Kerry Wilkinson - 👏👏👏👏
I loved the Sleepover books - and was thrilled to get my hands on The Call.
Melody arranges for a family vacation - eager to return to a place holding happy summer memories. Her father, sister and husband as well as Melody's fiancé and son join - making an epic family holiday.
But Evan calls - and vanishes.
Melody discovers her partner is not the first to vanish. Lack of police. Lack of public concern.
And Melody's sister starts unraveling the truth of that summer.
Chilling.

Another gripping, shocking, and hard to put down book by Kerry Wilkinson! It starts with a phone call and ends with a disappearance! The Call kept me on my toes, turning the pages, and trying to figure out what might have happened to Evan.

It was meant to be a family holiday. Melody and her son arrived first joining her father, her sister, and her brother-in-law. Evan, Melody's fiancé, called to inform her that he had landed and was on the way, but a little girl was in the road, and he believed she needed his help. When Evan never arrives, Melody is distraught and calls in the authorities. No one has seen Evan, no one has reported a missing child, no one can answer Melody's questions. What happened to Evan?????

I found this book to be a fast read which did not disappoint. I enjoyed the mystery of what happened to Evan and read this in one day. This book had a nice number of secrets, twists, turns, and revelations.

Well written, well thought out, and gripping!

A pretty good read but not what I was expecting. It seemed to be missing the suspense I have come to expect from this author. The reveal was surprising but confusing. Overall it's more of a drama then a thriller.

The Call by Kerry Wilkinson was a tense and suspenseful thriller.
With its intricate plot and complex characters, this novel will keep readers guessing until the very end.
Very well thought out storyline and very good writing style, this story grabbed from the first chapter and had me intrigued till the very end, lots of suspenseful twists in this story which held my interest through out.

Thank You NetGalley and Bookouture for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Creepy story.
Melody’s fiance Evan goes missing and no one can find him.
I thought everyone had a nonchalant air about Evan being missing.
All the locals just seems a bit off. Nina and Tom seemed oblivious to the pain Melody was in.
Some of the secrets I didn’t see coming and I had no clue about the real culprit’s identity.
It was surprising to discover when it was revealed.
I wouldn’t return to Vancouver Island if I was a member of that family.

I couldn't get into this book. I found the story quite flat and boring. I will try another book from this author but this one wasn't for me!

This is a real heart pounder of a book. You will be on the edge of your seat reading this as everything starts to unravel. Frightening with plenty of twists that will be sure to capture your attention and keep you reading.

The Call was my first experience reading anything by Kerry Wilkinson. While it started off with the excitement of "the call", introducing us to the disappearance of the main character's fiance and a small child, things slowed down rather quickly. Unfortunately the author never succeeded in building the tension back up enough to keep me engaged. There were small twists, but in a thriller like this one, I kept waiting for a jaw dropping moment that never came.

Thank you Bookouture for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Bookouture for the book #TheCall by #KerryWilkinson. This book takes place during a vacation that is meant to be a re-do from a childhood vacation. Melody wants her son to have the same experience she had years ago. But is she remembering it right? And why has her finance turned up missing? I felt sucked in this book and read it on one sitting.

This is a great thriller.
When Melody receives a phone call from her fiancé Evan, she’s excited to find out when he’s due to arrive at the cabin. However, the call is interrupted when he says he can see a little girl at the side of the road so goes to help. He keeps the line open while he goes to check but soon Melody can no longer hear him.
When Evan doesn’t arrive at the cabin Melody calls the Police and explains about the phone call. When they all go out to search for him, they find the car, but there’s no sign of Evan.
As the story develops we learn that Melody is familiar with the area from spending time here as a child and her and her sister talk about their time here.
With more time passing Melody becomes more and more worried about Evan and starts her own search for him, but she’s not prepared for what she finds.
This is a gripping thriller that I enjoyed.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Thank You NetGalley for the ARC of The Call by Kerry Wilkinson in return for my honest review.
I’m a big fan of Kerry Wilkinsons’ Jessica Daniels series but have found his standalone books can be a bit hit and miss, well this one did not miss, once I started reading I was hooked till the end. There’s plenty of twists and turns that you will not see coming its a real page turner that I highly recommend reading.

This is a real edge of your seat thriller. It holds your interest from start to finish. The twists are dynamic. There is a mystery to solve, a missing person and lots of clues that lead nowhere. It's a quick read, hard to put down and full of surprises. I really enjoyed it and happily recommend it.

Melody and her fiancé Evan have booked a holiday in Canada, whilst on his way Evan calls Melody to tell her he’s about 10 minutes away, however after coming across a child in the road Evan stops to help her, a bang is heard and that’s the last Evan is heard of, it’s as though he has vanished into thin air.

Desperate for answers Melody calls the police who in my opinion seemed less than helpful, however a search for Evan begins. Melody and her son Sam are desperate for answers. Melody visited Canada as a child herself and had hoped to recreate the same perfect holiday for her fiancé and son, but it turns out to be anything but.

When Melody dropped Sam off to a camp out there she met one of the other parents who’s husband had also gone missing in similar circumstances to Evan’s but for some reason I just didn’t find this flowed or worked.

I really struggled to get on with the call, I found it quite slow paced, although that being said it did pick up just before the half way point, but then I found the ending slowed right down again and then finished a bit to abruptly. I also really couldn’t get to like any of the characters. Melodys father, sister and brother in law didn’t seem to care much that Evan was missing. Melodys attitude towards her missing fiancé was no where near as urgent as I’d have expected it to be, I’d have expected her to be frantic but sadly it just didn’t come across as that, it was almost as though she just shrugged it all off and just hoped for the best. She seemed more interested in continuously correcting the fact that Evan was her fiancé not her husband which after a while started to get a bit repetitive and really annoyed me.

Sadly I just couldn’t get on with this book but hopefully other readers will. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an advance copy of this book in exchange for this review.

This was one of those books that you tell yourself 'just one more chapter' and are not able to out it down. The shocking twists and turns in this book is my favorite part! You will for sure fall in love with the main characters, and want to keep turning the pages to see what happens next!

Melody, her fiancée Evan, and their son Sam have left their home in the UK for a lake vacation in Canada. Joining them are Melody’s father, sister, and brother-in-law. When Melody was nine, her parents took her to this area for summer camp and she remembers the time so fondly, she decides that Sam needs to get the same experience.

Evan had to work and was arriving a day late. As Melody is waiting for him, she gets a call from him - he’s almost to the Air B&B they’ve rented, but he saw a little girl walking down the road alone. Melody can hear him get out of the car and ask the child if she was okay, then the call disconnected. Evan never showed up, so Melody goes to find him. She finds his car right where he said he saw the child, but he is nowhere to be seen. The police are called, and the search begins.

This book started very slowly, with things ramping up about a third of the way through. Unfortunately, the book then got slow again, and stayed that way until the ending, which I thought was completely unbelievable and contrived. I hate giving bad reviews, but I rarely have to because I’m usually good at picking out books I know I’ll enjoy. Let’s just say I was wrong with this one; I really didn’t like the plot, the characters or the ending. From looking at other reviews, I’m glad to see it wasn’t just me! 2.5 stars.

(Thank you to Bookouture, Kerry Wilkinson and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on April 16, 2024.)

This is another great read by Kerry Wilkinson. Everyone in this book seemed to have their own secrets so they all seem pre[ty shifty.. I thought it was so strange that with one of their party missing everyone but Melody carried on with their holiday as if nothing had happened.. It's not easy to review this story without spoilers but suffice to say it's one of those books where you won't notice the passing of time, you will be totally absorbed in the story until the.very last page. And if you are hoping for the kind of shocks that this author has become famous for you will not be disappointed. I had no idea the ending was going to be as shocking as it was so I was stunned but delighted at the same house.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book

I really enjoyed this book - it’s the second Kerry Wilkinson book I’ve read and I will definitely be reading more.

Melody had been in Vancouver Island as a child with her sister and their parents. She had such fond memories of her time there that she decided to go again - this time with her sister and brother in law, her dad, her fiancé and her son Sam. Her fiancé Evan was to join them there as he had work commitments.

Melody had a call from Evan to say he was in the hire car and on his way to their rented lake house. Something happened while he was on the phone to Melody and he never arrived - he just disappeared!

Melody is distraught and can’t tell their son Sam that his dad is missing. She tried to keep things as normal as possible for Sam and every day while he is at camp she looks for clues to Evan’s disappearance.

A great story with lots of unexpected turns. I would definitely recommend this book.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an impartial review.

I’d like to thank Bookouture and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Call’ written by Kerry Wilkinson in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Melody and her family are already at their Airbnb at Shawnigan Lake in Canada when her fiancé Evan calls to say he’s on his way, but midway through their telephone conversation he stops to help a girl in the road, then disappears. When Melody reports his absence Constable Burgess does what he can to find Evan but Melody finds it difficult to enjoy her holiday when her fiancé is missing.

‘The Call’ is a thriller about a family holidaying in Canada when a member of their party disappears during his drive to join them. Kerry Wilkinson is one of those authors whose books can vary and I’m sorry to say I found this one disappointing. Although easy to read it didn’t excite me and grab my imagination as his novels normally do, and despite having an interesting first few chapters it fell flat and even the final twist failed to have a positive impact on me. I’m sorry, Kerry, I’m sure I’ll be in the minority but I’ll still be looking forward to your next one.

Your fiancé calls....‘A little girl needs help’...Then they both disappear...

Something different from Kerry Wilkinson in the wilds of Canada rather than the cold climes of Britain. But honestly, it was not my cup of tea.

We meet Melody who has, along with her sister and brother-in-law and father as well as her son and fiance Evan, booked an AirBnb on a lake in Canada for a vacation for them all. Having spent a summer there as a child, Melody has only good memories of her time there. But as many are quick to point out to her, not everyone's memories were as happy as hers.

After arriving and installing themselves in the lake house, Evan was catching a later flight, renting a car and meeting them there. He calls her from the road. He has just exited the highway and is about fifteen minutes from them...when suddenly he stops. He tells Melody there is a little girl in the road and stops to ask if she's okay. There is a little background noise and then suddenly the line goes dead. Having consumed wine that evening, Melody enlists the help of her sober brother-in-law Thomas to drive her along the road that Evan had taken to see if they could find him. Instead what they find is the abandoned rental car and Evan's phone discarded on the road. The car's boot is empty. Evan's suitcase has gone...and so has Evan.

The police arrive some hours later and with it being dark and surrounded by trees and forests, there is little they can do till morning. But as the days pass Melody feels that the police aren't doing enough to find Evan. In the meantime, she tells their son Sam that his dad has been held up and trying to catch another flight. Sam accepts her explanation and goes on to enjoy camp.

While her sister Nina and hubby Thomas go about their vacation as per normal, of course Melody cannot do so. Her whole world has imploded with Evan's disappearance. Naturally she does some googling for information that she has come garnered by way of other parents or locals in the area which thus leads her to randomly following anyone she thinks may know something about Evan's disappearance.

The story is a fairly quick read even if it is somewhat unrealistic. The mystery behind what happened to Evan is what kept me turning the pages and then when it is revealed I'm left scratching my head. What just happened here? The motive behind the disappearance just doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

I've been a fan of Kerry's thrillers for years. I love his dry wit and humour although this one lacked any of that trademark humour which I missed. And yet while the story as a whole didn't work for me, Kerry's writing is still enough to keep you engaged throughout...even if none of the characters were particularly likeable.

I do have mixed feelings of this one as I know what pageturning thrillers Kerry can deliver. And while I found it easy enough to read, it wasn't the riveting thriller that I have come to know that is of his calibre. I didn't hate it but I didn't enjoy it as much as his others. But having said that, I do look forward to whatever he brings us next!

I would like to thank #KerryWilkinson, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheCall in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

An enjoyable read and quite a shockable ending. thanks Netgalley for letting me read this book. Will look forward to further books.