Nightingale Vale

by Declan Munro

The Lindsey's are no ordinary family.

A slick, taut thriller with a gut wenching premise: No one is who you think they are.

Twisting and claustraphobic, ruthless killers carry out a series of gruesome murders. When a new tenant moves to creepy Nightingale Vale she hooks up with the disturbing Lindsey family, but are they the neighbours from hell?

A horrific net of deception and disguise is about to close in where no one is who they seem and nothing is as it appears. Smart, cool with a neat twist.

Genres: Short Stories, Horror

81 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 6, 2011

Reviews

[Melissa Herman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Read!!

[Kristin Walcott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. The premise sounded good, and the book cover is a little creepy but that is a good thing because the novel is a thriller. Unfortunately, for me, it just didn’t hold together. The night I started reading this book, it was late and I was fading fast so I only got through the prologue and the first chapter. It made a great first impression. I remember feeling really creeped out so I went to sleep thinking this was going to be a really good read. However, by about half way through the book I was nothing but confused. There were too many characters and house numbers and weird looks and comings and goings. Soon I had no idea who lived in what house and if or how they were related to the Lindseys. I felt like not enough details were given for each character for me to form a mental picture and know or care who they were. I realize now that perhaps the author felt it was necessary to be vague to achieve the end result, but I think it was too convoluted.
Something that I think added to my confusion was my lack of understanding of what terraced housing is. Where I live these are called rowhouses or townhouses. It was not until the characters started moving from one attic into another inside the homes that I realized the houses were connected. Perhaps a little more detail about the neighborhood and homes would have helped me correctly envision the setting. Sometimes when we know something so well, we forget that others may not be as familiar so we leave out explanations or details that are necessary for the reader to fully grasp the situation.
I completely understand what the author was trying to do. In theory, I think he has a great story line and plot even. But the unfolding of it just did not work for me. I found the characters lacking in depth. I found the main protagonist, Jen, to be annoying at times. There was not enough motivation for some of the things she did. Kyle became a main character out of nowhere. I think that could have been handled with a little more finesse. Without giving anything away, the club scene was a good introduction. I knew that he was going to be an integral part of the story; but the kitchen scene could’ve been eliminated. I felt like it was quite a while before he made another appearance, and when he did, the circumstances seemed odd to me. I don’t mean odd in a creepy-good-for-the-story kind of way, but in a disconnected that’s-kinda-weird way.
I read the ebook version on the kindle app for iPad. The formatting was a little off, but at least it was consistently incorrect from chapter to chapter. LOL! There were some additional problems with punctuation and such that a good copyeditor probably would’ve (or should’ve) caught. All in all, would I recommend this book? Probably not. But I would definitely encourage Declan Munro to continue to hone his craft.

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm trying really hard to find something positive about this story. It has a good idea, but it was put together in a very choppy, confusing way until the final few chapters. It may have just been the horrible editing that made it hard for me to read...there, their, and they're are not interchangeable, and the same goes for your and you're...I could go on about spelling and grammar, but the other issue was the way the Kindle edition was typeset for lack of a better word. The first letter of the first word of each chapter was on its own line, sometimes the indents would change, the entire page would shift to the left. I guess all-in-all, the story has potential, but needs work.

[Susan Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Outstanding! I read this book in one afternoon...couldn't put it down until the very end. The author takes you on a journey with many a-twisted paths and what a ride. The story revolves around the Lindsey triplets and Jen Martin, a young woman unfortunate enough to rent an apartment on 'Night-in-hell-Vale'. Great plotline and the authors knack for creating characters you can connect with is all part of the package! Bravo...!

[Kas · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. The premise is interesting and the cover is creepy.

But oh my god....I then tried to look past the grammar mistakes and choppy writing. It was proving to be a short book so I was going to trudge along...

Until the author SWITCHED CHARACTER NAMES IN THE MIDDLE. Yep. Kyle (the new boyfriend) and Simon (the ex-boyfriend) get swapped. Suddenly, "Simon" is kissing our main character. No. That's when I closed the book.

[Katyana]

I can't. I guess I'm a grammar nazi, or something, but the first chapter was so choppy, with poor punctuation and errors (like, constantly saying "women" instead of "woman"... which is damn confusing, and makes me wonder if other people are there), that I just couldn't go on. I need for narrative to have a smooth flow. Reading this gave me a massive headache.

DNF

[MeLani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the plot was good, I thought the main character Jen was rather two dimensional. She was shallow with no depth of emotions or intellect.
I read the kindle version which contains many spelling, grammatical, and format errors. This detracted from the book in my case.

[Judy Tichenor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad

A quick read, somewhat predictable, but well written. I enjoyed the flow of it. Not a lot of background information on the characters which was refreshing. That kept the storyline moving rather than getting the reader bored.

[Kelley]

I read 5% and couldn't stand the run-on sentences and shabby writing.