Book: The Girl Who Lied & Their Angel's Cry
Author: Shannon Hollinger
Pub Day: August 2nd 2023
THE GIRL WHO LIED (BOOK ONE)
Book Description
Rain hammers the earth and a vicious wind rattles the trees. Then lightning strikes, the flash illuminating a young girl staggering out of the woods, her brown eyes wide with fright, a silent scream on her lips…
There’s a storm approaching the tiny Maine town of Coyote Cove when Chief Maggie Riley comes across the body of a man, blood seeping from stab wounds into the damp forest floor. As she desperately struggles to secure the evidence before the rain hits, Heather, a local teenage girl, emerges from the woods, shivering and unable to talk.
Maggie, once a high flying big-city detective, lost everything when her four-year-old brother went missing five years ago. Heart-broken, she’s never stopped searching for him: but now she is plunged back into the world she left behind.
The victim, Maggie discovers, knew secrets about everyone in isolated Coyote Cove. It seems there are more local suspects in this case than people she can rule out. And with Heather still traumatised, Maggie struggles to unravel her strange appearance at the crime scene. Until, following a faint, bloody trail deep into the forest, she’s horrified to unearth what the terrified girl’s been hiding…
But when Heather is kidnapped, the battle to identify the killer becomes a race to save an innocent girl’s life. And with the whole town terrified, Maggie is shocked to uncover that this twisted killer is much closer to home than she’d ever imagined. Battling her own demons and memories of her missing brother, how far will Maggie have to go to save Heather? Or will another innocent young life be lost forever...?
A totally addictive crime thriller packed with suspense. If you love Lisa Regan, Louise Penny and Melinda Leigh, you’ll love The Girl Who Lied.
BLOG TOUR REVIEW
Review for 'The Girl Who Lied' by Shannon Hollinger.
Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Shannon Hollinger, Bookouture publishers and Bookouture anonymous
Publication date 2nd August 2023.
This is the third book I have read by this author. I have also read 'Best Friends Forever' and 'The Slumber Party' which I would highly recommend! It is also the first book in the 'Chief Maggie Riley's series.
This novel consists of 75 chapters. The chapters are short to medium in length so easy to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!
'The Girl Who Lied' discusses some topics that may upset some readers or may not be suitable for others. I like to point this out ahead of time in my reviews so you can judge if this book is for you or not. In this book Shannon discusses infanticide and child abuse/neglect.
OMG!!!! WHAT DID I JUST READ!!!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVED THIS BOOK!! A FANTASTIC START TO A PROMISING NEW SERIES!!! WELL DONE SHANNON ON ANOTHER HUGE SUCCESS 🥂
Wow!!! This book is fantastically written and had me hook, line and sinker from beginning to end. Shannon's evocative writing skills and descriptions were so in depth and vivid that the hair on my arms was standing on the ends and my heart was pounding throughout. The synopsis, title and cover were perfect for the storyline.
An absolutely explosive start to a promising new series by the fantastic Shannon!!! I was absolutely absorbed throughout this page turner. It is filled with tension, suspense, murder, lies, loss, family, secrets, friendship, secrets and omg the twists!!! I DID NOT see any of them coming!!! A MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS Shannon!! It is getting harder and harder to shock me but by God you did that over and over and over!!! I absolutely loved both the multiple perspectives which are all weaved together perfectly to drip feed the reader just the right amount of information to keep them guessing and hooked without giving too much away. One of the most gripping unputdownable nerve wracking psychological thrillers I have read!!! You lady have one hell of a talent and I cannot wait to get hold of your previous and future books. Shannon includes the death of a baby and goes into other details which I have included a trigger warning for at the start of my review. The storyline is filled with crime, twists, shocks, suspense, tension, deceit and everything you could want in a psychological thriller. There was not one, not two but several explosive bombshells I did not see coming!!! There was so much going on and it was very fast paced and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. I loved that the story was so multi layered and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the storylines from this book in 'Their Angel's Cry' which is next on my reading list. Clear your schedule before you start as I read this in one sitting as I could not put it down!! Practically every chapter ended on a cliff hanger so no way could I put it down!! Absolutely hooked!! I would absolutely love to see this turned into a movie!!!! I am looking forward to reading'Their Angels Cry' as ,if this is anything to go by, they are guaranteed to be page turner's!!
This is one of the few books that I have listened 100% on Audiobook. If I listen to a book on audiobook I usually also read the physical book between but I listened to the whole book and I was impressed! I must say a HUGE congratulations to the narrator Amelia Sciandra who did a great job bringing this story to life. I would listen to it in the car and while walking at any opportunity and Amelia did a fantastic job on both male and female characters voices!!! I'm not only looking forward to reading more books by Shannon but also to listening to more books narrated by Amelia! I have previously listened to 'The Girl In The Pink Shoes' by Stacy Green which is also narrated by Amelia and which I would also recommend reading/listening to.
I wasn't just 100% invested in the storyline but also in the characters. Every single one of the characters were well defined and developed, realistic and strong. I really liked Heather as a protagonist especially the fact that she isn't perfect and has her own secrets and history which I'm intrigued to discover more of her in the next books in this promising series. Maggie has gone from being a well known hot shot homicide detective in the big city and moved to the chief of police in the tiny Maine town of Coyote Cove. This book has a lot of character development as is usual in the first book in any series and as we meet alot of characters in can get confusing at times but this didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book as it is normal in the case of books at the start of a series. I'm all for a strong female protagonist and am looking forward to getting to know Heather more. The other main characters we meet and hear from are Heather's deputy Dale Murphy who is leading the investigation into the discovery of a strangers body found in the wood and whose mother went missing 30 years ago, Steve who is Maggie's neighbour and has his own secrets and Heather who is a 16 year old developmentally challenged girl who is discovered by the body in the woods. All of the main characters have their own secrets some of which we discover in this story and others that we are yet to discover. It was intriguing to watch their personalities change and grow along with the relationship development between each of the characters. I am not going to say anything about any of the other characters as it isn't worth the risk of dropping any hints but there was major shocks to be had!! If you want to know more you will just have to click the link below to get a copy!! All in all a great mix of characters that worked well with this storyline and I'm looking forward to getting to meet most of them again in the next book 'Their Angel's Cry' which I'm off to read next.
An explosive start to a promising new series!! This is EXACTLY why you are in my favourite author club Shannon!!!! Here's to the next success 🥂
Make sure you read to the very end of the book to read the prologue of Shannon's 'Their Angel's Cry' which is the next book in this series and looks just as addictive as this book was!!
Overall an absolutely heart racing, never wracking, unputdownable addictive and explosive start to a promising new series!!
284 pages/ 7 hours and 28 minutes.
This book is just 99p to purchase, free with kindle unlimited, £8.99 in paperback, £39.37 on Audiobook and £7.99 with Audible via Amazon at time of review which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!
Rated 5 /5 (I LOVED it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.
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Purchase Links
Audible:
Listen here:https://ow.ly/3Rn550PavKq
THEIR ANGEL'S CRY (BOOK TWO)
Book Description
The little dog trembles and whimpers, but refuses to move. Maggie reaches further into the undergrowth, trying to tempt it out. But as she moves closer, she sees something that stops her heart—a tiny, shivering baby, wrapped in a thin, pink blanket, saved only by its loyal protector.
There’s a ferocious storm heading toward the isolated town of Coyote Cove when Chief Maggie Riley gets the call every cop dreads. Three bodies have been found on Rattlesnake Mountain, half a day’s hike from civilization. And when Maggie finally reaches the site, exhausted and freezing, she discovers something even more terrifying—a tiny baby girl, kept alive only by the warmth of a small dog who refuses to leave her side.
As Maggie races the baby to safety, she wonders, why on earth the family risked hiking the mountain in this weather? Who were they and who could possibly have killed them?
A former detective, Maggie may be an experienced investigator, but she’s still an unwelcome newcomer. Battling town prejudice, her fears for the orphaned baby, and the increasingly dangerous weather, Maggie soon discovers the case is far more complicated than she could have imagined. The family is not who they seemed. The mother has never had a baby, there’s no link between them at all. So whose baby is it, and where are they now?
With Coyote Cove cut off by the storm, Maggie knows that wherever the killer is, they won’t be able to leave. Stuck in town with a murderer on the loose, Maggie must race to find them before anyone else gets hurt. But she hasn’t counted on the killer taking matters into their own hands, and going after Maggie first…
An utterly compelling and addictive crime thriller, perfect for fans of Melinda Leigh, D.K. Hood and Lisa Regan.
Purchase Links
Audible:
Listen here: https://ow.ly/XP6p50PavSN
Author Bio
With degrees in Crime Scene Technology & Physical Anthropology, Florida author Shannon Hollinger hasn't just seen the dark side of humanity - she's been elbow deep inside of it! She finds writing to be a much cleaner way to spend her time than the autopsy suite. Most days it smells better, too.
Her debut novel, the psychological thriller Best Friends Forever, is the first of a five-book deal with publisher Bookouture.
Her short fiction has appeared in Suspense Magazine, Mystery Weekly, and The Saturday Evening Post, among a number of other magazines and anthologies, and her story Lady Killer was a finalist for the 2021 Al Blanchard Award sponsored by the New England Crime Bake.
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