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Disturbance

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Disturbance

By: Marianne Kavanagh
Narrated by: Lucy Paterson
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About this listen

 A fascinating character study and portrait of a small community that will leave you questioning all of your assumptions.

You don't know what's going on in Sara's house...Or in her head.

Sara is lonely. No one talks to her - not even her bad-tempered workaholic husband or her two beloved sons. Her solace is her house, the biggest in the village, hidden away behind high hedges.

Then she strikes up a friendship with Katie, a college student living nearby, and a new world opens up. Her neighbours have been dying to get to know her, and they rush to help when Sara is devastated by a terrible accident.

But nothing is quite what it seems. And when new betrayals and shocking revelations disturb her peace, Sara realises she has no choice: she must act to protect the safety of those she loves.

(P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited©2019 Marianne Kavanagh Domestic Thrillers Genre Fiction Psychological Small Town & Rural Suspense Thriller & Suspense Women's Fiction Fiction

Critic reviews

So subtly done, and well achieved, and horrifyingly, hilariously believable - just the blackest of delights. (Jenn Ashworth, author of Fell)
There's such a powerful mood of unease about DISTURBANCE. I read through my fingers, praying my suspicions weren't true... (Louise Candlish, author of Our House)
A massively enjoyable book - creepy, funny, surprising and absolutely unputdownable... My only wish is that I hadn't finished it so quickly. (Daisy Waugh)
This is a dark novel, which will immerse you immediately, and leave you guessing just whose version of events is the truth. Twisted and delightful.
I raced through it. Dark, tense and very twisty. (Tamsin Grey, author of She's Not There)
The tension doesn't let up - taut all the way through with a creeping sense of horror as it unfolds, and the end is positively chilling. (Harriet Tyce, author of Blood Orange)
With a delicious sense of creeping menace, an uncertainty about where truth lies and with mounting claustrophobic tension, Marianne Kavanagh's novel offers a pleasingly dark take on the much-vaunted attractions of English village life. (Stella Duffy)
A dark, disturbing slow burn of a novel that I consumed with an increasing and justified sense of foreboding. (Fanny Blake)
Dark and unpredictable, yet scarily plausible, domestic noir (L V Hay, author of Do No Harm)
Very disturbing, dark and satisfyingly twisty. (Carys Bray, author of The Museum of You)
Twisty, dark and clever. What a brilliantly realised character Sara is. (Anna Mazzola, author of The Story Keeper)
This is a tense, troublesome read that makes you think about what really goes on behind closed doors.
A tense psychological drama that will have you feverishly turning the pages as you try to figure out who can be trusted, right to the very last page with its brilliantly chilling ending.
You'll be immersed in this twisted, delightful tale, which leaves you guessing just whose version of events is the truth
All stars
Most relevant
I was so pulled I by Kavanagh's psychological thriller Disturbance that I listened to it in two sittings and was truly disturbed indeed! The plots and turns in this dark tale kept me guessing right until the reveal. I'm usually quite good at figuring the plot out, but in this case as all was definitely not as it seemed.
The narration by Lucy Paterson was extremely good too.

I'd love to see this as a movie or T-V series!

Pulled me in and I listened to it in 2 sittings!

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I really liked this book, I read/listened to it in two days, I agree with some other reviews I've read that the synopsis probably gives too much away, that didn't spoil it for me, but the whole time you knew something was up and you are waiting for the other shoe to drop. I felt is a was bit of a cross between Gone Girl - manipulative wife playing the victim and A Causal Vacancy - small town politics and behaviours. Some of the characters could have done with fleshing out a bit but as I said I read it in two days so it can't be bad.

Last but not least the author attended one of our book club meetings to talk about the book and it was really interesting listening to how she tried to develop the characters and how she might change things for the future.

I didn't mind being disturbed by this.....

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Not a bad idea for a story, but it seemed like it was just dragged out into a book. At times it was a bit boring but overall the story was OK.

Not sure about this one...

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