Thanks to negalley and boldwood books for letting me review this title.A town full of hidden secrets. When caryn was 10 years old her brother lloyd disappeared from the roundabout on which he was playing. 20 years later caryn starts receiving strange messages. For her to return to her childhood town ... quite a few times during this book i thought i had it sussed and then found out i hadnt. Great read.. well written.

Name of Book: My Little Brother
Author: Diane Saxon
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Pub Date: July 11, 2022
My Rating: 3.5 Stars

Twenty years ago when Dr. Caryn Peeker was ten years old, her five year old brother, Lloyd who has Asperger’s Syndrome goes missing under her watch. She searches frantically but cannot find him. She runs home to tell her parents and to seek additional help. Her parents blame her for his disappearance and now they lose a second child as they send her away to live with a relative.
Now, Caryn is thirty and gets a note telling her to come home as they know where Lloyd is.
She comes home to learn the truth but the town doesn't want her there and try and get her to leave.

What happened to Lloyd? Who sent the note and why?

Definitely a twist at the end ~ I didn’t see coming!

Want to thank NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this eGalley. This file has been made available to me before publication in an early form.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for July11, 2022

DNF @ 17% really wanted to love this but it felt like I was forcing myself just to get through the book and I didn't want to do that.
I might come back to this though at another time if I am in the correct head space. But for now its a dnf:(

A complex, dark and disturbing thriller, full of intrigue, toxic relationships and jaw dropping twists.
Rating: 5 stars

A family torn apart by a twenty year old mystery is now forced to re-examine their pasts. Having been blamed by her parents and herself for the disappearance of her little brother when she was just ten, Caryn is now trying to unlock the secrets of what really happened that day. It's a deeply emotional and disturbing story of family dynamics. A gripping mystery with a shocking ending.

Firstly thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books Publishers for the ARC in return for an honest review.
This book was a bit of a slow start and hadn't much excitement, mainly as the book centres around Caryn who has been enticed back to her hometown by mystery notes, telling her they know what happened to her brother Lloyd. Caryn on her own is rather boring to be honest and there was large parts like that.
However, the story picks up pace and things start unraveling, as they would do with secrets that have been kept as twenty years.

It was good the way Caryns memories would flash in her mind and this way we got to go back in time with her to find out what really happened on the day Lloyd went missing. I was a bit disappointed at first as to the reveal of the guilty one, but as it developed, I enjoyed it as it totally escalated and you wonder how could anyone be that deranged and damaged.

It's a sad story in many ways, but the ending was nice and just right.

I enjoyed this book - i did manage to guess part of the plot part way through. I will look out for other books from this author.

A fantastic thrilling read filled with many twists and turns. i was hooked from page 1. I look forward to reading more by Diane

This was an exciting book to read. I couldn't put it down. Caryn's brother goes missing when she is responsible for him. Twenty years go by without knowing what happened to him until Caryn receives a note asking her to come back to her hometown to meet with someone who knows what happened all those years ago. I really enjoyed this book.

Caryn Peeke was 10 years old when her little brother Lloyd disappeared and she was made to feel like it was entirely her fault. 20 years later an anonymous note pushes Caryn to return home to Wales and see if anything can be uncovered. Little does she know that her return will set a series of events in motion that will unblock her memories and allow for the missing pieces of the puzzle to be put together.

This book was an easy read; short chapters, quick paced, and full of suspense. I found myself unable to put it down and reading well into the early hours - addictive in parts! I enjoyed the pace of the book, and found the character of The Watcher particularly intriguing. Despite figuring out The Watcher’s identity quite early on, I really enjoyed the way that the author threw side balls, making you consider some other characters who may be lurking in the background and waiting to pounce.

A good book that at times felt a little bit too far-fetched but thoroughly enjoyable regardless.

**I was kindly granted this ARC from @bookandtonic and @netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

This is an excellent and well written thriller from Diane Saxon. The book flowed well and I was gripped from the start with this tale of a missing child who was being looked after by his older sister. I loved the idea of "the Watcher" and the use of the Welsh language, the pace was just perfect and the plotting was original. It's an easy 5* from me for that ending alone. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

I’ve read this author before so I was expecting a good read and that’s exactly what I got. Very well written, and told in the third person, this was a very good psychological thriller with enough twists and turns to keep me fooled! Caryn is a great character, she could so easily have given up but thanks to her grandmother she made a life for herself but sad that it wasn’t the life she would have chosen.

Briefly, in 2001 Lloyd Peeke, who has recently been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, goes missing. His parents blame his 10 year old sister Caryn and unable to forgive her she is sent away to live with her grandmother. Nearly 20 years later Caryn, now a doctor, receives an anonymous letter saying they know where Lloyd is so Caryn has no choice but to return to the village of her shame…

This was an easy and very enjoyable read that kept me turning pages late into the night. More than once I thought I had it sussed but no something happened to change my mind again. The concept of an insular Welsh village was very well crafted and some of the inhabitants were dreadful. A very good read, great plot line and a good ending ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Any Diane Saxton book sneaks to the top of my TBR lists so who am I to ignore that? A claustrophobic village and an equally dysfunctional family sets the tone for this before and after, tightly written and well plotted story. When Lloyd, Caryn’s young autistic brother disappeared twenty years ago the family and the village blamed Caryn for ‘losing him’. She was ten. And haunted for the next twenty years. Going home for the first time since the tragedy, Caryn is slowly recalling glimpses of her life back then. Bottled away now, the cork is easing out, and like champagne, it builds to a dramatic explosion at the final release. One of those fine novels you don’t put down and put off everything else to finish.

Wow what a book! It kept my attention right up to the end. A brilliant thriller that had twists and turns, heartbreak and shocks. After receiving some mysterious letters Dr Caryn Peeke returns to the family home twenty years after her brother went missing and she was sent away to live with her grandmother. The letters say that they know what happened to her brother Lloyd but are unsigned. She gets a hostile welcome but becomes determined to find out what happened on that day in October and also as to why her parents sent her away.
This is the first Diane Saxon book I have read and I will definitely be looking for more from this author.

A solid thriller that will keep you guessing throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed it reading it. Not usually a fan small town thrillers unless done right and this was done right

WOW WOW WOW - read most of Dane Saxon’s books and this in my opinion as her best yet. from the first page I was hooked on the story concerning Dr. Caryn Peeke who has not been to her childhood home in almost 20 years. Caryn was 10 when Lloyd, her little brother, disappeared and she is made to feel the blame and guilt for his disappearance.

The story unravels and at times I was on the edge of my seat gasping wanting to read next bit but wondering what to expect. A real thriller which had me totally hooked with twists and turns and a brilliant ending which was a complete surprise to me. I highly recommend.

I really enjoyed the others crime books that Diane Saxon has written and this stand alone book is no different!

20 years ago Dr. Caryn Peeke's little brother brother went missing and after this traumatic event she was sent away from the village and she has not returned since.

Caryn has received mysterious notes asking her to go back to the village because they have information on what happened to her brother. When she goes back she faces hostility form the locals and has to confront memories about her brother's disappearance that she has pushed away. Will she finally find out what really happened to her brother that fateful day?

Diane takes you on a journey with Caryn to find the truth, with a twist at the end that you do not see coming.

Whilst small town who dun its aren't my favourite type of thriller, I did thoroughly enjoy this! It's told over present day and flashbacks and the author keeps both narratives well separated so the reader is never confused about which events are being discussed. It never gets confusing or blurry and doesn't ever feel like you're jumping back an forth. There's a good flow to the plot, if a bit slow for my liking. I was definitely keen to find out what had happened back then and who was behind everything. A solid thriller with good twists and turns to keep you guessing and plenty shady characters to make you wonder just who's to blame

I thought that this was a good book. It didn't exactly wow me, but there wasn't anything wrong with it either.

A mysterious, domestic thriller set in a small welsh village-Diane has clearly researched the local area and gained expertise into the language, as there are some brilliant welsh translations included. This was one of those books that sucked me in from the beginning and didn’t let go until I finished! I thought it was well written, with absolutely flawlessly done characters, and absolutely unputdownable.

I love a good thriller and this story held my attention from the very beginning. I found myself not wanting to put the book down, desperate to find out what happened to the little brother.

Dr. Caryn Peeke has not been to her childhood home in almost 20 years. When she was 10 her little brother, Lloyd, the 6, disappeared from the playground at their school where she was supposed to be watching him, He just vanished and shortly after she was sent away to her paternal grandmother's home, never to hear from her parents again. With the 20th anniversary of her brother's disappearance looming, she suddenly receives two notes from someone in the village she is from, Moryd-oer. Both notes written her native, although forgotten, Welsh. After some struggling, she was able to decipher them. They read: Come home. Its time you learned the truth; and I know where your brother is. Caryn believes the notes may be from her parents. Little does she know the horror she about to discover as she returns to the now foreign home, she once lived in.

The book is told in a third person perspective with flashback scenes written in as Caryn starts to unlock long forgotten and tucked away memories. We also get a perspective from someone named "the watcher" and I guarantee you'll never see coming who it is. I really enjoyed the Welsh writing thrown in. I have a long-time love of that part of the world. I felt the characters were believable and had great backgrounds. This story will definitely have you on the edge of your seat. If you love a good mystery thriller you will not want to miss out on this one! I received this book free from NetGalley for an honest review.