Nightwatching
‘The most gripping thriller I have ever read’ Gillian McAllister
-
-
4.3 • 47 Ratings
-
-
- £5.99
-
- £5.99
Publisher Description
Spring 2024 Jimmy Fallon Book Club Winner
DISCOVER THE THRILLER KEEPING EVERYONE AWAKE
‘The most gripping thriller I have ever read’ GILLIAN McALLISTER
‘Like nothing I've read before. I wolfed it down in two sittings, it's amazing’ LISA JEWELL
‘As tender as it is terrifying’ ABIGAIL DEAL
‘You won’t be able to look away’ SHARI LAPENA
‘Heart-thumping and mesmerizing’ ASHLEY AUDRAIN
‘One of the best thrillers I’ve ever read’ JENNIE GODFREY
WASHINGTON POST FEBRUARY 2024 PICK
TODAY SHOW ‘Books we can’t wait to read in 2024’
----
There was someone in the house.
Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night. Then she hears a noise - old houses are always making some kind of noise. But this sound is disturbingly familiar: it's the tread of footsteps, unusually heavy and slow, coming up the stairs...
In that split second, she has three choices.
Should she hide? Should she run? Or should she fight?
----
NIGHTWATCHING is the unmissable thriller of the year:
'Terrifying and unputdownable' KARIN SLAUGHTER
'Absolutely, breathtakingly superb' SOPHIE HANNAH
'A scalpel-sharp thriller' NIKKI SMITH
'I couldn't put it down' ALAFAIR BURKE
‘Eerily atmospheric, pulse-pounding and unputdownable’ SARAH PEKKANEN
'One of the most haunting, gripping novels I've read in a long time' KATIE GUTIERREZ
‘I am trying to think of a book that has grabbed me by the throat more quickly’ LINWOOD BARCLAY
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This sharp shocker of a thriller does a superb job of tapping into many people’s worst nightmare—waking up in the small hours to find a silent, shadowy figure standing in the corner of your bedroom while you lay frozen in fear. When a terrified single mother senses an intruder, she desperately takes her two children into a secret hiding place in their creaky, creepy house. But as the monstrous figure prowls the property, waiting for them to give themselves away, she realises she recognises him. Should she fight or flee? And will the police believe it wasn’t just her overactive imagination playing tricks? Suspenseful, claustrophobic and heart-poundingly propulsive, this atmospheric psychological thriller combines horror tropes with feminist themes. The protagonist is tenderly brought to life and, as her past is gradually peeled away, it’s a vivid insight into trauma, marriage and maternal fear. A highly impressive debut from this lawyer turned novelist, complete with a chilling twist ending that will haunt your own dreams.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of attorney Sierra's outstanding debut, an unnamed mother huddles inside a tiny, secret room in her family's isolated New England home with her eight-year-old daughter and five-year-old son, the latter of whom she struggles to keep quiet so the monstrous intruder searching the house won't find them. Just when the tension becomes almost unbearable, Sierra flashes back to happier times with the protagonist's now-absent husband, and further still to her childhood marked by the untimely death of her mother. As the story unspools, each of these narrative strands sheds light on the others, and it gradually becomes clear who might be stalking through the narrator's house—and why she's hesitant to call the police. As grippingly suspenseful as the plot is, Sierra's first outing boasts other strengths just as noteworthy, from its transportingly eerie setting to its indelible main character, a petite, prototypical "good girl" pushed to the brink by years of being underestimated, patronized, and disbelieved by men with power. The icing on the cake is the splendid ending, which feels both surprising and inevitable, shifting perceptions of nearly everything that came before without landing like a gimmick. Readers will be eager to see what Sierra does next.
Customer Reviews
Wow
Haunting, gripping, stomach churning, emotive.
Couldn’t put this book down and when I had to, couldn’t stop thinking of it.
Read it. Don’t miss out.
Dull
It is just dull. There are passages which are so vague they might as well not be there. I didn’t care about any of the characters as they were so one dimensional. The issues with the minor characters didn’t go anywhere and so were pointless.