The Burning Girls by C. J. Tudor (Review)

Format: Paperback

Source: Library

Publisher: Michael Joseph

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Horror, Fiction

Publication Date: 21st January 2021

Synopsis/Blurb (Taken from Goodreads):

“A woman trying to outrun her past uncovers a great evil in the fourth riveting and psychologically compelling novel from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man.

Welcome to Keeper’s Croft. Five hundred years ago, protestant martyrs were burned at the stake. Forty years ago, two teenaged girls disappeared without a trace. And two months ago, the vicar of the local parish killed himself.

Reverend Alex Brooks, a single mother with a fourteen-year-old daughter and a heavy conscience, arrives in the village hoping to make a fresh start and find some peace. She left Nottingham after a vulnerable child died. It’s a death she could have prevented, one that still haunts her. But Alex discovers that peace is the last thing she will find in Keeper’s Croft.

Instead, the previous vicar has left a message. An old exorcism kit and a suicide note instruct Alex to search for the truth about the village’s history and the girls’ disappearance. And when both Alex and her daughter Flo are troubled by strange sightings in the old chapel–apparitions that seem all too real–it becomes apparent that there are ghosts here that refuse to be laid to rest.

But discovering the truth is hard in a village where everyone has something to protect, everyone has links with the village’s bloody past and no one trusts an outsider.”

My Thoughts

I’ve read all of C.J. Tudor’s full novels to date and have devoured them all, and this one was also devoured in a matter of days.

The writing was magnificent, everything flowed effortlessly. The opening chapters were a little slow for me but it wasn’t long until the creepy thriller to get going and at this point it definitely had me at the edge of my seat to the very end. As many of you probably know by now I’m not normally a fan of storylines that jump between past and present tenses but I absolutely loved it in this book, it added much more creepiness and suspense to the story.

The characters were once again really well done. I found the main characters very likeable from the very beginning. The side characters are also well drawn and I really liked how you could not trust anyone in this small town as everyone seems to have a secret/past that they are trying to keep hidden.

Now, when it comes to thrillers I like to think that I’m able to work out or at least have an inkling as to how things will turn out but by the end of The Burning Girls I absolutely had no idea and was totally shocked with the twist at the end, definitely never saw it coming.

An absolutely brilliant read can’t wait to see what C.J. Tudor has instore for her readers next, as I’ll definitely be adding her next novel to my shelves!!

Highly recommend to anyone looking for a tense and creepy thriller!!!

My Rating