My Review of Blue Hollow by Cheryl Rees-Price








I gave Blue Hollow 4*out of 5*
Book Description

 A child lies in an unmarked grave, another missing without a trace.

Blue Hollow is a place that Eddie fears. He has never spoken of what happened there. Unimaginable horrors that have haunted him all his life. But Eddie is dying, and he can’t take the past to the grave. The only person Eddie trusts is Dora, he has protected her all these years and now she must know the truth. Eddie’s every move is being watched so he records his story on a series of tapes but before he has a chance to explain to Dora he is brutally murdered. Now Dora must find the tapes and uncover Eddie’s story, but there are those who will stop at nothing to silence Eddie forever. Dora has a choice, bury the truth with Eddie or become the next victim of Blue Hollow.

  My Review:

 I have always admired Cheryl Rees-Price's writing style; She has a concise and clever way of leading the reader first one way and then the other in her plots.

 I particular enjoyed Blue Hollow. Though some of the story is quite hard to read; shocking in the detail, it is necessary to the story. It both ramps up the apprehension and serves to to help the reader empathise with those characters who are struggling to reveal the truth against all the odds.

The chapters are separated between the protagonist, Dora's, point of view and her quest to find the truth and that of the deceased Eddie's account of his and his friends' childhood; a time in a hated and dreadful secret place. Blue Hollow is a remote sinister building  where socially important and  powerful men torment and abuse vulnerable children who are alone in the world, 

The author's ability to bring each setting in the book instantly to mind; through using all the senses, works, especially in the sections where Eddie is painfully remembering being taken from his mother and sister to the first Home, and then to Blue Hollow, after trying, with his friends to seek help from a man they thought they could trust. These chapters are  both harrowing and poignant.  Excellent descriptions that evoke a strong of sense of place

 The author has drawn the characters well and with care; multi layered and with individual personalities, habits and characteristic, they come alive on the page; each is easy to see. And the dialogue distinguishes them completely.  Cheryl Rees-Price states it is her ambition to "create colourful characters". She's certainly done that.

 This is a really good story; the tension increases as the narrative progresses. And there is a surprising twist at the end that I honestly didn't see coming..

 I would have given Blue Hollow 5* except there are a lot of punctuation errors in the text. I think the book would benefit from the expertise of a professional proofreader. 

However, for the story alone, I would recommend Blue Hollow to any reader who enjoys a well-written crime novel.
 About the author:

Cheryl Rees-Price was born in Cardiff and moved as a young child to a small ex-mining village on the edge of the Black Mountains, South Wales, where she still lives with her husband, daughters and cats. After leaving school she worked as a legal clerk for several years before leaving to raise her two daughters.

 Cheryl returned to education, studying philosophy, sociology, and accountancy whilst working as a part time book keeper. She now works as a finance director for a company that delivers project management and accounting services.

 In her spare time Cheryl indulges in her passion for writing, the success of writing plays for local performances gave her the confidence to write her first novel. Her other hobbies include walking and gardening which free her mind to develop plots and create colourful characters.

Find Cheryl:
An Amazon: https://amzn.to/39X1Hqh
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cheryl.reesprice
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/CherylreesPrice 

https://www.judithbarrow-author.co.uk/ : Where I post my own news and views. Please feel free to visit anytime.


My latest book: The Memory - to be released on March 19, 2020...


Over the course of 24 hours their moving and tragic story is revealed – a story of love and duty, betrayal and loss – as Irene rediscovers the past and finds hope for the future https://amzn.to/3bHKFOE



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