#BlogTour ‘Monstrous Souls’ by Rebecca Kelly

About the book…

Over a decade ago, Heidi was the victim of a brutal attack that left her hospitalised, her younger sister missing, and her best friend dead. But Heidi doesn’t remember any of that. She’s lived her life since then with little memory of her friends and family and no recollection of the crime.

But lately, it’s all starting to come back.

As Heidi begins retracing the events that lead to the assault, she is forced to confront the pain and guilt she’s long kept buried. But Heidi isn’t the only one digging up the past, and the closer she gets to remembering the truth, the more danger she’s in.

When the truth is worse than fiction, is the past worth reliving?

An addictive thriller about a case gone cold and the dangers lurking on our doorsteps, Monstrous Souls will have you gripped to the very end.

Massive thanks to Peyton at Agora Books for inviting me on the blogtour for ‘Monstrous Souls’ which is out from 23rd June.

Wow,

This is another one of those rare books where you chuck whatever food you can at your family/delegate meals to someone else as long as you can keep one hand free to change pages on your kindle. Food becomes secondary when you are racing through a story as heartbreaking, soul destroying and determinedly plotted as this one.

Heidi and Nina become irretrevably linked in your minds, you make connections between their shared pasts even as Heidi tries to recover the worst thing which ever happened to her. The girls are first introduced as children-Nina’s last moments and Heidi’s first are seared into this reader’s mind as unbelievably tragic and awful. This is because of the lack of details which do not linger on the physical attacks, rather as someone going through this, it’s the small things that are noticed. Like the ash and rain drops, the position of fingers, what can be seen through bandages. It gives the victim a dignity in death, which, as you read on, she never had in life.

Nina, dead, Heidi’s little sister Anna missing, the only witness so badly injured that she has blocked all knowledge from her mind. Her 13 year old self’s defence to the horrific near death experience is to shut down and build walls of protection allowing her to recover.

Years later, as she goes about her business resembling a fully functioning adult yet simulataneously being so far removed from this state as it is possible to be, things begin to resurface.

It starts with a red buckle shoe, and a detective unwilling to let go of a case which has haunted her for 15 years.

From there it takes the darkest of turns, because as Heidi begins to piece together what happened the day Nina died, and turns to the police for help, someone seems to be one step ahead of them. And someone is lurking in the shadows, watching Heidi as the darkest of secrets are dragged out into the sunlight for all to see.

This is a hard read-the topics are so painful, the desperate attempts of a child thrust into adulthood way too soon to search for justice reminds you just how disposable children are when they are at their most vulnerable, And when those who are the ones who should be there to help you are turn out to be worst of all humans, how do you keep your soul in the absence of all hope?

The bravery and fragility of Heidi and Nina is heartbreaking and all too believable, a story echoed in daily headlines of missing children. The missing pieces are not easily slotted together, this is a book to concentrate on, and when the answers eventually come, they are somehow worse than not knowing.

This is so much more than a whodunnit, yes there is a central mystery but it also takes a look into the darkest side of child abuse. The characters are fully fleshed and do not resemble caricatures, the subject is dealt with empathically and sensitively. The victims are the focus , not the criminals. There is nothing straight forward and banal about ‘Monstrous Souls’, it is so well crafted it seems astounding that it is a debut. I loved the main detective, Denise Gilzeen from the moment she was introduced-a Detective Inspector of colour who takes zero nonsense from anyone and always, always remains focussed . She is a breath of fresh air and I genuinely hope she returns.

‘Monstrous Souls’ is currently available as a Kindle Unlimited title so if you have this, I would 100% recommend downloading it. If not, it is 99p so again, please get it if you enjoy a gripping mystery, humanity explored at its worst(and its best) and characters who linger.

About the author…

Rebecca Kelly was brought up with books but denied the pleasure of a television. Although she hated this at the time, she now considers it to have contributed to a life-long passion for reading and writing.

After a misspent education, Rebecca had a variety of jobs. She’s spent the last years raising her children but has lately returned to her first love – writing.

Rebecca lives in the UK with her husband and youngest son and an over-enthusiastic black Labrador, who gives her writing tips.

Links-https://www.agorabooks.co/

Twitter @RKellyAuthor1 @AgoraBooksLdn