Blog Tour and my Review – The Retreat by Mark Edwards

Blog Tour and my Review – The Retreat by Mark Edwards

I’m delighted to welcome one of my favourite authors of twisty psychological thrillers, Mark Edwards,  to Beadyjans books today with his latest terrifying new book – The Retreat.

My Review:

The Retreat is a clever and compelling thriller with great characters lots going on and plenty to scare the pants off you!

If you’re reading my blog it figures that you’re a keen reader, blogger or writer and most of us who write, whether it be books, articles, blog posts or book reviews will surely have dreamt of some place quiet and peaceful to get away from the stresses of everyday life - the phones constantly ringing, people clamouring for our attention and thoughts and memories crowding in and interrupting the creative process.

Well, that’s just what successful horror author Lucas thinks he’s found when he books a break at a newly created writers retreat in an old rural house in Wales, where owner Julia is trying to make ends meet after the sudden death of her husband by letting out rooms to writers so they can enjoy the peace and quiet and get on with creating their masterpieces.

However, relaxing tranquillity isn’t quite what he gets. There is a shroud of mystery and darkness over the whole rural area, which is steeped in local legends and myths, which he plans to use to good advantage hoping they will inspire him to regain his lost writing mojo. But local folk seem suspicious and sinister and seem to be concealing something.

He discovers Julia to be kind and attractive yet deeply troubled as not only was her husband killed in a tragic drowning incident but their only daughter Lily was lost in the same tragic accident, but as her body has never been found, 2 years on she still can’t accept this tragic loss of her beloved young daughter, closure hasn’t been granted to her and she is undoubtedly deeply troubled by the past.

Of the 4 writers currently staying at the Retreat, Lucas can relate to this, he has his own personal demons of grief and loss to deal with, but despite his feeling deeply attracted to the widowed Julia they hit it off on the wring foot and each time he feels he’s getting closer to her he puts his clumsy great foot in it once again.

Something or someone is causing strange occurrences around the house and despite his vivid imagination he finds it impossible to accept that it could be haunted, any more than he can believe in the old local legend of the Eerie Red widow who snatches children. He knows that this can’t have been what happened to Lily and he sets out to find out what really happened that fateful day at the river and hopes to give Julia the closure she so desperately needs.

He unleashes more than a spook when he begins to delve, he uncovers secrets and dark deeds which have been buried over the years and he might have put his own life in danger as the more he reveals, the more someone wants to shut him up.

There is everything you need to be scared witless in this story, death and mayhem, murder and mystery coupled with spooky goings on are the perfect recipe for a gripping and EEK inducing tale.

You gotta love Mark Edwards style - when you think he has wrung out every drop of horror and emotion from the situation he has written so cleverly about, he manages to give it another little squeeze right at the end and produce a few more juicy drops which send a final shiver down the spine.

Author Mark Edwards.

This book couldn't have come at a more appropriate time as I am in the process of launching my own little private writers and readers retreat by offering my lovely private chalet in Spain to rent for anyone needing a few days or a week retreating to the sun. Read about it here I can guarantee it won't be as exciting as the one in Marks book but will actually be a quiet and tranquil getaway spot for you to read and write.

The Blurb

A missing child. A desperate mother. And a house full of secrets.

Two years ago, Julia lost her family in a tragic accident. Her husband drowned trying to save their daughter, Lily, in the river near their rural home. But the little girl’s body was never found—and Julia believes Lily is somehow still alive.

Alone and broke, Julia opens her house as a writers’ retreat. One of the first guests is Lucas, a horror novelist, who becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Lily. But within days of his arrival, the peace of the retreat is shattered by a series of eerie events.

When Lucas’s investigation leads him and Julia into the woods, they discover a dark secret—a secret that someone will do anything to protect…

What really happened that day by the river? Why was Lily never found? And who, or what, is haunting the retreat?

From the bestselling author of Follow You Home and The Magpies comes his most terrifying novel yet.

Order your copy now from Amazon.