Ding dong bell, the witch is in the well.

Red witch, blue witch, black or white, one for love, one for fright.

One will dance all night long. One will see you dead and gone.

Thirty years ago, the Dixon family – the parents and four children – vanished without trace. The disappearance has haunted some of the inhabitants of the tiny village of Shereford ever since, but now the past is coming back with a vengeance.

The Dixon house has been bought to be renovated by Theo and Raquel, a couple with their own secrets. But when a stray dog – bearing a striking resemblance to the Dixon family dog who disappeared the day after the family – uncovers a skeleton in a long-hidden well, Amanda Grady, the newly appointed police chief, is determined to finally put to rest the ghosts that her father failed to bury… and the sins of the town that stretch far back into the past…

Ten years ago, I was sent a random review copy of Lisa’s Find Her, which was the – checks – eighth book in her D D Warren series, which introduced survivor Flora Dane and really enjoyed it. Not convinced I’d have found the author otherwise, as I don’t see that much promotion for her books on this side of the Atlantic, but it was a really effective thriller with strong leads and clever twists. Since then. I’ve tried to keep up with her books – I missed the first two Frankie Elkin books – but each one that I read, I was really impressed.

This one is a standalone, with two leads – Raquel, the new homeowner with secrets even her husband doesn’t know and Mandy, the chief of police trying to finish her father’s work. There’s a third narration strand that interjects at time too – not entirely convinced I quite got what exactly was going on with that point – but it’s very effective and creepy nonetheless.

It’s a really well-plotted thriller, with the reveals and complications being perfectly paced, some of which are genuinely shocking. The characters are strong – interesting that one character is chosen to be completely clear of secrets, something that I found very refreshing in this sort of book – and there’s some exception use of various dogs in the plot (none of which even get scratched, just in case you were worried).

At the end of the day, the whodunnit part of the reveal is a tad unsurprising, although given the work Gardner does to tie the plot strands together in a coherent way, I’m not sure how surprising you could make that reveal, but with everything else going on, it really didn’t matter. This is a gripping read, just what I needed after a slightly lacklustre previous read.

You’ll Be Sorry is out today in the UK in hardback and ebook. Many thanks for the review e-copy.