Dont Leave - Rajiv's Reviews

Dont Leave by Pru Heathcote

Release: 29 July 2022
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Red Dragon Publishing LTD
Source: Zooloos Book Tours
Find it at Amazon

JANE is a young woman who is grieving for her child. Relatives take her to a remote holiday cottage on the Northumberland coast.

From the moment she arrives at the cottage with her much older and over-protective husband, Peter, Jane keeps catching glimpses of a little girl and hearing a child crying.

Peter is sure that these are hallucinations. Moreover, Jane has been diagnosed with schizophrenia – a diagnosis she disagrees with.

She sets out to discover who or what the child could be. A ghost? A real child? Or something else?

Author Bio:

I’ve always loved telling stories and putting them down on paper as soon as I could write. I began my working life in Hertfordshire as a local newspaper reporter – obits, weddings, Uncle George’s Kiddies’ Corner – then went on to teenage magazines (Fab and Rave) and women’s magazines.

I moved to Northumberland forty years ago and worked as an adult education tutor, teaching any subject I didn’t need a qualification for, including creative writing.

Over the years, I’ve written dozens of stories for magazines, a commissioned biography, and several plays, one of which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Out of my Plays, my novel “Dont Leave” won entry in the 2020 Lindisfarne Prize, From marriage, I have three grown-up children and two grandchildren. I live in Warkworth, a village on the Northumberland coast, an area that provides most of the inspiration for my stories.

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Don’t Leave Review:

“Don’t Leave” is a unique psychological, supernatural thriller I enjoyed reading because of its exciting twists.

I admit; that this book was not what I was expecting. I was expecting a traditional ghost story where a couple experiences supernatural experiences when they enter a new house due to something that happened there. The author surprised me with a twist I did not see coming, and I loved the plot’s direction. There are quite a few twists and turns that I did not expect, which made the story very entertaining.

Moreover, I liked Mrs. Mortimer a lot. She is a complex character that initially, you dislike her attitude and hatred towards the world (except for her cat Whiskey). However, as the story progresses, you start to feel sorry for her and appreciate her more than anyone else. Frankly, I liked her even more than Jane. While good for the most part, Jane was sometimes a bit annoying. I didn’t appreciate how she suspected Peter and simultaneously got romantically inclined toward another person. Jane’s personality was certainly a bit weird at times, but I liked her, especially when she was with Suzy.

Also, I liked the eerie moments that the author adds to what Jane experiences in the house. Wherever she goes, and whatever she does, Jane hears a small girl crying and saying, “Don’t Leave.” I also comprehended that would be the reason, and the climax surprised me. The author has a beautiful knack for writing in this genre, and I cannot wait to see what other stories she weaves.

Overall, “Don’t Leave” is a great book to pick up if you enjoy the genre.