Red Ribbons by Louise Phillips (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"A SERIAL KILLER

When the body of a missing schoolgirl is found buried in the Dublin Mountains, her hands clasped together in prayer, two red ribbons in her hair, the hunt for her killer reaches epic proportion with the discovery of a second girl's body 24 hours later.


THE CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGIST

Desperate to find the murderer, police call in criminal psychologist Kate Pearson, to get inside the mind of the serial killer before he strikes again. But the more Kate discovers about the killings, the more it all begins to feel terrifyingly familiar as her own past threatens to cloud her investigations.


AN ACCUSED WOMAN

Ellie Brady has been institutionalised for 15 years, for the killing of her twelve-year-old daughter, Amy. After all this time, does Ellie hold the key to finding the killer of the Dublin schoolgirls?

What would you do if you were accused of killing your own daughter? What if those closest to you turned their back on you? And when everyone stopped listening, what next, when even you believe you're guilty?"

My Thoughts:

I feel like this year was such a great year in terms of finding great new authors to follow and Louise Phillips is definitely one of them!  I read the above summary for this book and just knew that I wanted to read it.  It wasn't available in my local library system so I couldn't help but add it to my Amazon shopping cart when I went on a book buying binge.  This book was so completely worth it and I'm glad that followed my instincts on this one.  I'm a sucker for any thriller with a hint of a mental institution being involved....something about that type of setting seems so entirely creepy to me that I just cannot resist.  Add to that a storyline that involves a mother accused of killing her own daughter and I was completely sold by that point.  This book didn't disappoint in the slightest and was just as dark and twisted as the summary portrays it to be.  I admit to being fully hooked by this book from beginning to end.  It was one of those books that just sweeps you up and doesn't let you go which was exactly what I needed.  Really a great thriller and mystery all wrapped in one!

One of the things that I enjoyed most about this book was that this book was told from multiple viewpoints.  This allowed for the reader to experience the different parts of this book in a way that ratcheted up the suspense level several notches.  For instance parts of the book were told from the viewpoint of the killer and then other parts were told from the viewpoint of Ellie Brady who was the mother accused of killing her own daughter.  I was a bit partial to Ellie's story as I could tell from the beginning that she was a bit of an unreliable narrator which I am a complete sucker for.  I loved how we were given bits and pieces here and there of what happened to her daughter but it wasn't until the very end that everything began to tie together.  The author did a really amazing job of fitting all of the pieces of the puzzles together in a way that really worked for me as the reader.  I found the ending to be a heart pounding reading experience!  I flew through those last pages reading as fast as I possibly could.  Wow!  I was left instantly wishing for more books like this one which means that I couldn't help but see what else this author has written.  Thank goodness that I have more books in this series to look forward to (even if my wallet will be hurting because of it)!

All in all, I found this to be a really great read that left me so excited about this mystery series!  I loved how easily I fell into this book and how hard I found it to set down.  It was tense and filled with suspense which was exactly what I was hoping for.  I cannot wait to see what kind of case Kate will find herself wrapped up in next.  Easily recommended but especially to those mystery and thriller fans!  I've already handed my copy off to my Mom for her to enjoy next.  

Bottom Line:  A thrilling read that I didn't want to stop reading!  I need more!

Disclosure:  I bought this book for myself as a bookish treat- now I need to buy the rest of the series.