A tormented mother. An abandoned girl. A deadly game of survival.
What happened to Ellie?
Traumatised by events, Ellie's mother, Laura, can’t bear to stay in the Welsh seaside town where she lives with her partner, Gareth. She escapes to London, breaking all ties with him, and refusing to tell anyone her new address.
After two years of living alone and working in a mundane job, Laura buys an old campervan and joins a singles holiday. Here, she meets Miriana, a teenage girl who bears a chilling resemblance to Ellie. As Laura uncovers Miriana’s story, she’s shocked by the parallels to her own life.
But stories can be dangerous, and someone out there will stop at nothing to prevent the truth about Ellie from coming out…
Purchase Link - mybook.to/thegirlinthevan
Helen Matthews writes page-turning psychological suspense novels and is fascinated by the darker side of human nature and how a life can change in an instant. Her fourth novel The Girl in the Van, a suspense thriller with dark contemporary themes will be published by Darkstroke Books in March 2022. Previous novels include After Leaving the Village, which won first prize in the opening pages category at Winchester Writers’ Festival, and was followed by Lies Behind the Ruin, domestic noir set in France, published by Hashtag Press. Her third novel Façade was published by Darkstroke in September 2020.
Born in Cardiff, Helen read English at the University of Liverpool and worked in international development, consultancy, human resources and pensions management. She fled corporate life to work freelance while studying for a Creative Writing MA at Oxford Brookes University. Her stories and flash fiction have been shortlisted and published by Flash 500, 1000K Story, Reflex Press, Artificium and Love Sunday magazine.
She is a keen cyclist, covering long distances if there aren’t any hills, sings in a choir and once appeared on stage at Carnegie Hall, New York in a multi-choir performance. She loves spending time in France. Helen is an Ambassador for the charity, Unseen, which works towards a world without slavery and donates her author talk fees, and a percentage of royalties, to the charity.
Social Media Links –
Twitter - https://twitter.com/HelenMK7
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/helen.matthews7/
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Website – https://www.helenmatthewswriter.com
First, I want to thank Helen Matthews, Darkstroke Books, and Rachel’s Random Resources for providing me with this book so I can bring you this review.
The Girl in the Van is the perfect title for Helen Matthews book! Not only that but the graphic designers did a great job intertwining that aspect.
Helen did an amazing job researching and fact checking for this story and it showed.
The ending of chapter one caught my attention as I needed to know who Ellie was!
I love all things related to The Royals so I grinned ear to ear with the mention of Charles and Lady Diana!
Helen went outside the box and used unique names for her characters. I loved the name Gareth and have never seen that before.
I chuckled at the conversation Laura had with her Mom about the singles holiday camping trip! Her Mom just didn’t know when to stop! I found myself yelling into my kindle that an ex is an ex for a reason!!
Like Laura I was totally shaking my head! She is there for a singles holiday-so why would children be there! It is like going on a blind date and their child comes with them. FYI yes that has happened to me!
Mariana’s character and storyline was an interesting one to read.
Helen keeps us on our toes by jumping around time wise.
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