background and environs of the school and community where the women live. The suspicions and mutterings escalate, and no one really knows what happened on New Year's Eve where 5 women went out, and only 4 returned.

The first half of the book is primarily told from Grace's point of view and she does genuinely seem like the only person who cares about what has happened to Anna. Even her own husband hasn't reported her missing to the police!
And then, the story flips 180 and leaves you with an entirely different perspective on Anna's disappearance and has you reeling from the shock.

What exactly happened when Grace and Anna were children? And who is the missing girl who vanished from her foster home shortly before Grace emigrated to Australia with her family? And are the mothers at the school right in their suspicions that Anna's 3 friends are a toxic combination of need for validation, and don't really like each other?

A twisting, suspense filled story that is driven by a strong cast of women, I really enjoyed this novel and definitely want to read more by this author!

The start of the book was really good and I was eager to keep reading and the description of the cliques at the school gates was spot on. Unfortunately they were the only good bits for me. I didn’t like the characters and as the story is almost all character driven that was a turn off. I couldn’t even hate them which might have worked. It was just a case of I didn’t care about any of them.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and Heidi Perks for an ARC in return for an honest review.

This book gave me utter chills. Heidi has this way of writing which instantly has the reader captivated. It had me gripped for start to finish. Perfect for fans of Shari Lapena and C.L Taylor. The must read thriller of 2020.

Another compelling read from Heidi Perks. I have enjoyed all her books and this was superb. I was unable to decide which way this was going to go and liked that I couldn't predict what would happen. Excellent characterisation and insights.

An enthralling and interesting read, The Whispers kept me wondering almost until the end (I didn't really like the ending, to be honest.).

At one stage I thought I knew who the bad guy was, but I was wrong, and the author rather cleverly disguises ill intent and obsession throughout the book.

I must say I was left a little confused about Rachel and Eric, they wouldn't have ended up in the predicament they were in if Rachel was as innocent as Anna portrayed her (this observation really is neither here nor there, I think I just sort of kept waiting for there to be a point or some sort of relevance to that, especially in the aftermath of Anna's disappearance). A good read to pass the time, but due to the predictable ending, not my favourite.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for my ARC.

Another excellent thriller by this author. Grace and Anna were childhood friends until Grace’s family emigrated. She returns to her hometown expecting their friendship to restart but it becomes obvious that Anna doesn’t feel the same and is content with her life and friends and not being controlled by Grace as she was when they were young. Grace becomes more threatening and intimidating in trying to get their friendship back on track. Great read.