The Murder Room

by Lisa Stone

The gripping new thriller with a difference for 2024 from internationally bestselling author Lisa StoneWhat do you do when your home becomes a living nightmare?

Your house should be the safest place in the world. But imagine you rent out a room, and the unthinkable happens…someone is murdered in it.

This is the nightmare Alfie Watson is plunged into. He can’t go to the police, because he knows he’ll be in danger too. But he can’t just do nothing.

Then Alfie receives a blackmail note – the killer is after him. And unless Alfie plays his cards right, he may not live to tell the tale…

Genres: Audiobook, Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Fiction

337 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 18, 2024

About the author

As a writer of suspense thrillers I often ask myself what if? What if this happened instead of that? Or why a particular person reacted as they did. So often fact is stranger than fiction and these books start with a fact which I develop. You may be surprised to know, for example, just how many patients experience changes in their likes and dislikes after a transplant operation ~ The Darkness Within. Or how easy it is to look into someone’s home through their CCTV ~ Stalker.

Just a little bit about me. I live in England and have three children. I have always been a writer - from when I was at school, with poems and articles in the school magazine. In my teens I began writing short stories, a few radio plays and novels. I finally made it into the bestseller charts with Damaged in 2007 which I wrote under the pseudonym Cathy Glass. Since then I have had 28 books published, many of which have become international bestsellers.

Thank you for your time, I hope you enjoy the Lisa Stone thrillers.

Reviews

[Lisa B · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Murder Room by Lisa Stone & narration by John Sackville was an enthralling thriller / psychological thriller that I enjoyed, the pacing was fast & the twists just kept coming.


Alfie is a surveyor with 2 sons Mike & Gregory both his wife & Alfie run RoomySpace.com a hotel where you can stay 1 night or a week if you want.


Alfie buys a spy camera his wife knows nothing about he can look at what the guests are doing without their knowledge, a young couple Carl & Emma stay there but what Alfie witnesses is Carl suffocating Emma with a pillow he is horrified he calls the police in to investigate… but nothing is as it seems!!!!!
Hallie finds out both Mike & Gregory have been skipping school WHY?

This was an entertaining book that kept me intrigued till the bitter end, I didn’t like Mike or Gregory they came across as spoilt brats… take that away & I thoroughly enjoyed this book this was my first Lisa Stone 📖 book will be reading more by this author.

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not the world's not the universe but the galaxies most stupid worst dumbest parents. These people are idiots.

[F ౨ৎ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dumb book dumb characters and dumbass parents.

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just didn’t enjoy this, the plot was just a bit random and not believable. The ending should have been good, but I simply thought ‘really?!’

[Shyuan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book starts off with an undeniably creepy premise: Alfie, the main character, secretly records footage of guests staying at his home to spice up his sex life. It’s a disturbing opening that definitely hooks you in, but unfortunately, that's about where the excitement ends.

Where do I even start? The plot is dumb, and the characters aren’t much better. Alfie’s hidden camera ends up capturing footage of one guest suffocating another with a pillow, leaving him in a dilemma: report it to the police and reveal his voyeurism, or stay quiet. It sounds intense, right? But the execution falls flat.

The story becomes boring, with the characters feeling like they’re just passing the ball back and forth without any real progress. When the focus shifts to Alfie’s two sons, it becomes painfully predictable. The reasoning behind the "murder" is so ridiculous that it's hard to take seriously. How could the parents not notice the obvious signs, especially when one of them is a teacher? They just chalk it up to teenage rebellion. The "kidnapping" scene? Easily the most absurd part of the book, filled with ridiculous decisions.

The dialogue was also terrible—everyone sounds the same, with no variation or intonation, and conversations are repeated over and over. Their daily exchanges became a monotonous loop, and by the end, I found myself genuinely losing interest.

As for the ending... seriously? After all that, I feel like I’ve lost a few brain cells just from reading this.

[Jules Lisa ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so looking forward to reading her new book has I have enjoyed all Lisa Stone’s previous books, but this one was terrible! I finished it just incase it got better. It Didn’t !! Disappointed 😔

[Ben Harris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ridiculous plot and dumb characters

[Triona · Rating 1 out of 5]

Chaotic and ridiculous

[Matt Hortomaris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dumb characters, dumb plot, and a ‘twist’ that wouldn’t even cause neck pain to an 80year old it was that predictable

[Elle Walsh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was quite excited to read this book. Considering the name of it is The Murder Room, this book was boring. There is absolutely nothing spectacular about it, and it's predictable. Unless you want a book that may as well have been written for a 13 year old as an introduction to the crime/thriller genres, don't waste your time.

[Gee ♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed it up until the end.....can someone explain the ending for me? Cus I'm confuuuuuuused.com

[söfy ッ · Rating 3 out of 5]

My question is, why / how are they getting away with it every time?
I wish it was better.

[Mickey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alfie and Jenny rent their spare room out to people needing a place to stay for a night or two. Alfie decides to plant a spy camera in the room, in the hopes of catching couples having sex that can help spice up his sex life. Only he ends up witnessing a murder. After days of sitting on the evidence and not wanting to out himself as a peeping Tom, he finally sends the video to the police, in the hope that it will help them find the young murdered girl and her killer. But then Alfie starts getting blackmailed for money by the killer.

This was one of the dumbest books I've read. I spent the entire time reading this just thinking that these characters are idiots and this was genuinely stupid. Every single thing Alfie did made me want to slap the stupid out of him, because I've never come across such a moronic character in all my life. His wife was not much better tbh. At no point during any of this book did they know where their kids were or what they were doing. Jenny was more worried about her husband having a spy camera in the spare room than about the teenage girl who was murdered in that room. I kept thinking, if I keep reading something good will happen, something to make this book worth reading. Spoiler alert: nothing did. It just kept getting more ridiculous. And that ending had me wanting to throw the book across the room because I swear to god, Alfie is just the most stupid character ever.
When I dislike a book, I usually try to find something, anything, that I could say was good about it so that it isn't all negative. But I can't bring myself to do that this time.

[Sarah Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took me ages to read this as it just wasn't gripping my attention, felt like the last 25% of it was rushed and ended rubbish

[Carol · Rating 1 out of 5]

Silly book full of silly people doing silly things. Silly of me to finish it - avoid or else you’ll be silly too.

[Bex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do enjoy Lisa stones writing style. Some of this booked did remind me of her other book stalker. The ending didn’t wow me but I did enjoy the book overall

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ah… this was a very silly read. Terrible ending… terrible story? Like just an unecessary tale! Anyway, two stars for not putting it down, but no.

[Vicky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well that's a book I really should have DNRd. I kept thinking what boring stupid characters but carried on in the hope it got better. Sadly it didn't and the ending was like WTF? But not in a good way. Life's too short to have read this!

[Jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never guessed the twists, writing style was basic but enjoyed it nonetheless. Did seem a little far fetched but good as a palette cleanser.

[Eileen Larkin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Possibly the worst book I’ve ever read

[Matt Hanstead · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read almost every Lisa Stone thriller books apart from one of them, so I was eagerly awaiting the release of this book.

I found the story quite interesting, particularly from the get go, but it certainly lost its way and is so far a book that I can say is worth skipping.
My main gripes with this book:
- Parents often making terrible decisions, where you almost shout at Alfie as to why he makes certain decisions, Alfie clearly isn't portrayed to be smart considering there is a failed business to his name & bought the camera in the first place, tried contacting 'Carl' and ended up losing £5000 for it, for which, the real culprits didn't face any consequences for other than to do chores.. which is pretty patehtic.

- There had been quite poor character development, I couldn't tell you a single thing about Emma Arnold, and Carl either outside of looking after his nan. Certainly not to the point of being involved in the last part of the story.

- Realistically, how did a 13 and 15 year old drug their dad and carry him from his bed down stairs and out the house when their dad Alfie was limp, I can tell you for sure, it's impossible to do this quietly to raise suspicion to Jenny who's basically sat in the room next door, especially considering Jenny is the smarter one.

- It's one thing to have Emma held in a room against her will.. which she also forgets about, it's another to go back to the well again drug your dad and hold him captive in the save room, and for what? points? points for what? there's no information on what these points matter to anyone, you don't get anything the points don't mean anything, so why would these four people be involved in this? And on top of that, never get mentioned again.
You don't kidnap your dad for a few days in a chapter and to not have it brought up again.

The ending scenario could've been so much more creative, maybe the the DCs would find Alfie at the house instead to catch the culprits that way instead of basically pretending it didn't happen.

You also finished the book with saying how Emma moved away, no ones heard from Carl, so why have they re united right at the end to stay in this rental room again, how did they know there was a camera? Seems to be a cop out & uncreative ending, which can be said for a lot of the book..

The only reason it's not a one star was because I still enjoyed the beggining and some of the middle of the book, but left with a bitter taste.

[Chloe · Rating 1 out of 5]

This probably has to be the worst book I've ever read. The whole plot is utterly ridiculous that nothing even makes sense and all of the characters are just plain stupid that it's more infuriating that anything else. Alfie is not only a pervert but is an idiot. He spends the first half of the book randomly implicating himself as a murderer then getting angry when no one believes he isnt dodgy. Like why give a "murderer" £5000 but still give the evidence to the police anyways? Are people really that stupid?? The second half of the book is everyone just ignoring the glaringly obvious so doesn't get any better.

Ultimately it is a quick read because your constantly praying things will get better only to lose the will to live, especially with that ending! Like nobody was punished or affected by any of the events and no one learned anything about their weird behaviour so what actually was the point of the book?

[Susanna Bloderer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I never give one stars to a book, because I usually acknowledge that a lot of blood, sweat and tears go into the researching, character development and writing.

I'll make an exception here for several reasons:
1.) The simple sentence structure would embarrass every 10-year-old
2.) The mono-dimensional characters
3.) The absurd (!) plot. I can't get into it without massive spoilers but I'll just say this: I've never read anything this ludicrous
4.) Forcing myself to read the book was just torture
5.) I am pretty sure that all the good reviews here are astroturfed by the author by either paying people to leave good reviews or getting her family and friends to do so.
6.) Even ChatGPT would have come up with a better plot

This is hands down the worst book I've read in the past 7 years and Lisa Stone should just stop writing books forever.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had really really high hopes for this book after reading The Cottage by Lisa Stone and it being one of my favourite books of all time. I really enjoyed about 80% of this book, it was not what I expected the book to be like given the title but it was fast paced and twisty. It was interesting and kept me guessing on what was going on - although I did figure out quite a bit part of the story, it was still very very good.

However, at around the 80% mark, it was ruined for me. The last part of the story made no sense to me, it was pretty pointless and the ending left my let down.

Will it stop me from reading future Lisa Stone books? Absolutely not.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, but be prepared for the ending to not be that great.

[Haylee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book on August 26th but I stopped reading the book as I found it boring, slow and just not what I wanted to read but went back to the book in November as I need to complete my book challenge and I am pretty behind on goodreads but hopefully I will not be at some point. Reading the book again from the start helped and I enjoyed the book and the twist was brilliant as I was not expecting it and the situation happened again which was not needed. I thought the cliff hanger was brilliant as I wonder what will happen again with the two characters and if another book will be written or has. Enjoy the book....

[P Snow · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars for finishing it. Worked out what was happening early on. Idiotic characters making idiot decisions. Unnecessary padding, and then no padding when it was needed. Very basic use of language - more suited to a 10 year old reading it than adults. You’ll know what I mean when you read it. Absolutely no colour to the writing or characters, no intonation in the dialogue. So many mid paragraphs jumps to different “scenes”. Overall decent premise, but dull as dishwater, unliveable characters and a waste of time.

[Suzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this thriller but you will have to suspend all belief in how real teenagers/ parents behave.

some thing(s) I liked:
✅well written
✅fun concept

some thing(s), not so much:
⭕Alfie is a terrible parent and person
⭕Children doing dangerous/ illegal/ awful stuff receive no repercussions at all!?
⭕parents just accept their children are kidnappers, blackmailers and thieves without even so much as a tear/ shout?
⭕pervy dad gets away with being a crappy perv once so does it again? do people not learn their lessons?

[Kelly Ferrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Murder Room. by Lisa Stone.
Maybe not her best book but still found it interesting to read.
Alfie (the dad), Jenny (the mum), Gregory and Mike (their sons) are a normal family in suburbia … Jenny teaches and Alfie works from home … Jenny has a Roomy-Space room they let out .. which tends to be doing fairly well!
One young couple rent out the room for a night and that is where it all begins ……
What has happened there …. Who is responsible ….

[Rhiannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly I was a bit dissapointed with this book.
At first, it was different than I expected in some ways and a little hard to get into. But once I’d reached past halfway I feel it picked up pace and I was much more motivated to pick it up to read. However the ending was quite frankly boring. There were absolutely zero shocking twists and I was hoping the last chapter would change that but instead it was just random, no explanation where I felt one was needed?
Overall, I don’t regret reading it. I would just warn anyone wanting to read it not to expect anything huge, especially at the end

[Joanne Dickinson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Silly

Read all of the book

I'm very disappointed with a silly storyline
One parent, a teacher, yet no real punishment for the boys

Empty house, missing parent, yet the wife is too silly to realise the texts aren't real from her husband.

The bus driver doesn't ring in to say the boys are back on the bus.

Makes the police sound dumb. The school not taking action just won't happen

Lisa Stone books are getting worse

:-( 😞