101 by Tracy Martin-Summers

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101 by Tracy Martin-Summers

Alice glanced at the property brochure resting on her lap and let out a sigh.

She was on her way to Cedar Grove which, according to the brochure set out before her, was the answer to her prayers. The estate agent had promised that this was the one.

The most perfect house, with everything she had asked for.

She smiled as she took in the sight of the pretty, quirky semi at the end of the road with its royal blue shutters and coordinating front door. There was something about this house that moved her.

Something was drawing her to it.

#101 @TracyMartinSum1 @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

So why was it that their world started to crumble around them bit by bit, as though they had been hit by a demolition project, destroying everything they held dear, especially one another?

Who was doing this to them and why had her neighbour, Sally, disappeared along with the rest of the neighbourhood? There was no one left.

The vision, as described on the day of the viewing had vanished, fallen off the face of the earth and she was deemed psychotic. Was she losing her mind? She didn’t think so…

My Review

This was a very quick read, which I devoured well into the night. I was tired by the end, so I read the last part again in the daytime. And I needed to.

Alice has viewed 100 properties, but none came up to scratch. Then the brochure for 101 Cedar Grove comes into her possession and she decides to view it alone. Neither her husband Will, nor the estate agent, are willing to go with her, as both are fed up with the number of houses she has rejected. But this one is different. 101? Is it an omen and what is drawing her to it?

When she arrives, the house is picture-perfect, the flowers in the front garden, the water feature, the blue front door and matching shutters. This is the one, she knows it. Inside is just us lovely, if very old-fashioned, and the neighbours Sally and her three-year-old daughter Daisy are going to become her best friends.

Six months later, she and Will are moving in – he never actually viewed it himself – but the place seems to have deteriorated as if it had been empty for years. And none of the neighbours remember Sally and Daisy, or Sally’s husband Bill, a door-to-door salesman. That for me was the first trigger as I don’t think door-to-door salesmen exist nowadays, other than Nottingham knockers.

Will is worried about Alice, who had a period of depression in the past, following her best friend’s death, and ended up spending six months in a rehabilitation unit called Chapters. She hated it and dreads being sent back. Yet she knows what she saw, only no-one believes her. But how is any of it possible? Is she hallucinating or having a lucid dream? Will finds her a therapist, against her wishes, but she agrees to see her.

So who is lying? Is Alice psychotic or psychic? Or is she the only sane one? I had no idea and I’m not sure I do now. A very clever and intriguing story with plenty of twists to keep you guessing.

Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the Author

Tracy was born in Harrow Weald, Middlesex, growing up in a loving family home. She married her first husband in 1990, has two grown up children and two granddaughters. She studied a variety of topics via moduled learning, embarking on City and Guilds and NVQ courses, ranging from a brief spell in hairdressing to administration and now works for a utility company in North West London. Tracy has numerous hobbies ranging from landscape painting to landscape gardening and always likes to paint the scene, even if it’s changing the colour scheme,yet again, within her home.

Tracy has always enjoyed writing and used to write short stories for her own children’s amusement but it has only been in the last few years that she has taken this more seriously and has gone on to write her first police procedural psychological thriller series, comprising Gordon Square, Arlington Terrace and Keeper’s Lodge. On the 1st August she released her latest psychological thriller 101 and is now already plotting her next book.

Tracy married her second husband in 2014 and now lives in Bedfordshire in a sleepy hamlet where she writes whenever she gets a spare moment.