Sarah is an attorney working in London. When she finds out that her estranged little sister, Gemma has gone missing, she heads to the small town of Hartsbridge to look for her. What she finds in the town is mystery and secrets. Gemma isn’t the first person to go missing around the area and there is definitely something strange going on. Will she find our what happened to Gemma?
This is the first book I have read by this author. It was really good.
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was given an advanced copy of The Hiker in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book as a thriller with a splash of local lore to keep readers on their toes. The alternating POVs with Sarah in present day and Gemma leading up to the accident keep the tension fresh and prevent either plotline from getting "murky" in the middle.

My only complaint is that the ending felt rushed. Things began to pick up the pace, then it was just…over.

Overall, a solid and entertaining thriller set in the woods!

Sarah Kline has not seen her sister Gemma since their mothers funeral nearly five years ago. A huge argument left them estranged, and not even a letter has passed between them. Then, out of nowhere, police come calling to Sarah’s workplace, telling them that Gemma is missing. Gemma’s boyfriend dead, found in a burned up and crashed car, in a remote location where they were apparently on a hiking trip. Sarah is left reeling. When the police leave she realises her sister would be the last person in the world to go hiking. So what was she really doing in the remote wilderness?

Although only just over a week before her wedding, Sarah has to head up to see for herself. When she arrives, she finds a small remote village, and comes up with more questions than answers. Unfriendly villagers, tales of missing women, stories of huge roaming wild cats, abandoned estates, and strange creatures in the woods. Sarah doesn’t know what to make of it. But the more she digs into it, the more apparent it becomes, that her sister's disappearance is not quite what it seems.

This book was an enjoyable read, well written with a good alternating storyline between Sarah’s current timeline and point of view, and her sister Gemma’s point of view, from before she went missing. Keeping the storyline bouncing back and forth between the two kept the pace up and the story interesting. As the story starts to cumulate towards its finish, the pace gets frenetic, and events take a decidedly unforeseen twist, which you may read with a pinch of disbelief. However, if you have ever been in a very small isolated village as described, maybe it is not so unbelievable? Overall the ending was a definite twist, and not expected, which kept me entertained until the conclusion!

*I received this copy from NetGalley for review, but all opinions are my own.

This thriller stands out because it has a unique plot.

I won’t be giving any spoilers in this review so all I’ll say is, if you’re a thriller fan who’s fed up of the same sources of “thrill” you need The Hiker.

One of my favourite aspects was that the plot uses a legend local to me, which I remember well from childhood. A subject I’ve never encountered before in fiction.

Sarah is estranged from her sister Gemma. The story unwraps from both their perspectives and the polarity of their lifestyles couldn’t be more apparent.

Gemma disappears without a trace after hiking in the hills; Sarah has to battle her conceptions of her sisters character in order to help find out her fate.

Unlike so many crime thrillers, this book avoids getting bogged down in cumbersome police procedure and instead focuses on character and mood.

If you read the blurb, then like I did; as you start the book you might question the relevance of the summary to what you’re reading those first few chapters - this clever diversion sets a solid atmosphere.

I was left with chills after the first few pages.

I found the second half of the book far stronger than the first, and despite some of the cliché use of “we don’t welcome strangers round here” the book genuinely kept me guessing without throwing up obvious red herrings.

This book is a good thriller. When Sarah gets a postcard from her estranged sister days before her wedding she sets off to find her. This takes her up to the North East of England where the fells and moors provide an atmospheric backdrop to the chase that ensues. The twists come thick and fast at the end, which was a bit far fetched for me. Overall, a gripping read.

This was a solid mystery. Two sisters that haven’t spoken in five years, but when one goes missing, the other doesn’t hesitate to go looking for her. When Sarah finds herself in a small town looking for Gemma, it doesn’t look like much of an investigation has begun. So Sarah starts asking questions, but in a small town not everyone is willing to help. As Sarah delves deeper things just don’t add up. This had good pacing with pov’s going back and forth between Sarah & Gemma. Definitely had me reading to find answers. Just a tad over the top with the ending but it worked.

Sarah is a successful London lawyer, busy planning her wedding. She learns that her estranged sister Gemma has gone missing while on a hike in a remote, small town with her boyfriend, who is the suspected corpse in a burned car nearby. Sarah feels the need to go investigate. She is regaled with wild tales by the locals of a strange wilderness creatures and a previously missing girl years earlier. The slightly supernatural vibe lent an extra creepiness to the tale. The story is told from the points of view of Gemma in the past and Sarah in the present and kept me glued to the pages. Great pacing and twists and turns.

Plenty of suspense and twists to keep you guessing! The writing is great and flows smoothly. Overall a great thriller. 4 stars

“MISSING. When Gemma Kline is reported missing after setting off on a solo hike in the remote Pennines, her sister, Sarah, is dumbfounded. How can someone disappear without a trace?”

The description of the book reeled me in. Missing person. Hiking. Sounds mysterious and scenic and just the type of reading to hold my attention.

The prologue of the book raised my eyebrows. I was not sure if I was settling in to read a thriller or a supernatural horror book. Whichever it was, there was no backing out now.
Sarah Kline is a high-end divorce lawyer living her best life. She has a great career and in the final stages of planning her wedding. Life is good until the authorities show up at her office and inform her, her estranged sister Gemma is missing. Despite not having seen her sister in many years after a falling out, Gemma is still her sister and Sarah needs to find out what happened to her.
Leaving her fiancé Doug behind, she heads to Hartsbridge, a small town near where the body of Gemma’s boyfriend is suspected to be found deceased. It is also where Gemma sent a postcard from to Sarah.
The story goes back and forth from the sisters POV from the weeks leading up to Gemma’s disappearance and present time to Sarah’s personal investigation to finding her sister. There are quite a few characters in the book and there were a few stories happening at once. Near the end, I had them all sorted out but, in the beginning, did find I had to pay closer attention to who was who and how they were all linked together.

For the most part, the book flow was easy to follow. I did like how there was a bit of a creepy supernatural vibe to the story thanks to the townspeople and their folklore tale of a giant fur creature hiding in the wild. At times, I found myself caught up wondering if such a creature was behind everything happening!
The ending came fast and heart racing. The energy was infectious as I caught myself reading quicker to match the pace of the events.

Overall, an excellent crime thriller. The scenic description was great, the flow was just right and it held my attention from start to finish.

Thank you to Net Galley and Avon Books UK for the ARC of this great book!

What attracted me to read this book, was reading that it is set in the North Pennines of County Durham, where I hail from and a place I am very very familiar with, being a keen hiker and fell walker myself.
Sadly I didn't really "recognise" the feel of the locations described and there were some parts I felt didn't even feel unique to this wonderfully bleak and beautiful place. I felt it could have been set in any remote location in England.
However the twisty storyline got me hooked and I tore through the pages which alternated in POV from one sister to the other, back and forth. It was satisfyingly scary and the story flowed well. There are enough surprises and plot twists to keep me on the edge of my seat and it all wrapped up nicely if somewhat far-fetched.

So, so, so good! Eerie, beautiful, haunting, shocking. So many twists that I did not see coming! And the writing was absolutely superb, bringing the incredible setting and spook-factor alive in equal measure. Excellent thriller!

I enjoyed reading this book, it was well written, had a gripping plotline, well-developed characters, and a remote setting that added atmosphere and tension to the plot. This was a twisty, creepy, unpredictable story. This is a book I'll definitely recommend and keep an eye out for more from the author. Overall I just loved how this book had to want to keep reading and ignore everything else because you just wanted to get to the bottom of everything and find out how it all ends.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this eArc in exchange for an honest review.

Intriguing book, plenty of twists, turns and thrills. Definitely recommend it for people who like a good thriller. Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the setting of this book, the moors turning dark and menacing when the sun disappears. Sarah finds herself there looking for her estranged sister, and finds some reticent locals, tales of big cats in the wild landscape, a gloomy estate whose owners moved out years ago, and a local girl, who, like her sister, disappeared without a trace. Gemma, the younger sister, has her story told too in alternate chapters, it’s an effective way of telling both stories and gives us background for how both sisters ended up in this small village. A wild end ties up the various story lines. I read an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher.

Really good thriller, with plenty of twists and turns; did not see the twists towards the end coming. Definitely worth reading

Engaging, Menacing…
When Sarah discovers that her sister Gemma has gone missing on a hike in the Penines, she sets out to discover the truth. It becomes clear that other girls have gone missing in this area. The more she digs, the more she uncovers and, whilst locals are less than helpful with their tales of doom and despair, what secrets are being kept here? Laced with a sense of underlying menace and with a credible cast this is an engaging suspense where nothing and nobody are what they seem.

There was nothing particularly wrong with this book, it was an interesting thriller, it just didn't land with me. Maybe there was too much going on? The mystery and the sister relationship were probably enough to carry the book without Sarah's personal relationship thrown in there, too, which didn't really add anything to the story. Also, I know we're not supposed to judge ARCs that are not in their final form, but the formatting of this ebook was so awful, it made it very difficult and unenjoyable to read (no spacing after punctuation, no justification so random pages were formatted all over the place, etc.). And just to be picky, there were a couple of continuity issues that took the reader out of the story to reread or rethink a paragraph (for example, Sarah says she's wearing Converse trainers that are terrible for hiking in the rain and then two paragraphs later, she says something about how her boots are all muddy.)

Great thriller, one of the best I've read recently that was slightly let down by the ending imho.

The voice is really fresh, I loved both sister's parts and the dual timeline worked really well. Also coming from the North East the setting was a fun one for me (although I wasn't a huge fan of some of the dialect choices "Tek" etc).

What let it down was the ending, I don't think the author needed to pile on the second incident / set of baddies - their behaviour was in no way rational and it descended into hyperbole at that point. It also felt like the author kind of ran out of steam at the end ("I'm not going to dwell on the psychological reasoning why a baddie was a baddie") and more tying up could have been done.

Also what did Gemma do with the money from her mother's house sale?! It didn't make sense to me that she was totally broke when she'd inherited 50% of a London house (albeit a small council house on the outskirts) 5 years earlier and there was no explanation of where the money had gone.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.

This book was full of many unexpected twists and turns. It helped keep me engaged to the very last page. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened. I really enjoyed the way the story unraveled.

The book is told from the viewpoints of sisters Sarah and Gemma. Gemma’s viewpoint from the past intertwined with Sarah’s viewpoint from the present.

The main story focuses on the disappearance of Gemma and her sister Sarah’s desperate search to find her. Gemma is not the only person to go missing in this small town and the town’s people have a lot to hide. There are so many different characters and side plots, that it really keeps you guessing til the last page.

I look forward to reading more from M.J. Ford in the future.

First off, this book was awesome, and definitely veered off into some unexpected craziness towards the end! Sarah and her sister, Gemma, haven't seen each other since their mother's funeral years ago when they had a terrible argument that left them estranged. But now shortly before her wedding, Sarah's contacted by the local police because Gemma is missing. Her boyfriend's body is found in a burnt up car near where they had been away on a hiking trip. That fact alone is suspicious to Sarah, as Gemma is the last person to spend her free time hiking, especially in a small town so far from her home. She soon realizes she can't ignore this situation, imminent wedding or not, and she leaves London to go search for her sister.

The local townspeople are anything but friendly and instead of answers, all Sarah hears are tales of abandoned estates and strange creatures roaming in the wilderness. It's because another girl named Alice went missing years ago, also apparently vanishing from the face of the earth when she was out for a walk. And she lived in that now-abandoned estate. Alice has never been found and Sarah fears that Gemma will meet the same fate. The local police seem more suspicious of Gemma than worried that she's in trouble and Sarah can't find anyone to take her claims seriously. But the deeper she digs into the local lore the more she's putting herself at risk. Will she find Gemma or will she become the next one to disappear?

The story is told from the point of view of both Sarah and Gemma, which helps the reader compare what they see in one narrative with the other. Plenty of discrepancies to found, that's for sure. The townspeople are all kinds of crazy and no one is who they seem to be. There's one surprise after another as the story reaches the conclusion and even though some details sound unbelievable, I find it plausible that in a town like this, with the history that it has, nothing is impossible.