The Heights: From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Our House comes a nail-biting story about a mother's obsession with revenge

by Louise Candlish

There is nothing as powerful as a mother’s love. But will Ellen’s put her whole family in danger?

‘I didn’t read The Heights, I inhaled it’ LISA JEWELL

Ellen Saint is just your average mum. Devoted to her family, she’s no different from any other mother who wants the best for her kids. But when her teenage son Lucas brings a new friend home, cracks start to appear in Ellen’s perfect family life.
Kieran Watts isn’t like Lucas. He’s rude, obnoxious and reckless, and Ellen can only watch in despair as her son falls deeper under his influence.
Then Ellen’s whole world implodes and she embarks on an obsessive need to get revenge.

There is nothing you won’t do for your children – even murder . . .


'Compelling, unexpected and beautifully written' JANE FALLON

‘Tense, provocative and devastatingly powerful’ TM LOGAN

'There’s nothing quite so chilling as the roar of mother tiger love. Louise Candlish had my heart in my throat. Dizzily dark. Dangerous. Deadly' JANE CORRY

'The Heights has everything you could possibly wish for – tragedy, obsession, revenge and, yes, love. Another finely-crafted masterpiece from Louise Candlish' BA PARIS
 

• ISBN10: 1471183483
• ISBN13: 9781471183485
• Publish Date: 5 August 2021 (first published 13 May 2021)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[Emma (SCR)]

This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you to Books and the City and Simon and Schuester for letting me take part in this tour and for my copy of this book via Netgalley. I loved Louise's previous books Our House and Those People so I was very excited when I heard about The Heights.

As is usual for Louise the characters are very realistic. Ellen, Vic Lucas, Justin and Freya are your average blended family. Ellen and Vic, parents to Lucas while Freya is the child of Ellen and Justin. All is well until Kieran comes along. I cannot decide if I like Ellen or not. She clearly loves her family and wants to keep them safe. However, there are times when she seemed I'm not even sure of the right word. Neurotic seems OTT but I'm not sure what else to call it.

Louise drip-feeds information so as to keep you perfectly on edge. I have to say the whole book made me edgy. I never knew which way the characters were going to turn. It was obvious that something terrible had happened but for a long time, it wasn't clear what.

I liked that the chapters flicked between the present and the past. I also liked the little clips from the newspaper article. I love things that break up the usual chapter 1, chapter 2 etc in a book. We also had multiple POVs which is something I love too.

The story is very twisty and as is Louise's style almost verging on the unbelievable but still within the realms of possibility. Louise has a way of making the outrageous seem plausible. Her characters a driven to the edge to where it's all they have left. I thoroughly enjoyed this chilling story and I cant wait to see what twisty story Louise brings next.