Monday 27 May 2019

✪ Devil's Lair ✪ sarah Barrie ✪





Devil's Lair
Sarah Barrie
Published 17th June 2019
Imprint: HQ Fiction
ISBN: 9781489255297

A lonely widow, a sinister act, a remote mansion with a dark past...
 
After the violent death of her husband, Callie Jones retreats to a cottage in the grounds of an old mansion in Tasmania. The relative remoteness of the place and the wild beauty of the Tasmanian landscape are a balm to her shattered nerves and the locals seem friendly, particularly horseman Connor Atherton and his siblings at the nearby property, Calico Lodge.

But all is not well: the old mansion has a sinister past, one associated with witchcraft and murder. As Callie is threatened by odd events in the night and strange dreams overtake her sleep, she begins to doubt her own sanity. What's really going on beneath the surface of this apparently peaceful town? Are her friends and neighbours really who they seem? As events escalate, Callie starts to realise that the mansion may hold the key to unlocking the mystery, but the truth might have as much power to destroy as it does to save.



ARC received from Harper Collins Australia for an honest review

This was my first Sarah Barrie read, so I wasn't sure what to expect, however I knew that the blurb intrigued me and I needed to read it.

What a dark, psychological story with touches of the gothic.

Callie's story is not a fun one, she has really been through the wringer yet come out the other side, ready to move on with her life.

Witches, monsters, all that she never believed were real have come out in force to mess with her mind.  And all the while, these monsters are humans.

There are so many characters written into this story, it could at times leave you scratching your head wondering huh?, however the story it sold with such pace you are never left wondering for long, as you are swept up in the next intrigue of the story.

There were some twists and turns, and I really did not know whodunnit until Ms Barrie really wanted us to know.  So many red herrings had me wondering if I knew anything!

I did have a couple of WTF moments as things were revealed - and that is a good thing.  Usually I have a pretty good idea of who did it or at least where the story would go, but this time I wasn't even in the same postcode!

I enjoyed this story, and look forward to reading more of her work in the future.









Sarah Barrie is a best selling Australian author writing suspense in rural settings. Her debut bestselling print novel, Secrets of Whitewater Cree, earned her a spot as one of the Top 10 breakthrough authors of 2014, and her next three books, the Hunters Ridge series, also reached bestseller status. When she's not writing, you'll find her ferrying children to soccer or gymnastics, or trudging through paddocks chasing cattle, sheet chickens or the Houdina pig that never stays put very long. Occasionally, she'll attempt to ride her favourite hors, who's quite a bit smarter than she is, and not always cooperative.

Her favourite place in the world is the family property, where she writes her stories overlooking mountains crisscrossed with farmland, bordered by the beauty of the Australian bush, and where, at the end of the day, she can spend time with family, friends, a good Irish whiskey and a copy of her next favourite book.