Dark House

I liked this one, characters well developed, kept me intrigued, but mid-way through the book it was clear "who dunnit". Not as many twists and turns as I would have liked, but I am game to buy another of the Lucy Harwin series. Overall an interesting read and a good way to spend a relaxing Sunday reading!

For decades, The Moore, housed the children who were disabled, had mental problems, some were just unwanted by their parents. Horrendous experiments were carried out on some of theses youngsters ... you'd have to count the cemetery stones behind the hospital to know just how many. Thankfully, the hospital was closed down 40 -some years ago.Closed .. but not forgotten by everyone.Detective Lucy Harwin has been on medical leave after a case went terribly wrong. Today is her first day back and she's immediately thrust into an investigation. An older man has been found in the long abandoned hospital. He's dead with what looks like an ice pick stuck in one of his eyes, very much reminiscent of having a lobotomy.*Together with her partner, Detective Mattie Jackson, Lucy begins to unearth the hospital's terrible history, and soon finds herself on the trail of a killer ruthlessly fixated on avenging the crimes of the past.*New series ... new author for me. This is an extremely well written crime thriller. The story line is a brutal one as it involves the horrors inflicted on young children. It's actually a piece of history that we would all like to forget. This fictional story shows what could happen to the children who survive this kind of treatment.The characters are not cardboard cutouts. They come across as very human and extremely credible. Lucy is flawed and she has issues, but she is also a lot stronger than she realizes. Her partner is younger, lighter, but just as dedicated to seeing justice done for all victims.Personal Note of Interest: I found a blurb about this author stating that she is a fan of Stephen King. Sure enough, one of the characters in this book is named Dr. Stephen King.I look forward to following this author .. and this series.Many thanks to the author / Bookouture / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime thriller, Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Although a good book it has been done before with some changes. However Ms. Phifer has done brilliant job of putting her seal on the story. The characters are not as likeable in the Morgan Brooks series. Such a sad saga in this book regarding the asylum where children treated so badly.

Lucy is back at work after being suspended and she is thrown back into the deep end by a horrific murder at a vacant former asylum. When a second murder occurs in as many days, and is also a former employee of the asylum, the investigation turns towards revenge killings. Lucy and Matty’s personal lives are interwoven in the story and that lends to the humanity of our fave detectives. Astounding ending!

This was my first book by Helen Phifer and while I enjoyed it, I had a hard time with some of the British words used like knackered and found that I had to look a lot of them up, but its nothing the author did wrong.I had a hard time warming up to Lucy, but I ended up more or less on her side. There was a lot of action, some hurry up page turning, a few edge of my seat moments, a few heartbreaking moments, While I don't condone murder I was happy to see a couple of characters get their just due.I'm a fan of Lucy and the doctor, but I have a feeling Mattie will be her choice. Now, I'm off to read book #2. Oh, and I have to say, I actually figured out whodunit!#Lucy #Mattie #Murder #revenge #IKnewWhoDunIt!!

Really enjoyed this read. I love a good whodunit and this was a very good one. I thought I had it figured out but you surprised me! I like your story so much more than the one that was developing in my head.I liked the characters very much. Very likeable, faults and all. So much more believable. Especially Lucy. You have as characters a married couple. Not many people can work together and be married. I'm not sure if Lucy and Mattie could pull it off. We'll have to wait for further books to find out.The care system in the UK previous to 1980 or so has left deep scars. This is not the first book I've read with that subject as the background. Here in America we have our problems with our foster care system as well. It's just different.I enjoy reading books written by authors of other countries. Written primarily for an audience in that country. I learn so much. There is always something brought up in the course of the book that forces me to stop for a moment and research that topic. I like learning while I'm reading!

I have been reading a lot of thrillers lately, many police procedural types. And to be honest alot of them have kind of ran together in my mind as being awfully similar. But fortunately, Helen Phifer's Lucy is a refreshing new realistic lady cop. And we all know that in this genre, completely unheard of premises are nearly unheard of, so it comes down to the author's talent and ability to write about refreshing, believable characters and enough suspense and mystery surrounding the story to make it stand out from the crowd. And I feel that happened here. All the characters were believable and captivating. The detail was good about when, where and what was going on. And the fact that the story spans many years, that is sometimes a bit confusing. Not in this book though! I look forward to more of Lucy and Mattie and the gang! Bloody good 👍

I did enjoy reading book but it was the same old, same old with different characters. Like a Hallmark movie. Same type of police officer, same problems follow her and same undercurrent of love. But I still enjoyed. Easy Reading.

I liked this book but a few things I didn’t understand like Lucy thought someone had been in her house that part of the story didn’t continue also I would have liked to know more about what happened to Lizzy more of her story of growing up when was she released etc.

So, it turns out you can never have enough crime series in your life after all!! Just when I was thinking of going into a holding pattern of not adding any new series or authors into the mix for a while…. 💥BAM💥…… along come a host of fantastic blog reviews for Helen Phifers latest offering ‘Dying Breath’ (Damn you Book Bloggers!!!).Now, it’s at this point that I start thinking that I’m losing it (this can happen when you hit 45!), as I knew I had had bought Book #1 in the series ‘The Lost Children’ some time ago, but everybody was referring to it as ‘Dark House’. Anyway, turns out I’m not losing it and it just so happens that I’d had ‘The Lost Children’ on my Kindle for so long that it had actually changed name to ‘Dark House’. Not sure why, perhaps there was another similar title out there, but I think both old and new titles work equally well.Anyway, I digress…..back to the matter at hand……I chuffin’ loved Dark House and the introduction of DI Lucy Harwin. A feisty character who’s not afraid to face off with authority and mix things up a little, while always maintaining a cheeky sense of humour. For some reason, it just works for me, and I could see Lucy becoming one of my new favourites. Yes, there are a few of the obligatory demons in the closet, but nothing that drags the story or her character down too far, as there is always that element of dark humour in the background.The book itself is superbly written and moves between present day and the past without losing the flow at any point. In fact, the story flowed so well that I raced through this over 2 days and could easily have finished it in 1 day if it wasn’t for that pesky thing called work getting in the way!! Subject matter wise it was not the easiest thing to read about, as it concerned the mistreatment of children at an asylum, and also raised some interesting questions on why we always assume old people are these sweet innocent types, when in actual fact they may have a past that would paint them in a very different light.That historical story line of the asylum is then the basis for the crimes that take place in present day that Lucy and her team are tasked with solving. The present day murders have no shortage of blood and gore, which I love reading about (weird, right?). That said, it’s not a slasher fest and a lot of it is left to the readers own imagination as to how brutal the murders really are. As with all good books, there are a number of threads and characters that allow the reader to use their amateur detective skills to identify the perpetrator. As is always the case with me, I failed miserably on this task, so I’ll be heading back to amateur detective school over the winter to brush up on my skills.Back to the characters, and in particular the relationship between Lucy and her detective colleague/friend ‘Mattie’. This was one of the great success stories of the book, and the way both characters played off and reacted to each other was a sheer joy to read. You could sense a real friendship there, where both characters deeply care for the other and also love to have a good bit of banter between themselves. The supporting cast were also very good and I can see that this will rapidly become one of my ‘go to’ series.A great book from yet another fantastic author from the Bookouture stable (I think I’m becoming a bit of a Bookouture Fanboy 😍😊) and, with only 2 books in the series so far, now is the perfect time to dive into the world of DI Lucy Harwin……you won’t regret it!!Highly recommended!

Detective Lucy Harwin #1A new series by an author whose novels I have previously enjoyed! I was quite easily #Sold!I realised the second the series, Dying Breath was due for release and decided to catch up with the first in the series beforehand!So hold fire, my review for Dying breath, will be following shortly!The synopsis details the location of Brooklyn Bay and more importantly the crumbling Moore Asylum! Once a home for mentally ill children, the asylum is now a decaying mess left to rot. Much like its patients of 30 years ago. But what was the scandal that finally closed the asylum?The prologue opens back in September 1975, there are several chapters from this era which slowly unravel the brutality rolled out within the asylum’s walls.The prologue tells us about Alice (15yrs) and Lizzy (9yrs), their budding friendship and what they witness happen to little Tommy with his ‘treatment’.Make sure you hug and kiss your children, before you tuck in to read!The Moore asylum ‘treated’ a wide range of children’s needs. From those who are mentally ill, to those who would nowadays, live with their families in a much more accepting society. I myself am the mother of an 11-year-old autistic boy. Who has exhausted main stream education settings. I was well aware, as I turned the pages, had he been born within a different era. Life wouldn’t have been so beautiful for him.The mistreatment and abuse of children in settings, originally designed to protect and nurture them, is mainstream news. It is still happening to this very day! But back in the 1970s, with fewer safeguards, abuse was rife!DI Lucy Harwin is called to the derelict asylum, with reports of a dead body at the scene. Lucy, her partner Mattie and pathologist Dr Catherine Maxwell discover that the body appears to have sustained, a death inducing injury, similar to that of a lobotomy! But who would want to lobotomise an old man? Why choose this location? And who is the victim?Lucy’s personal life unravels throughout the novel and she makes for a likeable character and protagonist. Lucy is a career copper and has at times put duty before her family. Ultimately paying the toughest price in the breakdown of her marriage. Her teenage daughter now blames her and is rebelling beyond Lucy’s reach. Lucy has it far from easy………The case advances at an easy pace, allowing the reader to fully absorb all the details. The past of the asylum is explored and there are chapters from the killer’s perspective. I was gripped on the chapters from September 1975. I was desperate to learn more about the asylum and its former patients/inmates.When another dead body is discovered, and the victim also has links to the asylum. The coppers know, the answers lie in the past.How many more lives must be destroyed at Moore asylum?This novel is a police procedural, mixed with a creepy asylum backstory. The characters are interwoven perfectly! 4*

In a genre already dominated by strong female protagonists, a good number of them coming from the Bookouture stable, could this new Detective, Lucy Harwin, hold her own?The answer is simply, yes. She can. She is a really interesting character. Just returning to work after a break which was forced on her following a particularly harrowing case which went south, she is immediately drawn into a murder investigation which will test her nerve and prove whether she really is ready to return to work. With her personal life a bit of a mess (she’s a divorcee whose seems unable to do anything right in the eyes of her teenage daughter) Lucy lives for work. Her work partnership with Detective Mattie Jackson was brilliantly scripted; a perfect balance of camaraderie and flirtation with the pair skirting around the clear chemistry between them. This is definitely a pairing to watch and once which I will be interested to see develop in the future books.As for the case. Well, when your first body is found left to rot in an old abandoned asylum, the manner of death very distinct, then you know there is something very sinister afoot. The story bounces back and forth between past and present as we are treated to flashbacks to the asylum when it used to act as a hospital for children with mental health issues. And by that I mean a volatile mixture of cases ranging from seriously disturbed children to those who perhaps have a mild form of disability which would be far better understood in today’s society. At the time the historic sections of the book were set, the 1970’s, things like ADHD or autism, or even just being a little unruly, were seen as reasons to lock your children away. This led to some unpleasant scenes of cruelty in the hospital, where Doctors and Nurses were not as tolerant or understanding as they perhaps should have been.Now there are a few twists in this book and on a couple of occasions the author had me wondering between one or two potential characters as to which one might be the killer. It really will keep you guessing. There were also some real edge of the seat moments in which our heroes face great peril. The writing and pacing are solid and it moved along at a fair old gallop at times – a true page turner. It kept me gripped from first page to last and the characters are truly relatable, particularly when looking at Lucy’s relationship with her daughter, the archetypal moody teenager. And having read The Good Sisters I already know that Helen Phifer has a real knack for creating a chilling atmosphere. This was no exception with the scenes in the asylum, both past and present sending a shiver down my spine.All in all, a great start to the series and I can’t wait to read more about Lucy and Mattie.

All i can say about all the Helen Phifer books i have read is every book is absolutely fabulous, get you hooked from the first page, i have read nearly all her books and am looking forward to the next.