The Heights by Louise Candlish – a Review

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Description:
The Heights is a tall, slender apartment building among warehouses in London. Its roof terrace is so discreet, you wouldn’t know it existed if you weren’t standing at the window of the flat directly opposite. But you are. And that’s when you see a man up there—a man you’d recognize anywhere. He may be older now, but it’s definitely him.

But that can’t be because he’s been dead for over two years. You know this for a fact.

Because you’re the one who killed him.

Review:

The Heights by Louise Candlish is a standalone thriller. Ellen Saint is the lead in this book, which starts out with a bang.  Ellen is attending a client meeting at their home, when she notices a man on the roof of the opposite building; she is shocked, as she recognizes the man. It seems the man, Kieran Watts, was killed 5 years ago, and Ellen had a hand in his presumed death.  The Heights is told in 4 parts; the events that led up to her wanting to kill Watts; POV of ex-husband, Vic; current day and the final exciting ending.

We meet Ellen, her teenage son, Lucas; daughter, Freya; her husband, Justin and ex Vic.  Everything at this point is normal, until Kieran, who is new, becomes friends with Lucas.  Kieran is destructive, malicious and a bad influence on Lucas, which Ellen desperately tries to reach out to her son, who becomes distant, to stop spending time with Kieran. Then a tragedy happens, which destroys the family, especially as Ellen’s hatred escalates.  She and Vic want revenge against Kieran, who they consider a sociopath, and together they plot to make Kieran pay.

Needless to say, Ellen is beside herself, and determine to find out how Kieran was still alive, and who betrayed her.  As she tries to reach out to Vic, who is married with a child on the way, he is no longer interested in helping her, as too much time has passed, and they need to move on.  Ellen is totally filled with hatred, rage, in her focus only on killing Kieran.  I have to say, I did not like Ellen at all, as she came across as a very unlikable person, especially with her being consumed with so much hatred, blinding her overall life; there was no chance to even sympathize with her grieving.  Vic played a big part in this story, and their revenge, and in his POV we begin to learn more of what happened years ago.

What follows is an exciting and intriguing psychological thriller, which had a number of surprising twists and turns that changed everything. The last ¼ of the book was mind boggling.  The Heights by Louise Candlish was very well written.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher