Released 31st August 2021 by Audible Studios.
Narrated by Clare Corbett.
From the cover:
The perfect escape....Gabrielle Adams has it all – brains, beauty, a handsome fiancé and a dream job in publishing.
Until, one day, everything changes.
The ‘Underground Killer’ takes his victims when they least expect it: standing on the edge of a busy Tube platform, as they wait for a train to arrive through the murky underground tunnels of London.
Gabrielle soon learns that being a survivor is harder than being a victim and she struggles to return to her old life. Desperate to break free from endless nightmares, she snatches up an opportunity to run a tiny bookshop in a picturesque cove in rural Cornwall.
She thinks she’s found the perfect escape, but has she swapped one nightmare for another?
Suspense and mystery are peppered with romance and humour in this fast-paced thriller, set amidst the spectacular Cornish landscape.
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Gabrielle Adams is a woman who seems to have it all - she's smart, attractive, has a prestigious job in publishing, and is engaged to a handsome, upcoming literary agent. Her future seems bright, but a few clouds do seem to be drifting on the horizon when we first meet her at her publishing house's Christmas party, hinting that perhaps not all is quite as rosy as it seems. Everything is suddenly brought into sharp focus by what happens after she leaves the party and heads to catch the tube home, for as Gabrielle waits on the platform, somewhat jittery about standing there alone at night after reading all about the killer stalking the tube lines, an unknown assailant pushes her into the path of an oncoming train.
Lucky to survive this attack, which appears to have marked her as the latest victim of the 'Underground Killer', we meet up with Gabi six months later. Her life has been turned upside down, and the PTSD that plagues her after that fateful night has made her lose all confidence in herself. She has resigned from her job, feeling unable to work in a stressful environment any more, and her relationship with her fiancé has broken down. Gabi needs a new start and a change of both pace and location, so when she sees a job advertisement for a manager of a little bookshop in a gorgeous Cornish cove she decides takes the plunge (pardon the pun!).
Life in Carnance is a world away from the busy London scene she has left behind, but her fears and memories still haunt her and she does her best to hide them from her new neighbours. Gradually, she starts to settle into a different way of life, putting her past into perspective, making friends and even beginning a tentative romance, but her world is rocked once more when she witnesses a murder one stormy night. Is this tiny Cornish community really the haven she was looking for, or does danger still stalk her?
The Cove is the first in a new series of Summer Suspense Mysteries from crime author L.J. Ross and it delivers on every front. Ross brings in lovely elements of mystery, thriller, domestic drama and romance in the telling of Gabi's story, weaving in threads of trauma, mental health, secrets, betrayal and revenge that kept me transfixed, building first-class tension and dropping some great WTF moments along the way.
The move in location from gritty London to picturesque Cornwall works so well, lulling you into a false sense of security with the feeling that the story is going to play out as a gentle heart-warming tale of becoming whole again, until the intense small-town vibes kick-in. Then we are off with the twists, turns and tension of a classy murder-mystery that packs in enough red-herrings to make even Christie proud. Ross also uses the wilder side of Cornwall to perfection in ramping up the unsettling atmosphere, whipping up the stormy weather just as events start to spiral out of control.
As in all the best murder-mysteries, I suspected practically everyone of being guilty of dark deeds until the puzzle pieces all slotted into place, which I always find very entertaining, and there is a nicely conceived surprise along the way that I really did not see coming. Ross uses the bookish themes in the story as really interesting plot devices too. I love it when you find yourself getting so caught up in an audio book that you have to sit down and let the narrator's voice wash over you, and this is one of those stories. I should add here that the move in location and mix of characters does mean there are a lot of accents for a narrator to tackle here, but Clare Corbett pulls them all off with aplomb, allowing you to fully concentrate on the story which is so important in an audio book.
As my first introduction to the books of L.J. Ross this has been a winner. I very much enjoyed the way she combined great characters, locations and storylines to keep my interest throughout, and am looking forward to delving into more of her books in the future.
The Cove is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats from you favourite book retailer.
Thank you to L.J. Ross and The Book Club Audible Listeners Facebook group for providing me with an audio version of this book in return for an honest review.
About the author:
Her debut, Holy Island, was released in January 2015 and reached number one in the Amazon UK and Australian charts. Since then, she has released a further twenty novels, all of which have been top three global bestsellers and seventeen of which have been UK #1 bestsellers. Louise has garnered an army of loyal readers through her storytelling and, thanks to them, several of her books reached the coveted #1 spot whilst only available to pre-order ahead of release. Her eleventh novel, The Infirmary, is a prequel story and is also available as a major Audible Originals audio-drama starring Tom Bateman, Kevin Whately, Bertie Carvel, Hermione Norris and Alun Armstrong.
In addition to her DCI Ryan series, Louise has created a new series of thriller novels based around the central character of ‘Dr Alexander Gregory’, whose work as a psychological profiler takes him around the world. The first three books (Impostor, Hysteria and Bedlam) were #1 bestsellers and were narrated in audio by the actors Hugh Dancy (Impostor & Hysteria) and Richard Armitage (Bedlam). She is also writing several standalone romantic suspense novels featuring strong female protagonists which will be available in 2021.
The novels are available to purchase in e-book, paperback and audiobook formats on the Amazon store, as well as in libraries and book shops around the world.
Louise was born in Northumberland, England. She studied undergraduate and postgraduate Law at King’s College, University of London and then abroad in Paris and Florence. She spent much of her working life in London, where she was a lawyer for a number of years until taking the decision to change career and pursue her dream to write. Now, she writes full-time and lives with her husband and son in Northumberland, where she enjoys reading all manner of books, travelling and spending time with family and friends.
Louise is a keen philanthropist, and is pleased to have supported numerous non-profit programmes in addition to founding several of her own, including the Lindisfarne Reading Challenge and the Lindisfarne Prize for Debut Crime Fiction.
The Cove is the first book in her new Summer Suspense Mysteries series.
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