They Lie Here by N S Ford - Blog Tour and Review

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for They Lie Here by N S Ford! I previously reviewed We Watch You by the same author so do click through to that review. Also please do have a look around my blog in general. I review a lot of different genres of books!

I liked We Watch You a lot so when the chance to review something else by N S Ford popped up I jumped at it. This book is quite different but still with a creepy edge to it. It's set in Waelminster, an old city in the north Midlands, I think. I was trying to match it with a real place and the closest I could come to was Lincoln, so I imagined it like that. It sounds a bit like York, too! A woman called Kat Green has just moved there. There's a band from the city called Scorpio Hearts, who were an electro-pop group in the early 80s who achieved some success before their songwriter Roskoe Darke left the band and mysteriously disappeared. 

Kat is determined to find him. She has done this before with stars who have been reclusive, and each time she has managed to find them and they've resparked their careers. She has bought a ton of Scorpio Hearts memorobilia and has contacted a few people who might know what happened to him. She is perusing a charity shop one day when she finds an old record of theirs and goes to pick it up. However there's someone else reaching for it at the same time - someone who introduces himself as Seth. He's keen to get to know Kat, but she finds him a bit full on.

Then there's her neighbour, Ellie, who is a nurse. I found her a really creepy character and thought for sure something would go one way with her, so I was surprised when it didn't! Plus someone seems to be following Kat round Waelminster. The book takes somewhat of a sci fi turn, which I had read in the blurb and wasn't certain about, but actually it was quite believable and really fitted in with the narrative. Kat also has secrets of her own she wants to keep buried, but nothing is quite as it seems - least of all the pretty city itself. I also loved the last few lines, they made me shudder!

We Watch You by N S Ford - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for We Watch You by N S Ford! If you haven't been to my blog before, then welcome. Please do have a click around while you're here. I review quite a lot of crime novels so I'm sure you'll find something to pique your interest!

I signed up for this tour because I was really interested by the premise of the novel and it didn't disappoint me. The book is set in a sleepy English town where many people seem to know each other. The main character is Lauren. She is autistic. She lives on her own in a flat and has done ever since her ex, who was bad news, and she split up. She works in an estate agents and she likes to run. She has two best friends, Jess and Claire. 

They tell her that a girl they know, Tina, has gone missing. The four of them were friends as teenagers but fell apart after something happened and something bad happened to Tina. But Lauren finds that she really cares what has happened to Tina so she goes to visit Tina's mum and sister. She tries to get into Tina's room to see if she can find any clues, but Tina's sister stops her. But Tina's mum is convinced that Tina is still alive. 

There is also a man following Lauren around. At first she doesn't realise she's being followed, but she sees him everywhere, always typing on his laptop. The reader is given some parts of what he's typing, and it's obvious he's some kind of private investigator. We don't know who he's been hired by, but he's obviously not on Lauren's side. 

Then two things happen, one to Jess and one to Claire, and it is obvious that someone is targetting the girls. The things that happen involve maliciousness and someone knowing a lot of secrets. Can it really be Tina? Is she still alive? Lauren's flat gets broken into, and she knows exactly what the person is searching for...

I liked the mystery and the writing. I liked how Lauren was autistic and how this was explained in the book. I liked the crux of the mystery. I thought the end of the book set up for a second in the series, so I'll be interested to see if that happens! I would definitely read something else by the same author.