The Taking of Annie Thorne: 'Britain's female Stephen King' Daily Mail

by C. J. Tudor

'Some writers have it, and C. J. Tudor has it big time. The Taking of Annie Thorne is terrific in every way' Lee Child

The spine-tingling, sinister thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Chalk Man . . .
_______________

Then . . .

One night, Annie went missing. Disappeared from her own bed. There were searches, appeals. Everyone thought the worst. And then, miraculously, after forty-eight hours, she came back. But she couldn't, or wouldn't, say what had happened to her.

Something happened to my sister. I can't explain what. I just know that when she came back, she wasn't the same. She wasn't my Annie.

I didn't want to admit, even to myself, that sometimes I was scared to death of my own little sister.

Now. . .

The email arrived in my inbox two months ago. I almost deleted it straight away, but then I clicked OPEN:

I know what happened to your sister. It's happening again . . .
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'Confirms Tudor as Britain's female Stephen King. There is a creeping dread on every page' Daily Mail

'Shows that her excellent The Chalk Man was no one-off in matching Stephen King for creepiness' Sunday Express's Bestseller Predictions 2019

'Written with such skill it's hard to believe this is only her second book. It gives King a run for his money' James Oswald, author of the Inspector McLean series

'Dark, gothic and utterly compelling' J. P. Delaney, author of Believe Me and The Girl Before

'Deliciously creepy . . . An absolute corker of a book' Riley Sager, bestselling author of The Last Time I Lied

'I loved everything about this book' Alice Feeney, author of Sometimes I Lie

'Tudor's 2018 The Chalk Man was a standout mystery novel with a fresh voice and a spooky plot. This is even better' Washington Post
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Praise for C. J. Tudor . . .

'If you like my stuff, you'll like this' Stephen King

'Wonderfully creepy - like a cold blade on the back of your neck' Lee Child

'A tense gripper with a leave-the-lights-on shock ending' Sunday Times

'A must-read for all horror fans' Daily Express

• ISBN10: 0718187458
• ISBN13: 9780718187453
• Publish Date: 21 February 2019
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 7 April 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Imprint: Michael Joseph Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[zooloo1983]

This book keeps you up! This book had me burning the midnight oil with the short ambiguous chapter. Part thriller, part horror this book does not relent. It just takes takes takes, it draws you in, whispering to you to read another page, not to put the book down, a bit like “the pit”.

This is my first rodeo with Ms Tudor, but I can see why everyone has gone mad for her! Her writing is exquisite, drawing you slowly into the world of Joe Thorne. The night leading to his sisters’ disappearance is not forthcoming and when you do learn the truth it appears it might not necessarily be the whole truth. A piece of the jigsaw doesn’t quite fit and you realise you are missing a vital piece. I can wholeheartedly say I did not even attempt to guess any part of this book, I knew quite frankly I would be wrong. There were no red herrings per se, just a lot of misdirections and a lot of things implied. I allowed myself to just go with the story of Joe and Annie and hope I made it out alive.

Following Joe on his return to his home village, you are not quite sure of his intentions here. Even when do you find out you aren’t quite sure if you have been given the truth or not.

I absolutely adored (if you can adore this book), there was just the right amount of creepiness, felt a lot of Stephen King influence fore-sure, it was intense and thrilling. Put this all together and you are easily going to fall prey to one more chapter. It was so atmospheric with scenes in the graveyard slightly disturbing and the scenes in the pit had me imagining all kind of things. Especially as there were a few unanswered questions in this books, where normally I would get frustrated by, in this instance, I am sooo happy not to have them answered and adds to the magic of the story. Not only did I feel like this book channelled Stephen King, but there was also an essence of Matt Wesolowski and his Six Stories supernaturally scares. With the creepiness that ensued throughout the book with the house and that freaky ass doll!! One scene with that doll and it makes me want to throw out all my little ones’ dolls, never liked them anyway.

I haven’t read Chalk Man but I have it on my kindle so I can not wait to lose another night of sleep reading that book! I am so thrilled I got the chance to read this and discussing further with some of my blogging friends that Richard Armitage has narrated this book I may just have to pick this book up again and have a listen. Well if I dare, maybe only in the daytime would be good.