In A Cottage In A Wood

Psychological Thriller

By Cass Green

Paperback 320 pages
Publisher HarperCollins Fiction (21st Sept 2017)

‘A beguiling thriller, beautifully written and suffused with a delicately rising sense of menace which builds to a nerve-shredding climax. Once again Cass Green has written a book which you’ll happily be held captive by.’ Eva Dolan

📕My Review

Late one night Neve stumbles across a stranger on Waterloo Bridge. The woman, Isabelle, passes a small brown package to Neve before plunging to her death beneath the icy waters of the Thames. Several weeks later Neve is contacted by the dead woman's solicitor who tells her Isabelle made a donatio mortis causa bequest, more commonly known as a 'deathbed gift', and she has inherited Isabelle's cottage in Cornwall.

With her own life on a downward spiral, Neve decides to leave London and move into the Cornish cottage. But what she imagined would be a new beginning in a charming little property by the sea, turns out to be a menacing-looking bungalow with bars across the windows. What was Isabelle scared of and why was she sleeping with a knife under the bedcovers? Neve's hopes and dreams for a better future are about to be shattered.

I really enjoyed In A Cottage In A Wood. It was a quick and easy read that once started was extremely difficult to put down. Some of the twists and turns were easily figured out but others were more cleverly concealed. There was a gradual build-up of tension and a real sense of foreboding. It was this that held my interest and kept me reading until the end.
               

Book Source: Purchased copy

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

📗The Blurb

A strange encounter
Neve comes across a troubled woman called Isabelle on Waterloo Bridge late one night. Isabelle forces a parcel into Neve’s hands and jumps to her death in the icy Thames below.

An unexpected gift
Two weeks later, as Neve’s wreck of a life in London collapses, an unexpected lifeline falls into her lap – a charming cottage in Cornwall left to her by Isabelle, the woman on the bridge. The solution to all her problems.

A twisted secret
But when Neve arrives, alone in the dark woods late one night, she finds a sinister-looking bungalow with bars across its windows. And her dream home quickly becomes her worst nightmare – a house hiding a twisted secret that will change her life forever…

📘The Author

My first novel, Dark Ride, won the RONA Young Adult Book of the Year and the Waverton Good Read Award. Cracks and Hold Your Breath garnered rave reviews and were shortlisted for 11 awards between them. Hold Your Breath won the Oldham Book Award.

I am the Writer in Residence at East Barnet School and I teach Writing for Children at City University. I have been a journalist for over 20 years and have written for many broadsheet newspapers and glossy magazines.

The Woman Next Door is my first novel for adults.

Cass Green's website