The Girl in Red: a chilling psychological thriller Kindle Edition

This story is about a woman, named Kathy Conner, who is being abused by her policeman husband. She has reported the abuse but he’s so manipulative and cunning that his superiors didn’t believe Kathy was abused. There are few people who believe Kathy, one being her twin sister. But I will have to stop here since I don’t want to give away the entire story.The Girl in Red is by far a great thriller, suspenseful and intriguing book that will keep you on the edge of your seat. John Nicholl is a fantastic storyteller who grabs your attention from the beginning of the story till the end.John Nicholl added great personality traits to each character so much that you want the wife abuser to get punished. I liked this story very much because it had some awesome twists and turns that made this book a great good read !! I hope you get a chance to read this book, it will not disappoint you !!

For the past 5 years, Kathy Conner has been married to a police officer. He's become increasingly manipulative & controling. He's verbally & physically abusive. She has tried & failed to leave him several times, over the years. He always finds her & drags her back home. He has managed to convince most people that she is mentally unstable. He's cunning & scheming. Even her own mother has bought into his lies. Only her identical twin sister believes she is telling the truth.The violence is getting worse. He's becoming more sadistic & cruel. If Kathy doesn't escape soon, he'll end up killing her & her unborn child. She has already suffered one miscarriage, due to his violence. He hit her in the gut & laughed as he did it. It was deliberate. He knew exactly what he was doing.She has to disappear once & for all. It won't be easy. He watches her every move. With her sister's help, Kathy IS able to get away. Everything is progressing even better than she had hoped. She'll start a new life.But, once again, he tracks her down. She has to keep her unborn baby safe & she makes up her mind she'll do whatever it takes to make sure that happens.

This book grabs from the first page and doesn't let go. As a domestic violence survivor I found some of this book very hard to get through, but in some ways that proves it's accuracy. I think the most important lesson this story teaches is that monsters don't look like monsters. They are physically attractive, intelligent, well read, smile at coworkers in the hallway, and might even have a great sense of humor. Too often victims are not believed because "he's such a great guy...". John Nicholl understood that when creating Mike Conner. He also gave us a strong, believable and likeable character in Kathy. I recommend this highly!

I am a few chapters in and this is too badly written to continue. The dialogue is contrived and amateurish. Another reader said it perfectly - this book is the equivilent of watching really poor and wooden acting.The phone conversation with her sister was laughable. They chatted about her being beaten, her baby being kicked out of her and her being raped in the same tone that two sisters might have been calling each other to swap cooking recipes.This is just too silly to continue with.---* SPOILER AHEAD *Ok so I decided to keep reading just in case. I figured I should give it a chance seeing it has so many good reviews.Firstly not even a first year rooky cop could be as inept as the lot in this book. The author needed to do much more research on the steps and processes involved in a murder investigation. Amongst other things, forensics would have immediately alerted them to problems with the blood that was amateurishly scattered everywhere.But that ENDING lol!! Beaten wife, Kathy, has a twin. After her twin sister Anna is accidently murdered, Kathy decides to take on her identity. So she just waltzes in to the home Anna shared with her loving husband Tom a couple of hours (or days? It isn't clear) after Anna left. The only difference her husband notices is that she has changed the colour of her hair. He didn't even think it was odd that she had her hair done whilst her 'sister' was being murdered. She sits down with him and they carry on with cups of teas and conversations along the lines of "isn't it sad your sister is dead" and "That husband of hers was a bastard" and "Oh and guess what - I'm pregnant even though we can't have children" and "Gees this tea is sweet". That was possibly the dumbest ending of any book I have ever read.

Despite a number of obvious shortfalls, I actually enjoyed this read. On a positive note, it had a good pace and told a story that many abused women experience.On the negative side, the title made no sense. I understand that it was originally called Bully Boy- a far more apt title. Further negatives were the willingness of Kathy who was determined to protect her baby in utero, willingly placing her pregnancy at risk by repeatedly donating blood within a short time frame. Further downfalls were the depiction of the police service as totally inept. The conversations between the characters seemed forced and there was way too much repetition. But the part of the story that prevented it from getting a solid 4 stars was the fact that Kathy thought she could replace her twin sister Anna quite easily without Anna’s husband being suspicious. 3 and a half stars.

This author wrote a chilling tale of spousal abuse with an ending that does surprise. The premise was intriguing and although I prefer a bit more backstory, it was a great fast read.Someone really needs to go through and edit this book for grammar’s sake. It was also a bit disconcerting that in parts of the book Michael Connor was Michael and in other parts, Connor. While the nding could have been a bit more dramatic, it was still good.

I am secretly pleased that SO many of you enjoyed this book, because I REALLY didnt. I had not read any books by the author before, but it is clear that he has many fans. I am glad about that, because reading bad reviews must be horrible, so if there are only a few of us, you can convince yourself that the minority dont count. Thats what I would do!!Domestic abuse is often beyond description in its atrocity, and although we are all aware how common it is, and that it does not differentiate age, class, colour , religion, creed, or anything. I found the prose very repetative, surely even a moron like a domestic abuser could come up with another word rather than constanly using "bitch"I wont spoil the ending, because the author did that for us. Oh dear, it was truly awful. Unbelievable. I'm not surprised that one reviewer didnt "See it coming". SO far fetched was it, that nobody could have seen the coming atrocity that it was.It reminded me of many of us rushing an exam paper because we had run out of time, or wanting to watch Top of the Pops, so rush through homework and write any ol' crap, that you secretly KNOW is rubbish. It jist seemed too trite, too wrapped up in a pretty bow. The abused woman should just have been allowed to leave and start her life somewhere else.

This is the poorest book I’ve unfortunately allowed myself to read. Relentless domestic violence of the very worst kind, that goes on and on and on. The violence is inflicted by a deparaved,masochistic excuse for a human, of the male species. What makes this nonsense even more stupid is that the male, in question, is a Police Inspector. Mike ( horrible individual) regularly beats the living daylights out of his wife, Kathy and often gets orgasms when thinking about his behaviour- ugh.Readers aren’t stupid. They (certainly myself) don’t need chapter after chapter of this explicit sensationalism to get the’gist’. This along with the mindless profanity, is a bad advert for the human race. The woman, Kathy, is made to look a complete subservient nonentity and that fact that people don’t believe her version of events is unrealistic in this day and age.I was flabbergasted to read at that the author was a serving police officer himself at one stage. I don’t want to imagine that this villain is based on one of his previous colleagues. Oh, the storyline is poor and the ending downright silly.I may be in the minority but this is not worthy of anything more than 1 star.

On the day Kathy marries Michael Conner she is like any other bride, radiant, beautiful with her heart full of dreams for the future.Conner a Police Inspector is a man so very well respected and a pillar of the community. Behindclosed doors however is a different story.Kathy has married a monster..His actions towards her are cruel, vile and abhorrent. Kathy has already lost one baby..and now she is pregnant again..and so very scared..Inside she is a woman who is falling apart..and the only person in the world who can help her is her sister..But what will follow will forever change those in this story..Conner is without doubt one of the most evil characters you could ever cross..Sarah Hodgson..Conner's associate is brilliant in her role as she tracks down the truth and lies..John Nicholl has written one of the most terrifying books you will read this year.From the first chapter this will grab your attention and have you gripped till the very end..Breathtakingly dark and Twisted..this is a five star read into a darkness black as night..

A good read and well worth both the time and the 99p I spent on it. Kathy Connor is being horribly abused at home by husband Mike, who is also a well respected police officer. He has made sure that Kathy's credibility is non-existent and nobody believes her when she complains of domestic violence. Only her twin sister, Anna, is prepared to help her. As the abuse escalates, Kathy realises that she must escape before Mike kills her. She concocts an elaborate plan in an effort to ensure that Mike will not be able to look for her, or find her. At this point, the story becomes a mixture of 'Gone Girl' and 'Sleeping with the Enemy', but it's not quite in the same league as those books and there are a few issues with the story line. For example, having spectacularly framed Mike for her 'murder', Kathy appears to be genuinely shocked and worried when her photograph is plastered across the media. It's almost as if she has failed to even consider the likelihood of this happening, which is really odd. Her plan to disappear goes awry almost immediately - she hasn't stockpiled enough money for a start, necessitating a visit to social services. For someone who wants to stay off grid, deliberately notifying the authorities of her arrival seemed just plain daft. Yes, she uses a false name, but she has no false documents and can't even produce a National Insurance number. Finally, the ending is just completely implausible and having read into the small wee hours to finish it, I was left feeling somewhat irritated with it.

I confess to being a fan of John Nicholl’s since I read my first DCI Gravel thriller, and I regretted the end of the series. Oh, ye of little faith, Sarah!The Girl In Red opens with Kathy in a terrifying situation. She’s pregnant, her husband is violent, and he’s kicked her and deliberately caused a miscarriage in the past. So? There are refuges for women in this situation – help, advice, and protection. Dial 999 girl!Kathy’s husband is Police Inspector Michael Conner, so who is the young constable going to believe? Vague suspicions based on a new-recruit course about domestic violence aren’t enough with his career at stake. The only one who does believe Kathy is her twin, Anna, but will she collude with Kathy’s desperate escape plan?As always with John Nicholl, the reader is privy to the thoughts of several characters, the good, the bad, and the deluded, and it makes for a tense, electrifying, story. If you enjoy psychological thrillers, or are a fan of superbly-written whodunits, don’t hesitate to buy a copy.