The Whispers by Heidi Perks

Today the blog passes back to Mandie who has a review of The Whispers, the latest thriller from Heidi Perks as part of the blog tour. Our thanks to publishers Century who invited Mandie to join the tour and provided the. advance copy for review. Here’s what the book is all about:

About the Book

A MISSING WIFE. FOUR FRIENDS. WHO IS TELLING THE TRUTH?

Anna Robinson hasn’t been seen since she went on a night out with her four closest friends.
She has a loving husband and a son she adores. Surely she wouldn’t abandon them and her perfect life. . .

But what has happened to her?

At the school gates, it’s not long before the rumours start. Anna’s oldest friend Grace is beside herself with worry – desperately searching for answers, and certain that someone is hiding the truth.

With each day that passes, Anna’s life is under increasing threat. And a the pressure mounts, it won’t be long before something cracks. . .

Mandie’s Thoughts

Having never read a book by this author the premise of the story intrigued me. Grace Goodwin has returned to her hometown of Clearwater after years of living in Australia and is hoping to pick back up her friendship with Anna Robinson where it left off when she emigrated. After the initial pleasure in seeing her one-time best friend Anna suddenly seems to cool towards her, after all it has been a long time and she now has a new set of friends that don’t seem to have much time for Grace. When Anna goes missing after a Christmas meet up Grace feels that she is the only one that is truly concerned about what has happened to her friend and that the others are keeping secrets from her. Will her digging find her friend, or will it reveal things that have been kept secret for a long time?

At first you can’t help feel sorry for Grace, her husband is working all hours in another country and the only person that she really knows doesn’t seem to want to spend time with her, making you wonder if Anna really isn’t the person she remembers. Anna’s friends seem to resent her presence and constantly find ways to exclude her or just ignore her entirely and you have to wonder why Anna is not trying to get them all to get along. And that’s the beauty of this book. The further you get into it the more you see the history between the two women and the toxic friendships you know are there are actually not the ones you think they are.

I wasn’t particularly a fan of Anna’s friend Nancy as she came across as quite controlling and the main instigator to any of the animosity towards Grace. That being said as time went on and you saw the obsessive nature of Grace then I could kind of see where she was coming from and why Anna was so desperate to avoid being alone with her. The slower pace of this book helped build the tension towards the unexpected ending that had me turning pages well into the night. The unreliability of both Anna and Grace had me questioning which version of events were true. This is a book that explores friendship and loyalty and how secrets can destroy fragile links, questions if friendships really can stand the test of time and if the past really is as rosy as we remember it to be. Now that I have discovered this author, I don’t think that The Whispers will be the last book I read by her.

About the Author

Heidi Perks lives by the sea in Bournemouth with her husband and two children.
Heidi graduated from Bournemouth University with a BA (Hons) in Retail Management, and then enjoyed a career in Marketing before leaving in 2012 to focus on both bringing up her family and writing.

Heidi successfully applied for a place on the inaugural Curtis Brown Creative online Novel Writing Course and after that dedicated her time to completing her first novel, Beneath The Surface.

She has a huge interest in what makes people tick and loves to write about family relationships, especially where some of the characters are slightly dysfunctional.

Her second novel, Now You See Her was published by Century, part of the Penguin Random House group in 2018 and became a Sunday Times Bestseller and Richard and Judy book club pick.

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