A woman sets out for revenge when she learns that the person responsible for her son’s death is roaming free. As she fights with loved ones about what to do, she revisits the memories of the circumstances around the tragedy and must decide how far she’ll go to get the justice she believes she deserves. Author Louise Candlish plumbs the depths of a mother’s grief with a plot that sometimes gets a little lost in her newest book The Heights.

Ellen Saint has finally managed to put her life back together. For years she’s wallowed in the grief of losing her son, Lucas, in a terrible accident. Well, the world calls it an accident. Ellen is convinced that her son was murdered. No one except her ex-husband, Vic, agrees with her, but that’s okay. Ellen and Vic are Lucas’s parents; they know the truth about what happened to him.

The truth is that when Lucas became friends with Kieran in school, Lucas’s life pretty much ended then. Ellen watched as her bright, caring son with a promising future let his potential dissolve with too much partying, drinking, and drug use. Before Kieran and Lucas became best friends, Ellen could talk to her son. Kieran changed all that and threw his disrespect in Ellen’s face while he did it.

When the accident happened, Kieran seemed contrite but by then it was too late. Lucas died while Kieran made it out alive. He served some jail time, but it wasn’t nearly enough for Ellen. She and Vic found a way to mete out the justice they believed the courts didn’t give them: to make Kieran pay the price for Lucas’s life with his own.

Now Ellen has found a way to live again. Her business as a lighting design consultant is starting to gain traction, her relationship with her current husband, Justin, has gotten better, and their daughter, Freya, is at university and doing well. Things aren’t fantastic, but they’re on their way to being okay.

When Ellen goes to the home of a new client and thinks she sees Kieran in the building across the way, then, she’s horrified. Kieran isn’t supposed to be living in the top floor of one of London’s swankiest buildings. He’s supposed to be dead. How on earth is this even possible?

Despite the urgings of Justin and Vic to let it go, Ellen just can’t. Kieran took her son away from her. How can she sit by and let this smug, self-involved young man keep living when her precious boy will never get the chance to do anything ever again?

Ellen finds herself back in the throes of deep obsession and wants revenge. If she has to do this alone, she will. Because this time, she’s determined to make sure that justice is served permanently.

Author Louise Candlish follows the Ellen all the way to the bottom of her grief, giving readers a protagonist who experiences in three-dimensional space a parent’s worst nightmare. Ellen’s heartache and her numbness are heartbreaking. Candlish knows how to extract sympathy for the mother who wants nothing more than to lash out at the person she believes is responsible for taking away her child.

Unfortunately the uneven pacing of the book means readers will either be racing through pages or doing their best to trudge through them. Candlish’s choice, too, of telling the story with various point-of-view characters—Ellen; Vic; and a journalist who interviewed Ellen—means that the plot gets spoiled long before she intends. Discerning readers will figure out long before the book reveals where Ellen is in the present day, and the twist in the last few pages feels somewhat anti-climactic and slightly forced.

Taken from a “zoomed out” view, the book shows a woman unable to cope with the death of her son and the unfairness that life continues without him. Most readers will probably be able to sympathize with that, although it may not have required an entire novel to reach that conclusion. Diehard Louise Candlish fans will enjoy this one. Others could give it a miss.

I'm a massive fan of Psychological Thrillers; they're my favorite ones! So, I couldn't wait to dive into this. It's definitely on the longer side, but it's still a good read that'll keep you on your toes.

Thank you, Atria, for a copy of The Heights in exchange for my review!

🏢🏢🏢🏢Thank you to @atriabooks for the ARC ! I always enjoy a book by @louisecandlish ! I appreciate her character-driven novels. This one includes obsession, psychological suspense, & twisty prose. The novel is split into three parts, each divided into sections, interspersed with increasingly revealing excerpts from the shadowy protagonist Ellen’s memoir, and juicy narrative from the viewpoints of Ellen and her ex-husband but still good friend, Vic. A well-crafted psychological thriller with excellent sense of place.

Our library has already purchased this title, and I know it will be a hit with patrons. Lots of twists throughout made it an enjoyable read.

The premise is definitely interesting with this one. The man she killed is alive? How is this possible? And why did she want him dead in the first place? Or is she just writing this story and it’s all totally fictional? I’m not going to give anything away, but I will say that I was sucked in right from the beginning and ended up reading the whole thing very quickly.

Perhaps because I am a mother of teenagers myself, I could really empathize with what Ellen was facing with the back story part of it all, how unbelievably horrible if would be to watch your son be led down a terrible path by a kid with no respect for your rules or the upbringing you had tried to give your son. Her grief and her rage were tangible forces throughout, although eventually she lost me with her unending tenacity to get revenge at all costs. The Vic chapters were interesting and provided an interesting contrast to Ellen’s chapters.
I did not see the ending coming, which means it was well executed. I enjoyed this one for sure.

My thanks to Net Galley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read this copy of The Heights.

I've had an uneven history with Louise Candlish, but something about this one drew me in from the beginning and I'm so glad I let it! I found this to be a really enjoyable thriller. There were some moments where I had to suspend disbelief a little farther than is practical, but the writing was engaging and the character studies interesting enough that I didn't mind.

I found this to be a fast read with more twists and turns than a Wild Mouse ride - some of which I didn't see coming, but even the ones I did were written in an engaging enough tone that I never lost the thread of the narrative or fell out of the action. I liked this one a lot!

Sunday Times best-selling author of “Our House” and “The Other Passenger” returns with another elegantly constructed psychological thriller, this time exploring the ferocity of maternal love and the darkest recesses of revenge. This Hitchcockian story follows Ellen Saint, who has “high place phenomenon” — the sudden urge to jump when in a high place, even though she doesn’t want to. Of course, this complicates things when she sees the man responsible for her son’s death up high in an apartment building called The Heights. But it can’t be him, can it? He’s been dead for over two years, and Ellen knows this for a fact — because she’s the one who killed him.

This is one of those books where you have to just keep reading to make it all worth it. The book is divided into multiple parts, and each part gets better and better and better! What I love about Louise is that she always delivers a sucker-punch ending. The first part to the book was a little too long for my liking, but we get a lot of backstory here. This wasn’t my favorite novel by her, but I am so glad I got the chance to read it and add it to my library!

This was such an addictive read that despite its length of just over 400 pages, I absolutely devoured it in just over 24 hours!

Certainly a bit of a slow burn at times but I also felt it was super suspenseful and I was continually on the edge and constantly intrigued to know where this one was going!

Told through multiple POVs and alternating timelines of past and present, this is a cleverly written and incredibly twisty psychological thriller!

It has drama, tragedy, obsession, revenge and dark secrets, ultimately making this one unputdownable for me!

This was my first by Candlish but certainly won’t be my last!

Ellen can't believe what she is seeing. A man she thought was dead is standing in the apartment across the street. Why is he there? Why isn't he dead?

This book is told in an odd way. There is Ellen's POV with flashbacks from her past, there are excerpts from an article called Killing Time, and then there is a book called Saint or Sinner. It takes a little while to get into the groove of this story, but when things start to make sense, the twists are revealed to make you keep reading. There is a lot to this book that can easily be given away, so I would suggest going into it without reading many reviews. It is really a character driven book and the back stories of the different characters provide a lot of substance and sometimes the unreliable narrator syndrome. A slow burn, but very entertaining.

Another new to me author. I will be watching for more by this author.

This book actually was better than I thought it was going to be at first. It seemed to be slow at first but quickly picked up and I didn't want to put it down. The characters were truly messed up. All except Justin. I really liked Justin best of all. He to me was the best person in this whole twisted group of people. His wife, Ellen, was a straight up front nut but with good reason, and her ex, Vic, was just as bad. He was somewhat selfish. At least to me. I do understand why he did what he did. But still he was just a self centered jerk. Ellen had good reason to be a nut, she has issues. Serious ones it seems.

This book will hook you. You will feel like you are on top of the building. Or in the freezing cold water. You will want to know what really happened to the boys. Who's fault things were. Or was there another reason for the actions that happened that fatal night? You'll probably have many guess but the ending will blow you away. I loved how this author pulled it all together and made it a very dramatic ending. Very edge of your seat and hold your breath. I did feel for them all in the end but still didn't like Vic or Ellen.

This book is well written and keeps you guessing. It has all the things you expect from a good thriller. A who done it. A why was it done. A few huge twists. Some serious tears in places. Even the parts where you think you'd love to slap a few of the people involved. Everything seems to work out though and maybe there was a bit of justice. Or maybe not. It's up to you to figure that out.

Thank you #NetGalley,, #LouiseCandlish, #Atria for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

4/5 stars. It lost one because of the parts that made it drag a bit. Otherwise it was great. I do recommend it. Read it. Enjoy it.

I've read one other book by Louise Candlish so I decided to give this one a try and I really enjoyed it. This psychological thriller will definitely keep you on your toes because it's so cleaver.

In the mood for a slow burn thriller, the kind that gives you a feeling of dread and unease as it unfolds? Then this book is for you (I say that with some hesitation…it wasn’t for me). It takes place in London, with The Heights being a sleek, tall building with residential flats. The story’s main character, Ellen, has fear of heights…well, a twist on a fear of heights anyway.

Here’s the thing about this book - and I think I felt the same about the other Candlish book I read - there are good elements but all together, it’s just not my thing. She’s good at building suspense without a ton of twists, I mean we don’t NEED twists just for the sake of it, right? But this one, we needed more.

I’m a tough thriller critic, I know…so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. The book is way too long. It starts out strong but after switching to a different narrator and back, fizzles big time just when I was waiting for something to happen. It’s interspersed with some newspaper clips and reference to another book too - this threw me off. It makes sense in the end but still, it felt clunky. And this is merely superficial but with the story taking place in London there were elements that felt so odd to me - the drinking and drug use of high schoolers (with the parents lack of concern really) for one thing. Usually I love books set in England but it distracted me from the story in this case.

In the end there’s a little redemption - I didn’t see it coming and that’s why I stuck it out, in hopes of something really good. I think if it was much more concise it could’ve been more impactful.

A fast moving book. Well written. The author expresses a parent's worst fears: that their child is involved with someone who drags them down through life. And in this case, it ultimately ends in the child's death. How this horrible relationship colours one's role and life as a parent, and as a grieving parent, one who never can reconcile what has happened to her child. Being a female parent myself, I was shuddering at several points in the book, and thanking my lucky stars that I did not experience this. I loved every minute/word of the book, from the beginning to the surprising end. Well done, Louise.

Louise Candlish created a gripping novel about revenge, grief, mental health issues, accidental death, and how reliable (or not) a crime memoir may be. Told through the eyes of a reporter, Ellen Saint the grieving mother and Vic, the grieving father. They were once a couple, but not anymore. However, through their child they stay entwined - in life and in death. Each perspective is unique and you get bits of the picture from each until the unexpected conclusion. This book has a number of unlikeable characters, including Ellen, the main protagonist. While one can certainly empathize with her plight, she is so over the top in her thoughts and behaviors that it becomes hard to continue to feel the same level of understanding. Her nemesis, Kieran is also hard to like and I suppose the reader is not supposed to feel for the bad guy. There are peeks at a possible alternate side to the young man, but in general, it’s hard to care about him. Despite this, Candlish creates a story that compels the reader to continue through the story… the characters might not have been appealing, but the story is gripping. I appreciated her creative approach to the storytelling and the ways she reveals surprises as the story unfolds. This was my first book by this author but I look forward to reading more in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Paperback for the opportunity to read this e-galley in exchange for my honest review.

A beautiful family broken. An anguished mother. A quest for revenge. Domestic drama that brings you into the heart of a tragedy.

I really enjoyed this book and the characters were very well-developed and realistic. The narrative is told from several points of view, and each brings a different perception to all of the events that transpired. I don't get this hating on Ellen; I felt mostly sympathy and pity for her and I don't think you can judge her until you have experienced and felt what she went through. Would most of us make the same choices she did -- probably not -- but the quest for revenge is as old as time and the grief of losing a child can't be quantified.

The thing that always gets me in these family dramas is how pitiful the parenting seems to be. I don't know any teen parent that would allow all this running around, drinking, and drug use in their child when said child is still in school and living in the home. Are people really this permissive?

More so -- the concept of the bad friend. The kid who incites the others to get into trouble, flaunt parental authority, experiment with dangerous drugs. What is a parent to do with this negative influencer? And what makes others fall in with this sort of kid instead of staying outside of it?

At the end of the day, a child is dead and the person who allegedly caused it won't or can't give a full accounting. The punishment is minimal and the parents can't accept it. Ellen, the mother, wants more. She tries to put some serious plans in motion to extract her pound of flesh -- she is not able to even think about anything else as long as he is still alive and living his best life.

The writing and the way the story is told was engaging and I was unable to put the book down until I'd finished in a single sitting. Whether or not you like Ellen or agree with what she did, the theme begs the question of what does pain make a person do.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

this was a solid 3⭐️ for me. LC is probably known now for her slow burn thrillers, but this one was a bit toooooo slow for me. I was hooked right away, but I felt like it dragged in the middle, picked up again when we got a different POV, and then just, ended.

I DID like the way in which it was written- the MC’s POV is in the form of her writing a memoir. I liked when we got different insight to the story from her ex-partner, because the MC was a lot to handle (for good reason).

Wow ! This is my first Louise Candlish book and it certainly won't be my last. I devoured this book and couldn't put it down. It has a unique POV that draws you in right from the start and fully immerses you in the story, keeping you guessing all the way to the very last page. Even if you think you've guessed the twist, just wait - there's a bigger one around the corner, and then another one after that. I highly recommend it and definitely give it ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐s !

From my blog: Always With a Book

After finally reading, and really enjoying, my first Louise Candlish book last summer, I could not wait to pick up another and so I was quite excited when I was offered this latest book.

This is such a dark, twisted slow-burn story of revenge. I found that the beginning reeled me in but then the story becomes a bit too slow, even for me who doesn’t usually mind slow. I’m not sure if it was because there was so much repetition or if it was just the way the story was intended to be. Luckily the last bit does pick up and I found myself once again really engaged.

I was fascinated with Ellen, even though I didn’t particularly love her as a character. Watching her obsession move to the dark side was just incredible to see play out and her phobia was something I had never heard about before so that kept me quite intrigued. I will say this, this author knows how to craft the most dynamic characters and that is what kept me involved in this book. I needed to see just what Ellen would do – how far she would go.

Overall, I liked the book and it had some twists I did not see coming. It’s not my favorite but I definitely plan on reading more from this author.