The Night Stairs by Erin Kelly #thenightstairs @erinjkelly @harvillbooks #bookreview #gothicthriller

 

St Cordula’s Catholic boarding school has survived for centuries on tradition, discipline and silence. Now its future is under threat, and Deputy Head Fiona Fox is preparing to lead the controversial change that could save it from ruin.

But St Cordula’s has always had rules of its own.

Legend has it that the ghost of fifteenth-century nun, Sister Matilda, will keep the school safe. But only as long as the words ‘GOD FORGIVE ME’, scrawled by Matilda on a chapel staircase wall before she fell to her death, remain.

Every year, the words are repainted.

The only time they were allowed to fade, in 2002, a terrifying outbreak of vertigo swept through the pupils. One girl died on the night stairs. And only three people know what really happened.

Now the vertigo is back, and as panic sweeps the school, Fiona must confront a dark secret from her past.

Or face the deadly consequences…

The Night Stairs by Erin Kelly was published on 9 July 2026 by Harvill. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

I have said this many times and I'm now going to say it again; Erin Kelly is one of the very best authors of our time. Her writing is stylish, polished and her plots are always intricately woven. A new Erin Kelly novel is a treat to be savoured. 

In the past this author has taken us to a ballet company, to a vintage clothes shop and to an asylum, amongst others in her fiction. What ties those locations is her ability to make them into characters. The Nights Stairs introduces us to St Cordula's Catholic Boarding School; once a convent and now a school, complete with its very one fables and myths which are central to this incredible story. 

The author has tackled some sensitive subjects within this novel, and I'm sure that some readers may find those difficult. I didn't, and I am not even going to attempt to dissect them.

Dark, unsettling and completely immersive, this is a novel that I became totally engrossed in, so much so, that I found myself reading when I should have been working! 

St Cordula's Catholic boarding school is an unforgettable setting. Steeped in history, tradition and superstition, it is wonderfully vividly created. Every corridor, every chapel and every shadowy corner seems to hold a story of its own, but it is the infamous night stairs that become the actual heart of the novel. The school building has such a strong presence that it almost becomes another character, watching over the events that unfold within its ancient walls, and for me, that is always a winner. 

Deputy Head Fiona Fox is preparing to lead the school through a period of significant change and long buried memories are beginning to surface. When a mysterious outbreak known as 'the spins' returns, Fiona is drawn back to a tragedy that has haunted both the school and her own past for decades. The blend of folklore, history and psychological suspense is really fabulous, there is a sense of unease that builds with every chapter.

Erin Kelly writes with such confidence, allowing the tension to develop naturally, and also giving her characters real depth and authenticity. I was completely invested in Fiona's story and fascinated by the traditions that continue to shape life within St Cordula's walls. The atmosphere is exceptional.

This is an intelligent, beautifully crafted thriller that combines the Gothic with an excellent mystery. It is compelling, haunting and wonderfully atmospheric from beginning to end. Most certainly, for me, one of Erin Kelly's best novels and a book that I will be recommending to everyone.

Erin Kelly is one of the most well respected and critically acclaimed voices in the crime-writing
community. She is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Poison Tree, The Sick Rose, The Burning Air, The Ties That Bind, He Said / She Said, Stone Mothers (published in paperback as We Know You Know), Watch Her Fall, The Skeleton Key and Broadchurch: The Novel, inspired by the mega-hit TV series. In 2013, The Poison Tree became a major ITV drama and was a Richard & Judy Summer Read in 2011. Its sequel, The House of Mirrors, was published to rapturous reception in 2024.

​

He Said / She Said spent six weeks in the top 10 in both hardback and paperback, was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, and selected for both the Simon Mayo Radio 2 and Richard & Judy Book Clubs. Watch Her Fall was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award in 2022 and Erin was nominated for the CWA’s Dagger in the Library. The Skeleton Key was the Waterstones Thriller of the Month in September 2023 and won the Genre-Busting Book of the Year category at the Capital Crime Fingerprint Awards 2023. It was a Sunday Times top 10 bestseller and a Times number one bestseller in paperback.

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Erin has worked as a freelance journalist since 1998 and written for the Guardian, The Sunday Times, Daily Mail, New Statesman, Red, Elle and Cosmopolitan. She has also taught creative writing on the Curtis Brown Creative course. Born in London in 1976, she lives in north London with her husband and daughters. 

 

Her latest gothic thriller, The Night Stairs, is out now

www.erinkelly.co.uk

Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard #VirtualBookTour #BuyerBeware @cathryanhoward @bantambooksuk @randomthingstours #BookReview

 

If these walls could talk, they’d scream…

When Ellie moves into 1 Delaney Row, all she has to her name is the house, a small suitcase and the terrible secrets she’s desperate to keep. But what she doesn’t know is that her new home is already hiding someone else’s secrets – and the people determined to keep them are watching her.

When a grim discovery prompts Ellie to find out more about the house’s past, she unwittingly puts herself on a deadly collision course not just with her new home’s history, but with her own as well…

Inspired by so-called ‘stigmatised properties’ – houses with dark and violent pasts – Buyer Beware is an intricate puzzle-box of a thriller with a pulsing emotional heart, from an author at the very top of her game.

Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard was published on 16 July 2026 by Bantam Press. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Virtual Book Tour

This psychological thriller draws you in slowly before increasing the tension, making it hard to put the book down. Ellie arrives at 1 Delaney Row hoping for a fresh start. She has few belongings and wants to keep her past hidden. It quickly becomes clear that someone is watching her every move. Strange incidents occur around the house, creating a sense of unease. Alongside Ellie's story, we meet Erin and Hannah through earlier timelines. Their lives seem very different at first, but the author reveals subtle connections between them, allowing the mystery to unfold at a perfect pace. The multiple timelines are skillfully done, and each one adds another piece to a complex puzzle. However, this does not feel complicated; the structure kept me turning the pages as I wondered how these women are connected and what role Delaney Row plays. The author creates an unsettling atmosphere. There’s a constant sense that something lurks just beneath the surface. The characters feel real, each with their own vulnerabilities and secrets, which adds emotional depth to the story. There were moments when I thought I had figured out the story’s direction, but I was happy to be proved wrong. Buyer Beware is a gripping, character-driven thriller that balances mystery, suspense, and emotion very well. It's an absorbing and satisfying read. I recommend it.

Catherine Ryan Howard is an award-winning, no. 1 bestselling thriller writer from Cork, Ireland. 

Her novels have been included in the New York Times Best Thrillers of the Year, the Washington Post’s Best Mysteries and Thrillers of the Year and the Sunday Times Best Thrillers of the Year. 

Her work has been shortlisted for the Edgar Award for Best Novel, the CWA New Blood and Ian Fleming Steel Daggers, and the Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year multiple times. 

She is published in 20 languages and a number of titles are being developed for screen. An adaptation of her lockdown thriller, 56 DAYS, starring Dove Cameron and Avan Jogia,  debuted exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in early 2026. 

She lives in Dublin.

Forbidden Love by Sophia Greenwood with Helen Croydon #forbiddenlove @sophiagreenwood_author @helencroydon @randomthingstours #authorinterview

 

When Sophia, adopted as a baby, set out to find her birth parents, she hoped it would give answers about where she came from and why she was given away.

But nothing prepared her for the tumultuous events this reunion sparked. What began as a quest for truth gave rise to a secret that went on to change the course of her life and challenge all that she knew about love.

This heart-breaking and brave true story explores love and loss, belonging and identity, and the lifelong consequences of a mother-baby bond broken too soon.

Forbidden Love by Sophia Greenwood with Helen Croydon was published on 1 May 2026. As part of this #RandomThingsTours Virtual Book Tour, I am delighted to share this interview with the authors with you here today. 

Interview with Sophia Greenwood & Helen Croydon 

•  Sophia, what first motivated you to search for your birth parents, and what were your expectations before beginning that journey? 

Like many adoptees, I reached a point where I needed to understand where I came from. It was not about replacing my adoptive family, whom I loved, but about completing the missing pieces of my biological heritage and identity. I hoped for answers about why I had been given away, fantasised about a relationship with my ‘real’ mother and yearned for a sense of ‘belonging’ within myself but which was a vague and abstract notion I didn’t fully understand. I never imagined that my search would lead to feelings and experiences so life-changing or challenge everything I thought I knew about family, love, and myself, especially as an adoptee who had grown up without my biological roots and which most of us do and can naturally take for granted. 

•  Your book explores themes of identity, belonging, and adoption. How did your understanding of yourself change as a result of discovering the truth about your origins? 

Reunion helped me understand that identity is far more than the family who raises us. I came to appreciate the profound influence of biology, genetics, and our earliest attachments. It also made me realise that many of my lifelong questions about who I was had perfectly understandable roots having spent the first five weeks with my birth mother deepening the natural bond that was then suddenly severed. Ultimately, the journey led me to greater self-compassion and a deeper understanding of the complex emotional legacy that adoption can leave.

•  The reunion led to revelations that challenged your ideas about love and family. What was the most difficult aspect of sharing such a deeply personal story with readers? 

Without question, the fear of being judged. This is an experience that is still widely misunderstood, and I knew many people would instinctively view it through a moral lens rather than a psychological and biological one. I shared my story because silence helps no one. If even one adoptee, birth parent, or professional feels less alone or better informed as a result, then the vulnerability has been worthwhile.

•  Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA) is a complex and often misunderstood subject. What do you hope readers will take away from your account of this experience? 

I hope readers come away with greater understanding rather than judgement. Genetic Sexual Attraction and intimate relationships that can often develop from that after lifelong separation is not about choice or predatory intent; it is a recognised phenomenon that can occur after close biological relatives meet for the first time as adults and is powerfully magnetic in nature. My memoir is not an attempt to justify what happened but to explain it honestly. I hope it encourages more research, better education, and proper counselling before and after reunions, so that adoptees and birth families receive the support they need and fewer people experience the profound trauma that can otherwise follow.

•  Helen, when working on a memoir that deals with sensitive and controversial topics, how do you balance emotional authenticity with responsible storytelling? 

This is the crux of any memoir writing process. In real life, our experiences shape outcomes and our understanding of the world in very subtle ways, and in vastly numerous ways. It is obviously impossible to include every single event in the book-version of our lives. The key to storytelling is to understand what the most relevant ‘turning points’ of our personal narrative are. This is what humans do all the time, subconsciously, to understand the world: We simplify our memories to help ourselves make sense of our own narrative, or to help others understand our stories. The key to writing a memoir is to consciously understand these turning points, and to explain why the characters may do what they do. With sensitive subject matter this is especially important not to make leaps in understanding.

As a co-writer, I am always one-step removed from an author’s lived experience, so I am always trying to view the story from the reader’s more simplistic lens, and an author’s more complex and multi-layered lens. 

•  What was the collaborative process like between the two of you? Were there particular moments in Sophia's story that were especially challenging to write or revisit together? 

Helen: The process was a mix of early drafts from Sophia, which she had already written, and regular long video calls. I tried to keep Sophia’s language and turns of phrases as much as I could, while weaving it into a structure, for example by structuring the chain of events into chapters with tension points; or weaving in some of the reflective passages into appropriate moments of the story which lend itself to that. In a collaborative writing project there are always many rounds of edits, with Sophia, and those close to her, editing, rewriting or adding bits accordingly. 

Sophia: It was certainly a collaborative process, and like any memoir dealing with deeply personal events, there were moments that were emotionally demanding for both of us. I had already written much of the story before Helen became involved, but her experience in shaping narrative was invaluable. She helped organise a complex timeline into a clear, engaging structure, finding natural story arcs, building tension where appropriate, and creating the kind of pacing and chapter endings that encourage readers to keep turning the pages.

Throughout the process, I stayed actively involved to ensure the story stayed true to my voice and, most importantly, to the emotional truth of my experience. There were many rounds of revisions as we refined not only the chronology but also the balance between recounting events and reflecting on what they meant. Revisiting certain chapters was undoubtedly challenging because it meant reliving some very painful memories, but careful process produced a memoir that is both authentic and accessible to readers

•  The book highlights the lifelong impact of a mother-baby bond being broken through adoption. How has writing Forbidden Love influenced your views on adoption, attachment, and emotional development? 

Writing Forbidden Love deepened my understanding of just how profoundly our earliest and, significantly, biological relationships shape us and the development of our ‘internal working model’ of relationships and our own self worth. While adoption can certainly provide loving, secure families in many cases, it also begins with a traumatic separation for the child that can leave an enduring imprint. We need to acknowledge both realities: to celebrate adoptive families, when they are loving and caring, while also recognising the lifelong impact that relinquishment and severing of the unique symbiotic mother/baby bond inevitably has on attachment, identity, and emotional development for the adopted child and on into adulthood. Ignoring either side does a disservice to everyone involved.

•  What conversations do you hope Forbidden Love will spark among adoptees, birth families, adoptive families, and professionals working in adoption and counselling?

I hope it encourages more open, compassionate conversations about the realities of adoption, not just its joys for the adopting couple and the perceived happy ending solution for a baby whose mother for some reason can’t or doesn’t want to ‘keep’ them, but its inherent emotional, biological and spiritual complexities. I would like to see greater awareness of the psychological and neurobiological effects of separation from mother for the child, more education and targeted research about what has been termed Genetic Sexual Attraction, and better preparation and post-reunion support for everyone involved. I hope it reminds people that empathy, rather than judgement, is the starting point for gaining a better understanding of these deeply human experiences.

Sophia Greenwood is the pseudonym of a British-born writer adopted as an infant in the 1960s. Having lived between the UK and Australia for many years, she draws on a lifetime of personal experience to explore the emotional complexities of adoption, identity, reunion, and Genetic Sexual Attraction. She is currently studying counselling with a particular interest in attachment, parenting, and early emotional development. Forbidden Love is her first book.

Helen Croydon is a ghostwriter and non-fiction development coach. She enjoyed a 15-year career as a journalist and broadcaster during which she wrote three of her own books including two memoirs. She also ran a PR agency for 5 years but missed writing too much. She now helps others articulate their book ideas and bring their stories to life through ghostwriting, editing or mentoring.

All Killers Aboard by David Fennell #allkillersaboard @mrdavidfennell @orionbooks #bookreview #crimefiction #serialkillers

 

A shocking murder.
A ship full of suspects.

On a luxury cruise from Southampton to New York, the annual gathering of the mysterious Midnight Chorus Society is in full swing. Unbeknownst to the rest of the innocent passengers, the deadly convention is made up entirely of serial killers, wannabes and their fans.

Travelling on board is Hollywood royalty Jacqui Dulac, star of the television show Lady Detective, and her latest ghost-writer, Martha Hammond. Yet when Martha witnesses a shocking murder on deck, with a single red button found near the crime scene, the quarrelling duo must put aside their differences to become real-life detectives...

But with a cruise liner full of the world's most notorious serial killers, they both know that when there's been one murder, another is sure to follow. And as a storm rocks the ship, can Martha and Jacqui identify the killer before it's too late?

All Killers Aboard by David Fennell is published on 30 July 2026 by Orion. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

This is something really quite different from David Fennell. I am a huge fan of his DI Grace Archer series. They are some of my favourite crime novels but they are dark, gritty and quite violent. This new offering is cosier, funnier but still excellent. 

That premise though!  A transatlantic cruise filled with members of a secret society for serial killers sounds crazily outrageous, and David Fennell makes this into a murder mystery that is packed with humour, surprises and an unforgettable cast of characters.

Martha Hammond thinks she is going on a working trip, ghostwriting for Hollywood actress Jacqui Dulac, the glamorous star of the television series Lady Detective. Their relationship is rocky and their constant bickering provides plenty of entertaining moments from the very beginning. When Martha witnesses a shocking death on deck, she quickly realises that this is no ordinary cruise. With a ship full of people who know far more about murder than they ever should, she and Jacqui find themselves trying to uncover the truth.

The setting is perfect. A cruise ship already has that closed up feel, but adding a violent storm and a passenger list full of suspicious characters really creates an atmosphere where nobody can be trusted. 

I really enjoyed the variety of characters. There are so many larger than life personalities, each bringing something different to the story, and discovering how they fit into the bigger picture is great fun. It would have been easy for such a large cast to become a bit confusing, but each character has their own place and helps keep the plot moving at a steady pace.

There is a real sense of wit running throughout the novel. The humour feels natural, and often pops up just when it is needed most. The humour doesn't take away the suspense at all, it works really well. 

This is an entertaining, cleverly plotted mystery with an original idea that is done really well. It is dramatic, funny and full of memorable moments. It is a thoroughly enjoyable read from beginning to end. I would happily join Martha and Jacqui for another adventure!  Recommended. 

David Fennell was born and raised in Belfast during the Troubles. 

He left for London at the tender age of eighteen and jobbed as a chef, waiter and bartender for several years before starting a career as a writer in the software industry. 

He is now a full time novelist. 

David is the author of the multi award nominated SLEEPER series and the popular GRACE ARCHER crime series. 

His sixth novel, A VIOLENT HEART, won the 2025 Capital Crime Thriller of the Year award.

Hot Girl Murder Club by Ashley Winsted #hotgirlmurderclub @ashleywinsteadbooks @headofzeus #bookreview

 

From INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING author Ashley Winstead comes a buzzy, bloody new thriller about success, sisterhood, and demanding justice. by any means necessary.

Wronged women always want revenge. But how far is too far?

When powerful men begin turning up dead across Los Angeles, suspicion falls on emerging pop star Scout Sage. Still haunted by her sister's mysterious death, Scout faces the collapse of her career, her reputation, and her tenuous belief in justice.

Assigned to the case is Detective Grey Holloway, whose own history sharpens every judgement. As Grey digs deeper, she uncovers whispers of the so-called Hot Girl Murder Club - a covert sisterhood of ambitious women rising through Hollywood. Women who are done waiting for the men in charge to deliver what's right, bent instead on taking it for themselves.

But are they correcting a broken system - or creating a far more dangerous one?

Would you join the Hot Girl Murder Club?

Hot Girl Murder Club by Ashley Winstead was published on 16 July 2026 by Aries / Head of Zeus. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

This is my first read by this author and I am told that she is never afraid to tackle difficult subjects. Hot Girl Murder Club is a provocative thriller that mixes up mystery with an excellent examination of power, privilege and justice. I found it to be an addictive read from the very first page, it is packed with tension and the premise is intriguing.

The story opens with a series of powerful men being murdered in Los Angeles, and the suspicion is on rising pop star Scout Sage. Scout is living in the shadow of her sister's tragic death years earlier, she finds herself caught up between public scrutiny and a determined detective who is convinced the answers lie somewhere within Hollywood. At the heart of the novel is the mysterious Hot Girl Murder Club, a secretive network of women who refuse to accept that the system will ever deliver justice for the women it has failed.

The story is told through many voices and timelines, and this allows the mystery to unfold bit by bit. It is a clever approach and it creates tension throughout. Although there are plenty of characters to keep track of, each has their own role within the main story, and the changing viewpoints continually add fresh layers to the narrative.

The novel explores the imbalance of power within the entertainment industry and creates difficult questions about revenge, accountability and what happens when traditional systems fail the very people they are supposed to protect. These themes are woven naturally into the story without ever slowing its pace.

Dark, entertaining and quite unpredictable, Hot Girl Murder Club is an absorbing thriller with plenty to think about long after the final page. It is both an intelligent mystery and an engrossing character driven novel. Recommended by me. 

Ashley Winstead is the author of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, The Last Housewife, Midnight is the Darkest Hour, This Book Will Bury Me, Fool Me Once, The Boyfriend Candidate and The Future Saints. 

Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages worldwide and optioned for film/television. 

Ashley holds a Ph.D. in contemporary American literature and lives in Houston. 

You can find her at www.ashleywinstead.com.

The Hotel Manager's Guide To Murder by Erlendur Arason t. Quentin Bates #blekverk @graskeggur #erlendurarason #nordicnoir #translatedfiction

 

The smarter a place looks, the darker the secrets it hides.

Guests at one of Reykjavík’s smartest hotels never know what happens behind the scenes –including what brings a group of down-and-outs to the Bristol Hotel every winter night while the rest of the world sleeps.

When overworked supervisor Torfi finds himself given an unexpected promotion that comes with a respectable pay rise, he takes it as a lucky break – until he’s told to make a murder victim disappear, and that he doesn’t have any choice. That’s when his life rapidly gets a lot more complicated.

What isn’t he being told? Torfi doesn’t know, but when police officers Haukur and Dagný start asking awkward questions, he needs to find answers – even though he knows only half of the story.

The Hotel Manager's Guide to Murder by Erlendur Arason was published on 25 July 2026 by Blekverk and is translated from the Icelandic by Quentin Bates. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this Virtual Book Tour 

I was instantly attracted by this book; a crime novel set in a hotel, and also translated fiction - perfect for me!

Guests only ever see the polished public face of a hotel, yet behind the scenes there is a completely different world, there's lots of hard work, complicated relationships and, in this case, some very dangerous secrets. Erlendur Arason makes excellent use of that setting in The Hotel Manager's Guide to Murder, and this is a really  entertaining Icelandic crime novel based on an unusual idea.

Torfi is such an easy character to like. He is an ordinary man who suddenly finds himself caught up in events that are far beyond anything he could have imagined. He is unexpectedly promoted and this quickly becomes something altogether more sinister, and watching him try to navigate increasingly impossible situations really makes this so compelling. There is plenty of tension, but there are also moments of dry humour that stop the novel from becoming too dark.

The hotel itself is just as important as the characters. The contrast between the elegant image presented to guests and the chaos unfolding behind closed doors is wonderfully done. Reykjavík also comes alive on the page, with its cold winter streets adding to the atmosphere. Alongside the murder mystery, the novel's themes look at social inequality and the realities of modern city life, giving the story an added sense of depth.

Quentin Bates's translation is excellent. The writing feels natural throughout, allowing the characters and the steadily building suspense to take centre stage. The narrative flows really well.

I did feel that some aspects of the criminal plot became a little overcomplicated as the novel progressed, and there were one or two supporting characters I would have liked to find out more about.  This does not take away the fact that  this is a really great debut with an fabulous lead character. The setting is so memorable and there's such an intriguing glimpse into a world that most hotel guests never stop to think about. I'll certainly be interested to see where Torfi's story goes next.

Erlendur Arason is a fresh voice in Nordic Noir, bringing a sharp, sardonic new take to the genre.

The Hotel Manager’s Guide to Murder is the first in a new trilogy set in and around Reykjavík.

Circle of Secrets by Ceril Campbell #VirtualBookTour #CircleofSecrets @cerilcampbell @booksmjp @randomthingstours #bookreview

 

In the glamorous world of fashion, fame, and power, beauty hides blemishes and success conceals scars.

When a young model disappears in Europe, her absence begins to expose the hidden fractures beneath the industry’s most glamorous elite. While a circle of friends, whose worlds - built on ambition, betrayal, and silence - begin to crack and truths that could destroy them all claw their way to the surface.

At the height of the hedonistic 1980s, from the polished veneer of the modelling world in London and Milan, to the freedom of Soho where identities blur, lives begin to unravel. Mothers haunted by loss, beautiful women desperate to bury their past, and powerful men entangled in guilt, desire, and control.

Circle of Secrets is a stylish, character-driven drama of glamour and deception, exploring how far people will go to protect the lies that define them.

Circle of Secrets by Ceril Campbell was published on 2 July 2026 by Matthew James Publishing. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Virtual Book Tour 

I am a fan of novels set in the 1980s and Circle of Secrets captures both the glamour and the excesses of those times. From London's fashion scene to the streets of Milan and the nightlife of Soho, Ceril Campbell creates a vivid setting for a story filled with secrets, complicated relationships and the pressures of living up to expectations.

At the centre of the novel there is a group of connected characters, they all carry secrets that gradually begin to affect those around them. Jade's journey into the modelling world is fascinating and highlights the contrast between the industry's glamorous image and the harsh realities that lie beneath it. Simon, Paula and Chloe each bring something different to the story, with their own hopes, disappointments and personal challenges, and these add real depth to the novel. Although there are plenty of characters to get to know, their lives soon become interwoven and it is the relationships between them that really keeps you turning the pages. 

Ceril Campbell's experience within the fashion industry shines through, giving the novel an authentic feel without becoming overly detailed. The mystery surrounding the disappearance of a young model is the underlying thread throughout the book.. There are themes of friendship, loyalty, ambition and betrayal, and these are explored alongside the darker side of fame and success.

There were times when the story slowed when the attention shifted between the different characters and their own storylines, which occasionally affected the momentum. However, readers who enjoy character led fiction with plenty of drama and emotional conflict will really enjoy this one.

Circle of Secrets is an entertaining novel that mixes glamour with family drama and some mystery. It is an interesting look behind the polished image of the fashion world while reminding us that appearances rarely tell the whole story.

Ceril Campbell has always been passionate about fashion.For over thirty years she has worked as a celebrity stylist, fashion commentator and expert on TV and radio with her own magazine columns and features. Her debut novel, Secrets in the Dark, is not autobiographical in any way, but is inspired by her insider knowledge of the glamorous world of celebrity.

Ceril is now a broadcaster and motivational speaker, helping clients with lifestyle, image, life change, self-esteem, positive body confidence and mental wellness.Ceril has also written self-help books, including Discover the New You: Celebrity Stylist Secrets to Transform Your Life and Style. She lives in London and has two adult children.

To find out more about Ceril, visit her website www.cerilcampbell.com, and follow her on  Instagram @cerilcampbell.