Thriller Thursday Reviews: Storm Child & I Will Ruin You

Hi, Sharon here with another Thriller Thursday post. This week I am excited to share my reviews on, Storm Child by Michael Robotham and I Will Ruin you by Linwood Barclay.  I hope you enjoy.  😀

Author: Michael Robotham

Publication Date: July 2, 2024

Publisher: Scribner

Storm Child is the fourth installment of Michael Robotham’s Cyrus Haven series. I love this series and was so excited to reunite with Evie and Cyrus again.

Cyrus and Evie are enjoying some down time at Lincolnshire beach when the bodies of seventeen migrants wash up on shore. The only survivor is a teenage boy, who tells police that their boat was deliberately rammed. While Cyrus is trying to help recover the bodies from the ocean, he and Evie are separated. When Cyrus finally finds Evie, she is in a catatonic state. The images of the bodies in the ocean have started to unlock her memories of what happened on the boat she and her mother and sister were on years before. Cyrus is helping the police determine if the boat was targeted and who is responsible, and he also hopes that he can finally help Evie unlock the memories of her past.

I loved how broken and flawed both Evie and Cyrus are. They are both equally vulnerable and strong at the same time. Cyrus wants to help Evie bring down the wall she has put up on her past, but at the same time knows he needs to tread carefully. Evie desperately wants to be normal and at the same time she is afraid of growing too much and possibly losing Cyrus.

Cyrus’ investigation as to what happened on the migrant boat and who was responsible, takes him closer to learning what happened to the boat Evie was on when she was ten years old and the events that ultimately lead to her being found in the secret room three years ago. But the information from both these events, put both Cyrus’ and Evie’s lives in danger.

As Evie starts remembering, we get a look into her life when she was a child, both before she and her mother and sister fled Albania, as well as what happened on the boat that was taking them to England. I loved getting these memories. Some of them made me smile, especially her memories of her father, and a lot of them made me so sad, like when her father died.

As with the three previous books, Robotham has created a story full of tension that kept on building. I love how he intertwines both the mystery and suspense of the story, with the heartfelt characters. I was glued to this story from the very first page and was on the edge of my seat as the end neared. And the end of the book had me in tears.

Storm Child was everything I was hoping it would be. I cannot recommend Michael Robotham’s Cyrus Haven series enough. I am very impatiently waiting for the next installment. I need more Evie and Cyrus in my life.   4 ½ stars

Author: Linwood Barclay

Publication Date: May 7, 2024

Publisher: William Morrow

Linwood Barclay’s latest book, I Will Ruin You, follows English teacher Richard Boyle, who is hailed a hero after taking down former student, Mark LeDrew, who was going to blow up the school. But after his moment in the spotlight, Richard finds himself up against a blackmailer with a score to settle. As Richard tries to figure out why he was targeted, he finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation.

After the incident at the school Richard is understandably on edge. When he returns to school, he finds out that the parents of Mark LeDrew have filed a lawsuit against the school as well as Richard. Just Mark himself ended up being blown up and his parents believe that Richard should have done more to be able to stop that from happening. And if all this is not enough, Richard is contacted by another former student of the school that saw him on the news, and this student has made allegations to Richard that he molested him when he was at the school, allegations that Richard vehemently denies. This student is now blackmailing Richard.  This student is also involved with big time drug smugglers, and when he turns up dead, Richard finds that he is now in the middle of a murder investigation and no matter what he does to try and get himself out of this mess, he just keeps getting himself in deeper. The deeper he gets, the more his life is in danger.

I liked Richard.  Yes, he made some really stupid decisions, but he was dealing with a lot with the aftermath of the potential school bombing. So, when he finds himself being blackmailed and then in the middle of a murder investigation, I kept finding myself yelling “No Richard! Why are you doing that?” As Richard digs deeper to find a way to clear his name with the blackmailer, he finds a connection between, the school bomber, the blackmailer and another teacher at the school. And as things started to be revealed, I thought for sure that I knew what was going on and who was responsible. But boy was I wrong.

I Will Ruin You was a fast paced read that had a lot of things going on. There were so many twists and turns, especially at the end. Linwood Barclay does a great job of creating a story that kept me engaged as well as kept me in the dark.   4 stars