A Safe Place by Stephanie Carty

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A Safe Place by Stephanie Carty

What happens when your home becomes your prison?

Twelve-year-old Cate has never left her village. She’s never had a friend. She’s never even hugged her mother.

Imogen, Cate’s mum, spent her youth travelling the country with her father. He believed she had a gift and used her for his own gain. With her innocence snatched away, Imogen vowed to build an idyllic and safe childhood for her daughter.

But Cate soon becomes curious about life outside their home, and Imogen begins to wonder if the decision to close them off from society was the right one. Then when Zach, Imogen’s enigmatic ex-lover, returns to the village, years of deception come to light.

Why has Imogen never touched her daughter? Is Zach responsible for a heinous crime? And what is Cate truly capable of?

A Safe Place is a chilling suspense novel about decades of secrets, lies and guilt.

My Review

I wasn’t sure what to think before I started reading A Safe Place and it wasn’t at all what I expected. It’s described as a thriller, but that is not how I saw it. A chilling suspense novel? Again I found it more creepy than chilling. But I loved every word of it.

The story takes place in two time-lines from the points of view of twelve-year-old Cate and her mother, Imogen. Imogen had a traumatic childhood, dragged around by her father on the Rounds, visiting old and sick people, because he believed Imogen had a ‘gift’ and could help heal them. Did she? I’m not sure. The placebo effect can be very powerful.

Cate is very bright, with a vivid imagination, but because her mother is keeping her away from the outside world, she has no point of reference for the things she believes. Her reality is totally skewed. Her mother is trying to protect her, so Cate doesn’t go to school, or meet any other children. She doesn’t watch TV or access the internet. I get why Imogen is doing what she does, but even though her heart may be in the right place, she is totally misguided. Maybe even a bit bonkers to be honest. And then Zach arrives and turns everything on its head.

I adored this book. It’s so different and original. I loved Cate, not sure about Imogen – she’s hard to understand. Is what she is doing to Cate born out of love, yet still a form of abuse? You’ll have to decide.

Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of the #ASafePlace blog tour.

About the Author

Stephanie Carty is a writer and Consultant Clinical Psychologist / NHS Head of Psychology in the UK. Her short fiction is widely published. She has been placed and shortlisted for many competitions including the Bristol Short Story Prize, Bath Short Story Award, Aesthetica Creative Writing Award and Bridport Prize. Her novella-in-flash Three Sisters of Stone won Best Novella in the Saboteur Awards 2019 and her short fiction collection The Peculiarities of Yearning won its category in the Eyelands Book Prize.

Stephanie’s writers’ craft book Inside Fictional Minds: Tips from Psychology for Creating Characters was published in 2021 and a writers’ guide to analysing your own writing to better understand yourself The Writing Mirror was published early 2024.

Her debut psychological thriller Shattered was published in February 2023. A Safe Place is published in November 2024.