From the amazing book cover to the intriguing description, The Cuckoo Wood: An Alex Ripley Mystery by M. Sean Coleman, drew me in. I was thrilled to receive an advanced copy from the publishers on NetGalley, and couldn’t wait to start. Below you will find the book description and cover followed by my review.

The Cuckoo Wood: An Alex Ripley Mystery by M. Sean Coleman

Samantha Jaynes was first to die. Rosie Trimble was next.

A spate of teenage suicides rattles Kirkdale, a rural community in England’s Lake District. In the days leading up to their deaths, the girls talked about having seen an angel.

That’s when Dr Alex Ripley-the so-called Miracle Detective-is asked to help the police. It’s Ripley’s job to explain the angel sightings and what they had to do with the girls’ deaths. Were they hallucinating? Or did they truly encounter a heavenly phenomenon?

Angelic visions. Old sins. Fear, revenge, and suspicion: Ripley uncovers a decades-old tragedy, and the deeper she digs, the more hostility she encounters. Because the vehemently pious residents of Kirkdale have tried to bury the past, and they don’t like strangers dredging up their sins.

Ripley finds herself searching for the truth in a village so full of secrets that few there know who to trust anymore. Apart from God himself.

Is there a divine influence at work here, or a far more sinister force? Ripley, like the dead girls, will not rest until the truth is out.

The Cuckoo Wood is the first book in the Alex Ripley Mystery Series.

The Cuckoo Wood: An Alex Ripley Mystery – My Review

The book centres around Kirkdale, a rural community in England’s Lake District and begins with the suicide of two teenage girls. The mention of an angel really stirs things up. We are introduced to Dr. Alex Ripley who is dubbed the Miracle Detective. She likes to pull apart religious sightings and when we meet her she is taking part in a TV show about faith healing. She is asked by her friend to take a look at what is happening in Kirkdale and this is the start of something that will keep you turning the pages well into the early hours of the morning.

From the very start of this book, you are pulled into the action and we follow Rosie, one of the teenage girls, as she is lured into the lake by The Angel, believing that he will save her soul. She drowns and is the second suicide for this rural community. Police officer, Cotter, is a friend of Rosie’s brother and he isn’t convinced she killed herself.

The village of Kirkdale is a strange one, ruled by religion and they believe the girls have committed the ultimate sin and turned their back on God. They don’t welcome Ripley at all, and there are parts in the book that will have the hair standing on the back of your arms as Ripley tries to uncover what is really going on in this place.

Ripley’s character is excellent and so well written. She’s not an atheist but she enjoys playing the sceptic and getting to the bottom of things. She also has a knack of putting herself in danger.

There are so many twists in this story and I didn’t guess the ending or who the culprit was until right at the end. The story evolved and the timeline grew to encompass a suicide pact from 1977. There are some really creepy characters in the story and at times, I found myself wondering if The Angel was in fact real. I was absorbed in the story, in the characters’ lives, and would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a good mystery that will send shivers down your spine.

I am looking forward to the second Dr. Alex Ripley book and can’t wait to see how her character evolves. This was a five-star read for me.

The Cuckoo Wood is available now in ebook format from Amazon and highly recommend it to everyone.

Until next time,

Keep reading and writing,

Amanda