Behind Closed Doors by Carol Wyer #blogtour #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you  Brilliance Audio for the ALC and #ZooloosBooktours & the author, #partner, for the finished copy of Behind Closed Doors in exchange for my honest review. 

 

 

Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for Behind Closed Doors. Thank you ZooloosBooktours for inviting me to participate. I have long been a fan of Carol Wyer’s books – she has written quite a two series that I have devoured and this latest one is a stand-alone that was equally compelling!

Do let me know if you end up picking this one up…I love knowing when someone picks up a book after they see it mentioned here!

 

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer / Brilliance Audio

Published: December 6, 2022

 

Summary:

Two kidnappings, thirty years apart. Can Stacey face her own dark past in order to save her stepdaughter?

When Stacey’s ex-husband turns up on her doorstep begging her to help save his kidnapped thirteen-year-old daughter, Lyra, the terror is all too familiar. Stacey’s own violent kidnapping thirty years ago was never solved, and while a severe case of amnesia spares her from recalling the specific horrors, she remembers enough…

Stacey knows her father never paid the ransom—she has the missing pinkie finger to prove it. She knows she was only saved because of an anonymous tip-off to the police. And she knows her captor was never apprehended.

Lyra’s kidnappers have made it clear the police must not get involved. But Stacey can’t shake the eerie similarities between the two cases, and she’ll use whatever she can, from her journalistic powers to her shady contacts, to save Lyra from the same nightmare. Desperate to find any link between Lyra’s abduction and her own, Stacey forces herself to revisit her forgotten, traumatic past for clues.

But can she make sense of the terrible secrets she unearths in time to save Lyra? And if she does, is she ready to face her own tormentor?

 

My thoughts:

As I mentioned above, Carol Wyer is a must-read author for me. Her crime fiction series are some of my favorites and I was thrilled to be able to take part in this blog tour. This is her first stand-alone crime fiction and I really enjoyed it!

This one grabbed me from the get-go and never let up. It is an incredibly tense story, and that intensity drives the plot, keeping you on edge. I loved that it involved two of my favorite tropes – a form of amnesia and a cold case. These two were woven into the story so brilliantly, definitely not like we’ve seen done before. And the characters – I loved Stacey – she was fiercely determined to find Lyra but also just as determined to figure out what had really happened during her kidnapping all those years ago. She is headstrong, sometimes to her own detriment, but this is what makes her such a great character. The other characters keep you on your toes, wondering if they really are who they say they are. I had my suspicions about them on and off throughout the book and that kept me even more engaged because I just couldn’t put this one down until I got answers.

There are lots of twists throughout this book and I loved each and every one of them. Yes, I did figure out some of the twists, but that in no way detracted from my overall enjoyment because I didn’t know the why and that I needed to know. This book is definitely another winner from Carol Wyer and if you love a good crime fiction novel that delves a bit into mental health and family dynamics, I highly recommend picking this one up!

 

Audio thoughts:

I’ve listened to many of Carol Wyer’s books and they just translate so well onto audio. This one was narrated by Bronwen Price and she did a fantastic job bringing this book to life. Her pacing was spot on and she infused just the right amount of tension and suspense into her voice as needed.