The Death Knock

by Elodie Harper

Three women have been found dead in East Anglia. The police deny a connection. TV news reporter Frankie smells a story...

Ava knows that the threat is real. She's been kidnapped by someone claiming to be the killer: a stranger who seems to know everything about her.

As Frankie follows the case, she enters a terrifying online world where men's rage against women may be turning murderous - and where her persistence might just make her a target. And Ava must struggle not only to stay alive... but to stay sane.

From journalist Elodie Harper, THE DEATH KNOCK is a compelling story of the worst that man can do and the hunt for the truth - at all costs.

Genres: Crime, Thriller, Fiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published July 12, 2018

About the author

Elodie Harper is a journalist and prize winning short story writer.
Her story 'Wild Swimming' won the 2016 Bazaar of Bad Dreams short story competition, run by The Guardian and Hodder & Stoughton and judged by Stephen King.

She is currently a reporter and presenter at ITV News Anglia, and before that worked as a producer for Channel 4 News.

Reviews

[Paromjit · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a dark and intense psychological thriller from Elodie Harper focusing on a twisted serial killer, abducting, holding for a time, and then killing women, set in East Anglia. The narrative is delivered from the perspective of two women, Ava Lindsey, who has been abducted and being held, and Frances 'Frankie' Latch, a crime reporter working for a TV news company. Frankie has recently started living with boyfriend, Jack. Two prostitutes have been discovered murdered, but the police have been reluctant to connect the cases. The discovery of apprentice hairdresser, Hanna Chiver's body has the media linking the killings, and the fear of a serial killer targeting women begins to grow.

There is a new boss, Keira, at the TV news company that Frankie works for, a woman who intends to shake and change the way things work. Keira is more intent on chasing audiences with more edgy coverage with less integrity, pushing Frankie into territory she is far more uncomfortable with and puts her in danger. Ava, a psychology student, is terrified but intent on surviving, she knows other women have been killed before her. She tries to engage with the killer, using psychology to try and connect with him but this is a highly manipulative man. Frankie comes across a odious Cuttlefish blog, spouting forth anti-women misogynist bile, raging about women being whores, deserving of being raped and murdered. It had targeted Hanna Chivers, poisonously alleging she was a liar who deserved her fate and not a victim. To her horror, Frankie finds herself being the focus of the blog, with malicious venomous attacks on her which escalate to horrifying levels. As Frankie finds her life being derailed, she becomes increasingly paranoid, unable to trust anyone, living in fear of her life.

Harper writes a claustrophobic and compelling novel that looks at the world of TV news and the need for the next exclusive, without regard to ethics, something Frankie understandably finds hard to adjust to. Ava's predicament had me fearful for her, rooting for her, hoping that she would survive against all the odds, facing a deranged serial killer that blames women for all ills, intent on manipulating his victims. Harper hits on an important contemporary issue of the vilification of women on social media, blogs and by the setting up of certain types of men's groups that are nothing less than unhinged. A great read, both thought provoking and chilling. Many thanks to Hodder and Stoughton for an ARC.

[Liz Barnsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy 5* here, if you loved "The Binding Song" you'll love this - two strong, authentic and compelling female leads, a serial killer, the vagaries of the press and a tense atmospheric mystery that is highly addictive.

Very early read so a full review will follow nearer to publication.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fair read for me.
Without giving too much away, I preferred the victims sections to the journalists. An unusual take, having a journalists point of view, rather than a detectives..... But can't say that it really worked well for me. Ended up getting a bit unrealistic, as for me, does the television programme, Silent Witness.
A decent ending though.

[Sherrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this, i like stories set in East Anglia and this is in Norfolk. Kept me guessing til the end and, at last, an ending that wasn't rushed!

[Isabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing. just amazing. elodie you are my absolute favourite author and you always will be. i couldn’t put this book down at all. a brilliant story, one of those ones where there are so many twists and surprises you have no way of predicting the end. truly amazing.

[Jacob Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a huge fan of Elodie Harper’s writing. The Death Knock is a chilling serial killer thriller. Elodie Harper creates a claustrophobic atmosphere in her opening chapter, as Ava wakes up in an enclosed space, the terrifying truth dawns on her when she realises that she has been kidnapped. Ava knows that there is a slim possibility that she will make it out of this situation alive. We really get the sense that she is helpless in the position that she is in and as much as I wanted her to survive, I could see that this wasn’t very likely.

The story follows TV journalist, Frankie Latch, who works for the Eastern Film Company based in East Anglia. Frankie is one of the first journalists to report on the discovery of a body. The victim is believed to have been killed by a serial killer. But as Frankie begins to report on the case, someone begins to stalk her. Frankie is terrified when her address appears online as part of a forum praising the killer. Her decision to continue to report on the killings puts her in a perilous position that could threaten her safety. But she isn’t someone who will go away quietly and wait until it’s safe to come out again.

What I like about Elodie’s writing is that she combines horror and crime, which make her books sinister reads. I connected with Ava as she fought to survive. Elodie tells the book partly from her point of view, and as we hear more from her thoughts, I was rooting for her to get free, even though it seemed impossible. She is clever and knows how to keep her captor engaged, but all the while, she is anxious that each moment with him might be her last. She knows he has killed before and won’t hesitate to do so again.

I liked Frankie as well, and I engaged with her as she set about investigating the disappearances and crimes that have taken place. She is cautious, though about not overstepping the mark, but she is determined to help bring the person responsible to justice. As her investigations deepened, there were a few people who I had suspicions about, and Elodie kept me guessing as the plot developed. But she kept the real killer masked until the final pages when the book was wrapped up in a tense finale that had me turning the pages faster and faster.

The Death Knock is an utterly compelling and sinister read. What I also loved about it was the Norfolk landscape which Elodie described so well in her previous book. It draws you further in and makes it very atmospheric. An easy five stars from me. I can’t wait to read more from Elodie Harper in the future.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley.

A serial killer thriller set in a slightly fictionalised East Anglia. Three women are dead and another is missing. Frankie, a journalist with the local TV news station, is put on the case. She is one of those rare journalists who actually has a conscience and is reluctant to intrude on the grief of friends and relatives of victims for the sake of a story. But when a new boss takes over at the TV station Frankie begins to fear for her job if she doesn't deliver, and her desire to see the killer caught sends her investigation down a dark road to a despicable internet website populated by women hating neanderthals. If she isn't careful in her digging Frankie may bring herself to the attention of the killer and put her own life in danger.

This is a really good read but it doesn't quite have the same level of originality that the author's fantastic earlier book (The Binding Song) has. Highly recommended though.

[Pam Hutley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a compelling read - I think you’ve got to read it quickly so you don’t lose the build up of tension! Two narrators tell the story of a serial killer. Interestingly there is no police voice though they are present in the background. Voice one is of the captured Ava - one in a series of victims. Voice two - is of Frankie a local journalist who is also targeted by the aggressor and who fills in for the detective role…. The accounts of her stalking and it’s publication on a hideous misogynist blog are grim … thematically we are concerned with power and relationships . … it’s not convincingly realistic but it reads fast and we really do want to know who it is!!!!

[Barbara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really was hoping this would be a great book but for me I was just interested enough to finish the book. I will not read another book by this author.

[Joanna Beesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book I have read by this author and I thoroughly enjoyed the first one, The Binding Song. However, this one I enjoyed so much more and found it an excellent read.

It is based in East Anglia and there is horror when three women are found murdered although the first two are ‘sex workers’ which detracts from the original investigation. However, Hannah, the third victim was a pretty, hairdressing apprentice with ambition.

Another woman is missing, Ava, and the story is told from her perspective and the journalist who is following the case closely, Frankie. The author portrays so many interesting aspects relating to misogyny and online bullying. There is a point when I was reading the novel that I thought at least four or five men could be the killer.

Cleverly plotted. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton, Mulholland Books and Elodie Harper for the ARC of The Death Knock in return for my honest review.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to get into this.
Which is unusual... I do love a good serial killer story.
I think there were too many characters that just weren't fleshed out enough...So I didn't really feel I got a good idea of who they were.
Interesting side story on the chat room,invasion of privacy and how easy it is to get info on someone.
Kept me reading till the end,but not always enthusiastically.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Death Knock is a chilling tale of misogyny, murder and mystery that follows two women, reporter, Frankie and student, Ava, who are two very different sides of the story. Ava is the latest victim of the man being dubbed. the Norfolk Strangler, Frankie the person who is determined to get to the bottom of the story.

This is, on the surface, a murder mystery, several women from different backgrounds, found murdered and discarded around East Anglia with seemingly no connection between them. Two are street workers, the other a young hairdresser. It is only when the police, and Frankie, examine the cases more closely that the connections begin to appear. When Ava, a psychology student goes missing, Frankie follows the trail to a dark and dangerous website in which the hatred for women is strong and the vilification of them by men who deem themselves to have been wronged is laid out for all to see.

There are some very tense moments in this story. As we follow Frankie's investigation there is an overwhelming sense of threat and suspicion at every turn. The author takes readers to some very dark places, looking into the possible motivations of the perpetrator for murdering the women. Then when we spend time with Ava you can feel the fear growing with every page turn, the scenes between her and her captor creating chills that run deep. The violence is muted, nothing overly graphic, the threat undeniable and the way in which the killer worms himself into Ava's thoughts, her internal battle to stay strong and survive acutely observed. This is a much a story of the psychology of survival as it is of the blame culture that certain men have towards women when it is their violence and anger which brings about their own demise.

It is a story that could be ripped from the headlines, the author's own experience in media giving credibility and edge to the action. I really liked the way in which Elodie Harper has developed the two women, how she has shown their strength in adversity, and how she has managed to bring to the page several really strong female characters. In spite of this, this is not a tale of men v women. It is a balanced story in which characters on both sides of the gender divide demonstrate that neither sex is entirely virtuous when it comes to character behaviours. An engrossing and tense read.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elodie Harper's first novel, The Binding Song, was a nicely atmospheric thriller set in a men's prison in the Norfolk fenland, straying close to the supernatural though never quite integrating these hints closely enough into its overall plot for my liking. Nevertheless, it seemed clear to me that Harper's writing had promise, which makes it all the more disappointing that she's fallen back on such a tried-and-tested serial killer formula for her second novel, The Death Knock. Frankie is a journalist working for the local TV news. She's pursuing a story about a series of missing women that starts to become personal when she's targeted by a vicious anti-feminist website. Could Frankie end up being the killer's next victim? Meanwhile, Frankie's narrative is interspersed with chapters from the point of view of one of the missing women, Ava, a university student who is being held captive in a basement.

The Death Knock rattles along nicely enough, and it's refreshing to see a crime novel told from the point of view of a journalist rather than the usual point of view from the police. Here, Harper's own knowledge of TV news - she works at ITV News Anglia - is obvious, and everything to do with Frankie's job feels authentic and interesting. However, the rest of the plot is just so similar to any number of existing serial killer thrillers, especially the dual narrative split between the investigator and the victim, and Frankie's growing sense that she herself is under threat. The MRA website adds something slightly new, but it's handled quite clumsily, with big chunks of text from the website quoted seemingly only so Frankie can monologue about how wrong it is. Obviously, I'm 100% on Frankie's side, but after a while, it started to feel like I was being hit over the head with this message - perhaps because there really isn't anything worth engaging with in the rants on these kind of websites, and so the lengthy time given to taking them apart felt misplaced.

While I enjoyed reading The Death Knock, I hope that Harper turns to a more original and subtle premise for her next novel.

I received a free proof copy of this novel from the publisher for review.

[Angela Watt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first book of 2019 and it was a good one.

The book flicks between Frankie, a reporter for a local East Anglian TV company and Ava who has been kidnapped by a serial killer who has already killed three women. As well as the usual hunt down the killer scenario and see if we can save the girl, there's an interesting slant that involves cyber crime and bullying. This part was really well done and the cyber attacks on Frankie and the potential impact on her life made me feel really angry. I think its great when a book brings out such emotions and I found myself rooting very much for Frankie and Ava throughout. Some of the scenes from Ava's kidnap perspective were also well written.

The book is set in Norwich, Great Yarmouth and the Norfolk area where I was born and grew up and much of it was familiar to me. I enjoyed this aspect, and when Frankie had to drive across remote areas of Norfolk when she was under threat added to the suspense. I've done those drives myself and they can be eerie at night and there are times when you don't see anybody else or another car on the road.

It all plays out pretty much how you might expect to be honest and there weren't any major surprises or twists at the end - well for me anyway. However, none of that detracted from my overall enjoyment. I'd definitely read more of Elodie Harper's work and love reading books that are set in my home town.

[thetbrhoarder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well.....that was an emotional rollercoaster!! Between anger, frustration, worry, tension and completely horrified this book is one for thriller lovers!!

If you love serial killer stories with absolutely no clue who is the killer then this is the book for you!! Normally I can figure out who the killer is but with this one?! No clue!!!! And complete shock when it was revealed

Amazing read, don’t know why I left it so late to do so

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book gripping as the plot unfolded with twists and turns and red herrings. The main character being a journalist made a change from the usual police drama and as this is the author’s own background it made the story convincing. When I looked her up I was surprised to find that she wrote the Wolf Den trilogy which I very much enjoyed. This was an earlier work but already shows promise.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really like this author’s writing style and somewhat “out of the box” ideas. S’cuse the pun there!
Definitely think this would be a better book being read rather than listening, though a better narrator would be a start. Predominantly female driven characters but for some reason this narrator just wasn’t strong enough. Hence the 3 stars.

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

It went at a good pace after the first chapter and had good red herrings. Drew me in and was not a bad read. Had to finish it in the end to find out the who-dunnit. I would say it is another good read as a thriller and had a different protagonist than the usual - being a reporter not a police officer - so that gave it a fresh twist. Good read not a great one but enjoyable.

[Malcolm Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book I've read by this author and must say I enjoyed it. Kept me guessing right to the end and yes, I must admit I guessed the ending wrong. Had me fooled. The story is of a serial abductor and killer working in East Anglia and the television reporter assigned to the case who ends up rather more involved than she ought to be. Looking forward to your next book Elodie Harper!

[Hannah Thornley · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️. From dark details that leave you wincing, to vivid descriptions that cement you in the story, Elodie Harper knows exactly how to get a reader hooked. And this book did just that. An ideal holiday read if, like me, you love visceral crime dramas that belong on prime time ITV. Easy, gripping and dramatic.

[Mary Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dead body is found and Frankie, a journalist, is on the scent to find the killer. The chapters alternate between a woman being held captive and Frankie desperately trying to find answers. Well written and compelling to the end.

[Dina Starr · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb thriller that I found impossible to put down. Well-written, with plenty of red herrings that make you think you’ve guessed who the killer is, only to be proved wrong. Looking forward to reading other books by this author.

[e m campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

I don’t usually read this type of book however the title caught my attention and I’m glad it did. I was captivated from page one and couldn’t put it down. A wonderful writer who I will be most definitely be following and reading.

[Meghan Whincop · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book - but I'd only recommend reading it, if you are prepared for what might happen. I enjoyed it but struggled at points with actions that happened. I liked that it was local and that I knew where this was happening!

[Vivienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading The Binding song I had great hopes for this book but was disappointed found it very slow.

[Renata · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent mystery. Well-written, kept me guessing until the end.

[Elsie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. Good female characters and strongly written by an author who knows about local news TV. A thoroughly good read.

[Tooba · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm going to rate this book a five star for hitting it right in the bull's eye and coming forth with a chiller addressing the threat of incel groups.

[May3336 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good crime thriller

Well written and interesting, kept me wanting to read on.

An easy and enjoyable read if you like the crime genre.

[Louise Mitchell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hard to read, couldn't feel attached to the characters. Not for me