About the book:

“Her thoughts are all she has. They are hers and hers alone.”

Esther Nesbitt seems like an old woman, yet she is only 45 years old. A mere shadow of her former self, she has diminished since her husband and children were killed in a car accident. Once a schoolteacher, now she is semi-reclusive, and suffers from blackouts.

Her only friend is a young neighbour named Amy who works as a nurse and comes to visit Esther on her way to work.

Sometimes Esther’s sister Charlotte visits but she is not welcome. Esther hates Charlotte because of Charlotte’s relationship with her late husband.

Esther has a direct view of the living room window of #19, across the street. She sees some suspect behaviour by the woman who lives there. She views the woman as a monster who  is clearly manipulative and mistreats her children. Esther begins to takes notes of dates and times so that she can report the unstable woman to the authorities.  She becomes obsessed with the activity of the woman at number 19…

Through her obsession with her neighbour, Esther gradually recovers memories of her own, but makes her wonder who, if anyone, she can trust.

The Woman at Number 19 – Attractive, married, and the mother to two children. She seems to have everything – yet – she suspects that her husband is having an affair. She resents her children, thinking that her marriage was much stronger before they came along. As a result, she abuses them – both physically and emotionally.

Always craving attention, especially that of her husband, she deliberately makes her young son very ill.

“Once they became parents, any time they had for each other was stripped away until they became virtual strangers. So she guesses it’s only right and fair that the kids pay a hefty price for it.”

After reading “Her Dark Retreat” last winter, I was very eager to read more by the author J.A. Baker.  When invited by Bloodhound Books to take part in the blog tour for her latest novel, I jumped at the opportunity. WOW! What a corker this one turned out to be!

“The Woman at Number 19” was in every sense a true ‘page-turner’. Though I did suspect what the outcome might be, that didn’t stop me from feverishly turning the pages in order to either confirm or discount my suspicions.

The epitome of  the ‘psychological thriller’ which explores the darkness of the mentally unstable mind, giving reader’s an insight into the thought processes of the psychotic and clinically depressed. I’m confident that even the most hardened reader will find empathy for these characters.

With themes of child abuse, mental illness, forgiveness, and healing, this novel is highly recommended by me. I am now eager to read all of J.A. Baker’s backlist titles. I urge all domestic thriller lovers to add this book to their TBRs. Now!

Published by Bloodhound Books ASIN B07V5M2VYV

Born in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, Judith A. Baker developed a deep appreciation of literature and reading from a young age after being introduced to it by her parents. Weekly visits to the library were the norm and after being handed a collection of Edgar Allen Poe stories by her father, her love for the darker side of fiction slowly grew. She is an avid reader of all books but is drawn in particular, to psychological thrillers.
After many rejections (too many to mention!) her debut novel, Undercurrent, was published by Bloodhound Books in March 2017 and made it into the top 100 Amazon chart in both the UK and Canada. J.A. Baker is the author of five stand-alone thrillers, the latest of which The Uninvited was published in late 2018. She is currently working on her sixth novel, The Cleansing, due to be published April 2019.
J. A. Baker has four grown up children and lives in a village on the outskirts of Darlington with her husband Richard, and Theo, their barking mad dog.

J.A. Baker’s website: http://www.jabakerauthor.co.uk/

Follow J.A. Baker on Twitter and/or on Facebook.