Follow Me by Angela Clarke

Out Now
Published by: HarperCollins, Avon
Purchase from Amazon here

The Blurb:

LIKE. SHARE. FOLLOW . . . DIE

The ‘Hashtag Murderer’ posts chilling cryptic clues online, pointing to their next target. Taunting the police. Enthralling the press. Capturing the public’s imagination.

But this is no virtual threat.

As the number of his followers rises, so does the body count.

Eight years ago two young girls did something unforgivable. Now ambitious police officer Nasreen and investigative journalist Freddie are thrown together again in a desperate struggle to catch this cunning, fame-crazed killer. But can they stay one step ahead of him? And can they escape their own past?

Time's running out. Everyone is following the #Murderer. But what if he is following you?

ONLINE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM …

My Review:


Wow, this is one hell of a debut novel! I am loving psychological thrillers at the moment, and Follow Me had me totally captivated. Although I have read lots of thrillers over the years, this one was different as it was the first one I have read where the killer actively uses social media (Twitter), to engage with his audience. It was really quite freaky!

So, what is the book about? The main protagonist is Freddie. Freddie is a journalist who works in a cafe to make some extra money. One evening she stumbles across an old friend from her school days. She and Nasreen used to be really close, but something unknown happened in the past that drove them apart. Nasreen is now in the police force, and when Freddie encounters her she decides to follow her and, as journalists do, try to track down a juicy story......she doesn't expect what happens next.

Freddie gets drawn into tracking down a murderer who uses Twitter to post clues about his victims, and to taunt the police. After following Nasreen Freddie gets caught up in the investigation and the rush to uncover who this murderer is before they strike again.

I really enjoyed the pace of this book. The action kept flowing at a good rate that kept me interesting. I loved the use of social media as the killers method of communication. I thought it was really clever, and it felt quite unnerving to follow the messages and see the follower count rise as they became more notorious, and the voyeurs came out. It got me thinking about the power of social media in a way I haven't done before.

I really liked the character of Freddie. Whilst I didnt always like her approach she felt like a real person who was perhaps a bit out of their depth, but had a good heart and wanted to make a difference. I was intrigued by what could have happened between her and Nasreen all those years ago to break up such a close friendship. As readers we do get to find out, but not until later on in the book, so there is lots of time to be riled by Nasreen, and to try and guess what happened yourself. Although I think Freddie is quite ballsy by nature I was intrigued and felt quite motherly as the story progressed, as I felt like she was a bit out of her depth, and wasnt getting the support she deserved.

The killer in this book is a nasty piece of work, and again, we dont get to find out who they are until late on in the book, so I found myself trying to be clever and suss it out all the way through.....I changed my mind quite a few times, and there are twists and turns to throw you off the scent.

This is a fantastic debut novel which I would highly recommend. It is gritty and thrilling, It had my heart pumping, and had me racing to turn the page to find out what would happen next.. I found it hard to put the book down.

Angela Clarke has already shown to me that she is a gifted writer who can pen a great book. I am really looking forward to her next novel. I would love to see some of the characters from this one appear at some point in the future too.

Thank you to HarperCollins, Avon who kindly provided a copy of the book in return for an honest review.