This was a dark and complicated story with so many characters and sub plots.Lorraine trying to establish team building was easy to understand and she engineered some great things by getting the senior team to discuss feelings and start to build a team that could work together.. I did expect more of a thriller but this was more a mystery that tried to cover the past and the present.
I struggled to read to the end but found that it was very neatly wrapped up.

A dark and atmospheric thriller set in the early 1980s. The author captures the period well but unfortunately I could not get involved in the story and failed to finish.

This was a mixed bag for me. I was really intrigued by the book and I liked the main character but I felt the story was lacking. A death happened so quickly I nearly missed it and I felt it lacked depth.
Having said that, the scene where the colleagues are sharing their rage was really beautifully done.

Not bad, could have been better.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. Not sure what to say about this I liked it and also found it very long winded. I will let others judge what they think.

I tried several times to “get into” this NetGalley novel but each time I stopped reading after a few chapters. I couldn’t connect with the main protagonist, Lorraine Quick, a team building specialist working for the Thatcher government. It was all tell and no show in describing her family situation and work situation. Then the fact that she has been seconded to help facilitate the team supervising an institute for the criminally insane seemed a rather nonsensical setup.

The plot might have worked, had the author been a good writer, but she is not. I doubt that she has ever used a thesaurus—the same meaningless adjectives (e.g. carefully) are used repeatedly throughout the book. The dialogue is stilted—”Is it true about Kevin? Is he dead?…What on earth are we going to do without Kevin?”

I would have enjoyed a good thriller about the changes that took place when the old “Insane Asylums” were shuttered. But although it started on a historical note, it soon became a stale “thriller-lite” containing a hackneyed plot. I ended up speed reading just to finish the book. To me the killer was obvious after about one-half through the book. There’s an extraneous subplot centred around faux supernatural elements that possibly were intended to confuse the reader—but just bored me.

Even though Isolation Ward has all the elements of a good popcorn thriller, I can’t even recommend it for a quick read. It’s too boring and predictable. And relies wholly on cliche thriller basics.

Thanks to Allison & Busby for providing an electronic copy of this book via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinions.

This was a slow read for me and I really struggled with it. But it suddenly ramped up and was a great read. I had considered not finishing it but I’m glad I persevered.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Isolation Ward is the second book in the Lorraine Quick series by Martine Bailey but the first that I have read.

It is an enjoyable crime thriller which I didn’t need to have read the previous book to fully follow and enjoy.

The book is set in 1983 which makes a pleasant change and definitely adds to the storyline

Overall an enjoyable book

Set in 1983 kevin is found brutally murdered in cell 17 of an asylum

Lorraine Quick has plans but being a personnel specialist in the building is not one of them

This is a book filled with drama and many characters. While each added to the story I felt there were to many and I had a hard time keeping tabs on them all.

This is a good read and one that is brilliantly told.

It is filled with tension it's dark and quite a thrilling mystery. I loved that the author gave a good descriptive vibe of the 80's it took me back to quite a few memorys.

Kevin Crossley has been called to Cell 17 in Windwell Special Hospital; a visit which will prove to be his last act as Administrator of the new facility. The old Windwell Asylum has been condemned and is even now being demolished. The new Special Hospital is being built on adjacent ground in two phases, the first currently housing all the patients/prisoners, the new, when completed, taking the psychopaths. It also contains the Isolation cells, of which cell 17 is one.
New facilities need new management structures, but not necessarily new staff. Kevin was Administrator in the old building and had overseen the transfer, but was just about to retire. Enid Finn was, and remains, the Treasurer. Similarly, Brian Ogden was, and is, the Head Nurse, and Parveen, who was Kevin’s assistant. Two of the junior staff are also hang overs: Enid’s daughter, Oona, and Brian’s son, Tommo. The newly appointed Hospital Director is Dr Jan Voss. The overall Regional Director, with Voss’s agreement, has decided that for the new world the team need some new dynamic, so has seconded Lorraine Quick, personnel specialist and expert team builder, to work with Voss on this project. The plan is somewhat distracted when Lorraine and Jan find Kevin’s body in Cell 17, the walls daubed with slogans connecting this murder with the unsolved murder of a prisoner, killed three years earlier in Cell 17 of the old building. Lorraine rapidly finds herself drawn into a complex situation, which could easily become life-threatening.
This is a complicated tale, lots of characters, lots of relationships, with the mystery, a standard ‘who killed Kevin and why’, buried inside a lot of extraneous detail (assuming any of it is actually extraneous). It is the second to feature Lorraine, so a series looks imminent, but no preknowledge is required. There are some interesting twists to the resolution. I didn’t like the style, which seemed a bit ‘clinical’, a bit ‘didactic’, particularly early on. Overall, it’s a good whodunnit with an interesting setting, and an unusual principal character. It isn’t perfect, but a good read.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

Isolation Ward by Martine Bailey is a tense, atmospheric thriller that had me completely hooked from the start. Set in Yorkshire in 1983, the book brilliantly captures the unease of a changing era, blending psychological suspense with gothic horror.

Lorraine Quick, a woman with dreams of touring with her band, finds herself instead sent to Windwell Asylum—a crumbling institution transitioning into a top-security unit for Britain’s most dangerous criminals. Her task? To turn its chaotic staff into a polished, media-friendly team. But when a brutal murder takes place within the asylum’s supposedly secure walls, Lorraine is drawn into a nightmare she can’t escape. Windwell’s dark history refuses to stay buried, and between its eerie underground tunnels, the unsettling presence of its patients, and the arrival of DS Diaz—an almost-forgotten old flame—her world begins to unravel.

Martine Bailey masterfully builds tension, delivering a gripping mystery packed with unsettling twists and a haunting sense of place. The asylum itself feels like a character, its walls holding decades of secrets and terror. The 1980s setting is vivid, immersing you in an era of political upheaval, shifting attitudes, and a lingering fear of what lurks behind closed doors.

If you love dark, chilling thrillers with gothic undertones, Isolation Ward is a must-read. It’s a book that lingers in your mind long after you turn the final page—haunting, addictive, and impossible to put down!

Read more at The Secret Book Review.