Welcome to Thriller Thursday. Both of the books I am reviewing today are psychological thrillers, one with secrets the other with a missing child. Both books have children playing an important role in the stories. I have had these K.L. Slater books on my TBR for quite awhile. I found both of them on audio at audible and was able to listen to them from the plus catalogue.

Blink by K.L. Slater, Lucy Price-Lewis (Narrator)

Published February 16th 2017 by Bookouture, Audible Studios

4 Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Blink is K.L. Slater’s debut thriller and boy was it a good one. Three years ago Toni had moved to a new home in a new neighbourhood trying to start a new life. Her husband was killed in an accident while in the armed forces and she is still dealing with the grief. Toni is not able to talk about him or the accident either. She is brought into a group at her new school by a teaching assistant, but also has private sessions after school. It is one of those session that Toni is late picking her up and when she gets there, no one but the custodian is at the school. Toni’s five-year-old daughter Evie disappeared from school. She has not been found, but Toni can feel that Evie is still alive. How can she make the police and others believe her. Will she be able to speak up for herself?

This story pulled me in from the beginning of the book. It is written in a dual timeline so we hear the story of what happened three years ago, and what is happening now from the viewpoint of a patient who has had a stroke and is trying desperately to let everyone know she is still in there and trying to come back to them. There were several characters that we meet through both Evie and Toni, some I liked, others not so much. Harriet Watson, the teaching assistant was evil. She said things that were untrue to both Toni and Evie and constantly picked away at their self-esteem. I had no idea who had Evie. Every time I suspected someone, I changed my mind. With the final twists in this story, my jaw dropped. This was a great psychological thriller and can’t believe this was a debut story. Lucy Price-Lewis narrated this audiobook and I enjoyed her performance. She used tone, expression and pacing to make this story tense and entertaining. I definitely recommend this audiobook to those who enjoy a good psychological thriller.

The Secret by K.L. Slater, Lucy Price-Lewis (Narrator)

Published July 27th 2018 by Bookouture, Published October 9th 2018 by Audible Studios

3.5 Stars:

The Secret is one of K.L Slater’s first books and I love that she has improved as she has published others. Alice and Louise are sisters. Louise is struggling to cope. Louise is a busy working mum, married to a wonderful man who adopted her son, Archie, and struggling to cope. She often leaves 8 year old Archie with Alice. Alice used to have a great job, but after an accident she is pretty much housebound, and loves having Archie over. While watching out her window one day, she sees a man on the tram, looking up at her. She waves and he waves back, sending Alice into a world of imaginary encounters. While watching Archie, she notices he is a bit withdrawn and seems to be keeping something from her and his parents. She is worried about him and meets with his teacher. She begins to think that Louise is hurting her son. Meanwhile, she finds out that the man on the tram is not waving at her, but the woman who lives above her and that she has broken up with him. Will Alice have a chance with this man?

The Secret was a story that was all over the place. There were so many flashbacks in this one, that I often wasn’t sure what was going on. The narrators as well kept changing between the sisters and Archie. I wasn’t sure if this was a thriller, a mystery or family drama. I stuck with it and at about 2/3 of the way through, the story took off. The secrets were not revealed until the end, but oh, what those secrets were. I gave this one 3.5 stars, but rounded it down to 3 for Goodreads. The narration by Lucy Price-Lewis was well done with voices for the various characters that were a bit differentiated. Not the best audiobook I have listened to, but it was enjoyable.

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