Hold Your Breath

An Utterly Gripping Crime Thriller

By: Helen Phifer

Narrated by: Alison Campbell

The biting wind whips around the crystal-clear waters of the lake. The girl sits with her eyes open, as if transfixed by the waves on the shoreline, but she has taken her last breath…

When Detective Morgan Brookes is called to Lake Thirlmere one frosty night, she’s devastated to find the body of a young woman positioned in front of the glistening reservoir. She has ligature marks on her limbs, glue residue on her eyes, and her beautiful face is as cold as ice. Knowing only a dangerous serial killer would arrange a scene so carefully, Morgan is in a race against time to stop them before more innocent lives are lost.

The victim is 20-year-old Jasmine Armer, and her mother is distraught to hear that her beautiful daughter is gone. And Morgan is shocked when she learns that Jasmine’s father recently died by suicide at the same picturesque spot. The killer must have known the family. Then, Morgan receives a terrifying package at the station of an intricate death mask. She immediately recognises Jasmine’s long lashes and perfectly-plump lips.

With the killer taunting her, Morgan knows time is running out. And then Morgan gets the heart-shattering call that her friend, Emily, has been killed. Ligature marks on Emily’s arms are identical to Jasmine’s. Heartbroken, Morgan knows this isn’t the end of the killer’s twisted game, but can she track them down before they take another life?

A non-stop thrill ride from the very first chapter to the final, epic conclusion. Fans of Angela Marsons, Rachel Abbott, and Lisa Regan will be glued to the screen of this addictive rollercoaster of a story.

©2023 Helen Phifer (P)2023 Bookouture, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.

Well done!

I imagine it’s difficult to continue on creating new novels for a series like this, but Helen does it effortlessly with no trade off on quality, suspense, or performance! I love this series and look forward to the next Morgan Brooks & crew mystery! Oh and the narration was superb!

Pretty good!

Story was well written, but predictable. I felt like more predictable than the previous books. It would be a nice change up if the author would change the hero/victim between the characters. I know Morgan is the main character, but after 9 books it’s getting a little redundant. I found myself rolling my eyes at the end, like “here we go again.” I will continue to listen to the series for one more book because I do enjoy the character development. Maybe someone else will be in peril in book 10 and Morgan can rush to save them for a change... 🤷🏼‍♀️

Book 9

I love the way she writes! It goes right along with the others! If you loved the other books you will love this one too!

If you get frustrated with stupid people, skip this

Ok, I thought my review of the previous book in the series was maybe too harsh, so I gave it another shot. But no, I should’ve trusted my instinct.

The only thing worse than the absolute lack of detective skills of both Ben and Morgan is their complete inability to communicate like functioning adults who are actually trying to do a job.

The storyline of everyone being “obsessed” with Morgan is getting incredibly old and would only make sense if the “obsession” was about wondering how on earth this woman is still employed as a detective.

If you pay half an ounce of attention, you’ll know who the killer is with nearly 4 hours left in the book, at which point it just becomes painful to listen to everyone fumble their way around what is no more difficult than a grade school jigsaw puzzle.

I’m sorry, but this is an absolute miss for me, and I genuinely cannot stomach the cringy banter, coupled with total disregard for logic or procedure (or even common sense) anymore.

PS: You’ll be pissed off in the very first chapter when the entire team misses the MOST OBVIOUS clue, basically within the first ten minutes. Ouch.

Nothing much

Becoming too predictable! Understand how Morgan can be an officer and a airhead at the same time

Not Phifer’s Best.

Love the series, but this was clearly my least favorite out of all of the books. It seemed very thrown together and not well thought out at all. While her books usually keep me guessing I had figured this one out halfway through. Overall, she is a great writer, but did not put forth her best work in this book.

Same book different title

Morgan would have been kicked off a real police force by now if this was real life. You can listen to the first and last chapters to get the gist of the serial killer story. The only reason I've stayed with these books is the characters. The back stories are so much better than the non stop serial killers always after Morgan.