Isobel Blackthorn

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Isobel Blackthorn

Goodreads Author


Born
in London, The United Kingdom
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Influences
Doris Lessing, Fay Weldon, Toni Morrison, Alice Munro, Barbara Hanraha ...more

Member Since
March 2012

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Isobel Blackthorn is an award-winning author of unique and engaging fiction. She writes across a range of genres, including dark psychological thrillers, gripping mystery novels, captivating travel fiction and hilarious dark satire. Isobel holds a PhD in Western Esotericism for her groundbreaking study of the texts of Theosophist Alice A. Bailey. Isobel carries a lifelong passion for the Canary Islands, Spain, her former home. A Londoner originally, Isobel currently lives in Spain.

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Isobel Blackthorn What happened to my great grandfather (my maternal grandmother's father) when he came to Australia around 1930, leaving behind his wife and two daught…moreWhat happened to my great grandfather (my maternal grandmother's father) when he came to Australia around 1930, leaving behind his wife and two daughters? He never returned and the family never heard from him again. (less)
Isobel Blackthorn Since I began writing, I have never been short of inspiration. Ideas just seem to float into my mind. That doesn't mean things always flow seamlessly …moreSince I began writing, I have never been short of inspiration. Ideas just seem to float into my mind. That doesn't mean things always flow seamlessly from first conception to a completed manuscript. Sometimes, the initial inspiration is nowhere near enough to fill a whole book and I have to wait years before the rest comes to me. (less)
Average rating: 3.77 · 1,623 ratings · 585 reviews · 48 distinct worksSimilar authors
A Matter of Latitude (Canar...

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What Happened at the Abbey

4.08 avg rating — 53 ratings6 editions
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More books by Isobel Blackthorn…

Saddled With a Murder

Ruth Finlay Mysteries Book 5 The Blurb

When Ruth finds herself saddled with writing a feature on Myrtle Bay’s annual horse carnival, she knows she is out of her depth. Horse racing is just not her thing.

A fatal accident during a maiden race on the first day catapults Ruth headlong into a confusing inquiry. Her sidekick Doris insists the horse was nobbled and the race was fixed – and that they’re

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Published on April 05, 2026 01:32
A Matter of Latitude Clarissa's Warning A Prison In The Sun The Ghost Of Villa Winter
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Murder in Myrtle Bay
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Second Skin by Simone Beaudelaire
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A realistic and gripping read that confronts the complex issue of domestic violence and coercive control head on.

The main character Elisa is well-crafted and believable. The pacing is good, and the paranormal element works well in the context.
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A Match Made in Heaven by Julia  Sutton
A Match Made in Heaven
by Julia Sutton (Goodreads Author)
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A Match Made in Heaven is a charming, light-hearted romance set mainly in Wales.

The main character Emily reminds me of a younger self, lost, searching for a direction in life. She has the right mix of confidence, defiance and recklessness typical of
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A Cape, A Rock and A Murder by Isobel Blackthorn
"A Cape, A Rock and A Murder (Ruth Finlay Mysteries Book 3)

Ruth Finlay finds herself embroiled in another murder investigation when she finds a body at the bottom of a cliff. Her neighbour and wacky dresser, Doris, takes control and drags poor Ruth a" Read more of this review »
A Cape, A Rock and A Murder by Isobel Blackthorn
"A lighthearted read

Well described characters, except for Andrew. I thought “who is Andrew” - did a name search - only mentioned once - methinks a mistake. "
A Cape, A Rock and A Murder by Isobel Blackthorn
"Journalist Ruth Finlay is ready to explore Cape Bridgewater for a feature magazine article. Friend and neighbor Doris tags along for a leisurely day trip. But, when they spot a body on the rocks below the cliff and the police call it an accident, Rut" Read more of this review »
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Saddled with a Murder by Isobel Blackthorn
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Beneath Beauford Grove by E. Denise Billups
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Beneath Beauford Grove is a captivating novel in the genre of Southern Gothic. Eva, or Dr Evangeline Beauford, is a hematologist working in Boston. It’s been eighteen years since she left the family home of Beauford Grove back in Alabama. Just as she ...more
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Where the Tide Leaves its Dead by Bray Mattheson
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Mattheson's debut novel grabs the reader with the very first sentence and doesn't let go. The pages unfold with a perfect blend of horror, a tropical setting, and tiki mythology. The plot is well-crafted, and the narrative tension ever present. Dripp ...more
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The Star Conspiracy by Julia  Sutton
The Star Conspiracy
by Julia Sutton (Goodreads Author)
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The Star Conspiracy is an engaging Young Adult novel that tells the story of two teenagers and their respective single parents, and the drama that unfolds when they all go on holiday to Crete. The story is told from the perspectives of Issy who atten ...more
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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Aussie Lovers of...: Summer Reading Challenge : 1st December 2018 - 28th February 2019 172 92 Mar 02, 2019 10:17PM  
Cozy Mysteries : 2018-2019 Winter Challenge 54 137 Apr 07, 2019 02:06AM  
Cozy Mysteries : This topic has been closed to new comments. When You're Not Reading a Cozy . . . 1840 864 Apr 13, 2019 07:45AM  
Judith Lewis Herman
“Many abused children cling to the hope that growing up will bring escape and freedom.

But the personality formed in the environment of coercive control is not well adapted to adult life. The survivor is left with fundamental problems in basic trust, autonomy, and initiative. She approaches the task of early adulthood――establishing independence and intimacy――burdened by major impairments in self-care, in cognition and in memory, in identity, and in the capacity to form stable relationships.

She is still a prisoner of her childhood; attempting to create a new life, she reencounters the trauma.”
Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

Judith Lewis Herman
“The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma.”
Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

Judith Lewis Herman
“Over time as most people fail the survivor's exacting test of trustworthiness, she tends to withdraw from relationships. The isolation of the survivor thus persists even after she is free.”
Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

Judith Lewis Herman
“Combat and rape, the public and private forms of organized social violence, are primarily experiences of adolescent and early adult life. The United States Army enlists young men at seventeen; the average age of the Vietnam combat soldier was nineteen. In many other countries boys are conscripted for military service while barely in their teens. Similarly, the period of highest risk for rape is in late adolescence. Half of all victims are aged twenty or younger at the time they are raped; three-quarters are between the ages of thirteen and twenty-six. The period of greatest psychological vulnerability is also in reality the period of greatest traumatic exposure, for both young men and young women. Rape and combat might thus be considered complementary social rites of initiation into the coercive violence at the foundation of adult society. They are the paradigmatic forms of trauma for women and men.”
Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

Judith Lewis Herman
“The ORDINARY RESPONSE TO ATROCITIES is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable.

Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried. Equally as powerful as the desire to deny atrocities is the conviction that denial does not work. Folk wisdom is filled with ghosts who refuse to rest in their graves until their stories are told. Murder will out. Remembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prerequisites both for the restoration of the social order and for the healing of individual victims.

The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma. People who have survived atrocities often tell their stories in a highly emotional, contradictory, and fragmented manner that undermines their credibility and thereby serves the twin imperatives of truth-telling and secrecy. When the truth is finally recognized, survivors can begin their recovery. But far too often secrecy prevails, and the story of the traumatic event surfaces not as a verbal narrative but as a symptom.

The psychological distress symptoms of traumatized people simultaneously call attention to the existence of an unspeakable secret and deflect attention from it. This is most apparent in the way traumatized people alternate between feeling numb and reliving the event. The dialectic of trauma gives rise to complicated, sometimes uncanny alterations of consciousness, which George Orwell, one of the committed truth-tellers of our century, called "doublethink," and which mental health professionals, searching for calm, precise language, call "dissociation." It results in protean, dramatic, and often bizarre symptoms of hysteria which Freud recognized a century ago as disguised communications about sexual abuse in childhood. . . .”
Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

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