Do Not Disturb by Claire Douglas @Dougieclaire @MichaelJBooks #20BooksofSummer

Author : Claire Douglas
Title : Do Not Disturb
Pages : 400
Publisher : Michael Joseph
Publication date : August 9, 2018

After what happened in London, Kirsty needs a fresh start with her family.
And running a guesthouse in the Welsh mountains sounds idyllic.

But then their first guest arrives.
Selena is the last person Kirsty wants to see.
It’s seventeen years since she tore everything apart.

Why has she chosen now to walk back into Kirsty’s life?
Is Selena running from something too?
Or is there an even darker reason for her visit?

Because Kirsty knows that once you invite trouble into your home, it can be murder getting rid of it . . .

I do so love Claire Douglas’ books and I was thrilled when I was given the opportunity to read this one early.

Kirsty and her family need a fresh start. They leave London and move to Wales to open a B&B, together with Kirsty’s mother. The house they’ve chosen needs a lot of work and there are a few things the family haven’t quite thought through. Despite that, they have a fair few bookings come opening weekend and it looks as if their B&B adventure is off to a good start.

But then Kirsty’s cousin, Selena, comes to stay. They used to be incredibly close until something drove them apart and they’ve not seen each other in years. From the minute Selena arrives, so does trouble. Coincidence or not?

There was something about Serena that irked me the minute she stepped inside the B&B. Nothing I was immediately able to put my finger on but you could just feel the atmosphere change in a heartbeat and I didn’t trust her at all. That said though, things didn’t at all pan out the way I expected them to.

This is one of those stories where you suspect just about everyone and I did. From Kirsty’s husband to her brother, to the odd guest with a dog who keeps yammering on about bad energy. Even the house itself made my spine tingle and it made for the perfect location. There were a few things that seemed rather obvious to me as the reader, but not necessarily to the characters which just added to the intrigue.

I found Kirsty to be quite a likeable character, someone to sympathise with and root for, sharing her hopes for a better future for her and her family. All the characters were realistic and believable, even the slightly weird ones. But above all, there’s a tense atmosphere throughout the story, that feeling where you know something will happen but you’re not quite sure what it will be. It all leads to an incredibly jaw-dropping conclusion that left me reeling.

I’ve read all of Claire Douglas’ books and she remains a firm favourite on my list of go-to authors. There’s something about her writing style I really love and she always manages to surprise me. I absolutely can’t wait for whatever she comes up with next!

Huge thanks to Claire Douglas for my review copy!

Do Not Disturb is available to buy!

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