The Taking of Annie Thorne 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 new spine-tingling, sinister thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Chalk Man . . .
The Taking of Annie Thorne
Something happened to my sister. I can’t explain what.
But she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, say what had happened to her.
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.
My Thoughts
I have to confess that I am one of the few people who hasn’t read The Chalk Man, so I went into this new novel with high expectations and huge excitement, based solely on the fantastic reviews I have read about the previous novel.
The main character Joe Thorne goes back to Arnhill in Nottinghamshire, where he spent most of his childhood, to take up a teaching position. Joe is a troubled character and from the beginning, you just know that his return has nothing to do with schoolboy nostalgia. He rents a cottage, which had previously been home to his teaching predecessor. Nothing strange about that?… not at all, except she murdered her son and committed suicide there!
The book is deeply chilling with an air of the supernatural. I made the mistake of starting the book in the evening and spent a restless night afterward, listening to every creak of every floorboard.
The ex-mining town of Arnhill gives a dark, creepy atmosphere and the story of how Joe’s sister Annie went missing from her bed as a child is unravelled slowly. Joe’s narrative flicks between time scales, he is a flawed character but strangely likable with a dry sense of humour.
There is no doubt that C.J Tudor is an extremely talented storyteller and I predict great things to come from her.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for an advanced copy which I have reviewed honestly.
Author Bio
C. J. Tudor lives with her partner and young daughter. Her love of writing, especially the dark and macabre, started young. When her peers were reading Judy Blume, she was devouring Stephen King and James Herbert.
Some writers have it, and some don’t. C. J. Tudor has it big time . . . The Taking of Annie Thorne is terrific in every way (Lee Child)
Shows that her excellent The Chalk Man was no one-off in matching Stephen King for creepiness (Sunday Express’s Bestseller Predictions 2019)
Dark, gothic and utterly compelling, The Taking of Annie Thorne pulls off a rare combination – an atmosphere of unsettling evil along with richly nuanced characterisation (J. P. Delaney, bestselling author of The Girl Before)
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)
Spine tinglingly good (Amy Lloyd, bestselling author of The Innocent Wife)
Deliciously creepy, impeccably plotted and laced with both wicked humor and genuine shocks, The Taking of Annie Thorne is the kind of read-under-the-covers thriller you didn’t think people wrote anymore. Lucky for us, C. J. Tudor still does. An absolute corker of a book (Riley Sager, New York Times bestselling author of Final Girls and The Last Time I Lied)
The Taking of Annie Thorne deserves every plaudit it receives (Richard Armitage, narrator of The Taking of Annie Thorne and star of The Hobbit)
Dark and creeping and utterly unpredictable, The Taking of Annie Thorne is another triumph of a novel by C J Tudor. With its compelling characters and witty writing, it grips from the very first page (Jenny Quintana, author of The Missing Girl)
Gripping and dark, The Taking of Annie Thorne descends like its very own mine shaft, getting creepier the further you go. You’ll race to the finish (Roz Nay bestselling author of Our Little Secret)
With shades of Pet Sematary and an all-round aura of creepiness, The Taking of Annie Thorne cements C. J. Tudor’s position as a major new talent at the dark heart of crime writing. Her characters are compelling, the village of Arnhill as atmospheric as its abandoned pit, and she possesses that rare ability to keep the reader turning the pages, desperate to discover what happens next. Brilliant (Fiona Cummins, author of Rattle)
Your review is so exciting .. I loved it .. I want to read this.. In my TBR ❤️
Thank you, I hope you like it too xx