The Promise

Katerina Diamond

Sep 2018 · Sold by HarperCollins UK

About this ebook

From the #1 bestseller and Queen of Thrillers comes a gripping suspense perfect for fans of Karin Slaughter and Angela Marsons

No one can protect you from your past...

When a young woman is found strangled in her own bedroom, DS Imogen Grey and DS Adrian Miles are plunged into an investigation to find a twisted serial killer who likes to date his victims before he kills them.

Determined to stop the horrific deaths, Imogen is forced to act as bait – but will she get caught in her own trap? As the search for the killer ramps up, attention falls on the strange new boy in town. Why does he watch his neighbours through the windows? And could the truth be closer to home than any of them realise?

READERS CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF KATERINA DIAMOND’S TWISTY THRILLERS

‘A deliciously dark read, Katerina Diamond keeps her readers guessing throughout as she leads us on a very secretive, VERY twisted journey...everything I was expecting from a well-written, pacy thriller’ LISA HALL, AUTHOR OF BETWEEN YOU AND ME

‘A dark, twisting tale that won’t fail to captivate’ MINT VELVET

‘This fluid tale about a girl being held hostage is relentless and uncompromisingly dark’ HEAT

‘This gem of a crime novel is packed with twists until the last page’ CLOSER

‘Wow, I thought THE TEACHER was fantastic but THE SECRET is on another level. Was gripped all the way through and kept me guessing as the story unfolded’ NETGALLEY REVIEWER

‘An impeccable novel with nail biting chapters... Katerina Diamond deserves the title of Queen of Crime, because I'll be damned if anyone writes novels like she does. 5* doesn't do this book justice’ THE BRUNETTE BOOKSHELF

‘A dark and twisted tale that had me gasping in fear’ HANDWRITTEN GIRL

Ratings and reviews

First, the blurb I read on NetGalley is quite a bit different than the one on the retail sites, and while technically, both could describe this book, neither are exactly accurate. I also have to mention the cover. It's certainly eye-catching, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it has to do with this story. Our serial killer is strangling women, so I'm not sure where the blood comes in as I don't recall any in the book. As for the rest of it, I also don't recall any mention of a music box or a ballerina, so I used that handy little search feature on my Kindle and got nothing, not one mention of either of those in the book. Don't get me wrong, the cover is brilliant, but I don't see the correlation to the story. Speaking of which, I have to say that this one drove me a bit crazy. We have several characters throughout with rapid-fire jumps from one point of view to another. Off the top of my head, we have various victims of the serial killer, both detectives, a troubled and troublesome teenager, and what appears to be diary entries from an unknown woman. I would say that this is a police procedural, except they don't really do that much in the way of investigation. More time is spent on the fact that one is stressing over ending a relationship with a rather unsavory man that could cause problems in her job, and the other is grieving a girlfriend who was murdered while dealing with his ex and his son living under his roof because of some problem with the ex's current husband. I thought there may be some real investigation about to start when Imogen acts as bait, but even that was more about how Adrian felt about the whole thing. Then we have Connor and his father who have a rocky relationship that only gets rockier with each passing day while Connor apparently is completely irresistible to women of all ages. If it all sounds a bit convoluted, it is for much of the book. While I understand that the abrupt chapter endings are meant to build suspense and tension, the only thing that built in me was a growing aggravation over where it was all going. Things do eventually come together and the seemingly separate storylines converge, but not until quite late in the book. We do get enough breadcrumbs that I figured it out before the the big reveal, but that was little payoff for a story that took a somewhat circuitous route to get to a rushed and unsatisfactory ending. From glancing through the many high ratings on this one, I realize that I'm in the minority here, but it is what it is and my opinion is just that. The book did sound quite promising, but for me, it just didn't live up to its potential.

Absolutely 100% love this Author! Gripping drama throughout but with an excellent storyline to grip you from the first chapter. All 4 books are wonderful. I read them all in a week!

I have enjoyed all the books from Katerina Diamond but, this one bar far is my favorite one!! As always this book had me from the beginning and kept me guessing up until the end! I strongly recommend this book to everyone! Can't wait for the next one!

About the author

Katerina Diamond was born in Weston in the seventies. She moved to Thessaloniki in Greece and attended Greek school where she learnt Greek in just 6 months. After her parents’ divorce, they relocated to Devon. After school, and working in her uncle’s fish and chip shop, she went (briefly) to university at Derby, where she met her husband and had two children. Katerina now lives on the East Kent Coast with her husband and children. She is a Sunday Times and Kindle bestseller.