The Binding Song: A chilling thriller with a killer ending

The Binding Song has been on my radar for some time now. It was published by Mulholland Books in eBook and hardcover format earlier this year. The paperback is due to be launched in February 2018 so keep an eye out for that.As Autumn fades and Winter approaches it’s that time of year when I want to dive into a creepy, gothic thriller and fictitious HMP Halvergate in Norfolk provided the most perfect of settings to do that. What a beautifully atmospheric and creepy story, one where I never really felt sure I knew exactly what was going on. Even the sceptic in me believed in ghosts at one point during Harper’s haunting tale. I felt apprehensive from the very first page and discovered a delightful ominous edge to Harper’s writing which had me hooked.Dr Janet Palmer is the newly appointed forensic psychologist at the remote Norfolk-based Halvergate prison. Halvergate is nothing like the prison she worked at before in London but the promotion seemed worth upping sticks for and moving away from her partner, Arun, and their comfortable life together. Colleagues at the prison are distant and unfriendly, the prisoners are threatening and violent and Janet now feels very much alone. Janet is made aware of an alarming increase in the number of suicides on D Wing – an occurrence which started under Dr Helkin’s care, and something she is keen to call a halt to. But on starting work she discovers no one wishes to speak of her predecessor. And Janet is approaching her caseload blind as all of Helkin’s notes seem to be missing. She knows nothing about the deviant, sexual predators she faces on a daily basis and one particular prisoner both intrigues and repels her. And what of the White Visitor, a pale black-eyed woman who is said to visit certain prisoners shortly before they take their own lives. It’s down to Dr Palmer to uncover Halvergate’s secrets before more prisoners die and before the White Visitor comes to visit Janet…As the story progresses you discover more about Janet and her tragic past. The reader is given flashbacks into her teenage years and the heartache she and her family experienced. At times I wondered why Janet would want to work in the prison service but as the story progressed and I was given more of an insight into her past, it all started to make sense. Janet’s only friend in Norfolk is the prison chaplain, Steve. Their relationship was interesting if a little stilted. The friendship started to blossom only to be nipped in the bud by Janet’s frightening discoveries. Knowing these two characters were friends but also so very alone created an eerie sense of isolation which sent shivers down my spine.Would I recommend this book? I would and I’m looking forward to reading more from Elodie Harper in the future. It’s a surprisingly creepy read with a breath-taking atmospheric feel at its core. Ominous, tense and chock full of suspense.Four out of five stars.I chose to read and review a copy of The Binding Song. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

This novel blew my mind! I loved the layers of suspense and intrigue! A great read for this Halloween season as it gripped me with fear!

Overall, I liked the book. It has a slow build, but not in a boring way. It just feels like it's setting you up for something big. But, the ending felt a little rushed. I would have liked to see some of the supporting characters fleshed out a bit more. I'm not disappointed I read it, but it left me wishing there was a little more substance at the end.

Janet has her work cut out for her at HMP Halvergate. A series of suicides has rocked the prison and it doesn’t seem as if they are going to stop any time soon.Not only does she have to deal with the insidious nature of her clients crimes and their questionable characters, she also has to cope with staff members with ulterior motives. Inmates seem convinced that a ghost, a spirit or perhaps even a demon is killing fellow inmates.The real question is whether the evil spirit is real or is it just mass hysteria. Mass hysteria spreading through the prison from inmate to inmate and also to the staff. The power of suggestion is strong, especially in a somewhat solitary environment.At the same time Janet is trying to deal with the disintegration of her relationship. It seems impossible to fit two ambitious careers under one roof.I have to be honest Arun was a bit of a toad and Janet should have used some of that tough guy attitude on him. Take no mercy, instead of being a simpering weakling afraid of being alone. There are plenty more fish in the sea.What Harper does quite well is to portray the prisoners as vulnerable men, and in the same breath she reminds the reader that they are criminals and some of them are sexual deviants. The type of men who wouldn’t think twice about committing an act of brutality upon an innocent person, and yet still want the support, comfort and safety they secretly crave.Personally I do think Janet should have been more diligent about her own safety, which was put at risk quite a few times. A prison isn’t a playground for the pseudo intellectual to practice their theoretical knowledge in.The story has a gothic feel to it, which is mixed with a plain old crime scenario. The creepier element could have been drawn out more and given more depth. Harper brings the crime and the ghostly together to create a tense and often worrying read.*I received a free copy of this book courtesy of the publisher.*

Expected more then what I got. Plot sounded so good but doesn’t grip tight. Flashback and personal life descriptions kind of killing the mood.Just my opinion.

I have seen Elodie Harper many times on Anglia News in her job as a journalist but did not realise she wrote fiction until recently, when I downloaded her thriller, The Binding Song, to my Kindle. I couldn’t put it down. The main character, Janet, was complex, with a tragic past, while the characters she encountered at the shady prison, where she started a new job as prison psychologist, were unfriendly, dangerous and not to be trusted. The only likeable character in the book was the gay prison clergyman, Steven, who brought a ray of light into an otherwise dark story, although he had demons in his own past. What I loved most about this book was the familiar Norfolk setting: she takes us to St Giles, Frank’s Bar, Great Yarmouth and Winterton, all of which which she evokes expertly.

From the very beginning, there is a sense of otherworldliness about this book. Something that gets under your skin and sets the nerve endings tingling. A sinister, almost malevolent presence that inhabits the very heart and soul of the story. John Connolly is right. The book is unsettling, but in the most haunting and beautiful way.The story opens with a young man, Ryan who is on the run. Who or what he is running from is not immediately clear, but he is a man on edge with a fear of being discovered. Whilst trying to get away, he sees a woman heading off into the dense woodland of the Thetford Forest and starts to follow her. He knows, as does the reader, that there is something not quite right about the woman, and the more he follows the more the sense of foreboding grows. When he finally confronts her, he realises the mistake he has made. That the very thing which he was running from will be the last thing he sees…From there on in, the hint of something supernatural, something not quite of this world, becomes a constant theme throughout the novel. The idea of the ‘Lady of Halvergate’ or ‘the white visitor’, a woman who haunts the prison driving the convicted sex offenders to their ultimate end. There is no proof of this woman other than the dreams of the convicts, something which can easily be dismissed by the use of legal highs which seems to be rife in the prison. Certainly the powers that be wish for the talk of drugs and white ladies to end and would, it seems, do almost anything to make that happen.What they had not counted on was the new lead psychologist, Janet Palmer. She is not so easily dismissed as other members of staff, not so easily persuaded to cover up the wrong doings in the prison. Her highly tuned mind knows that there is far more to the sudden resignation of her predecessor than meets the eye. But investigating could not only cost her job, but also her life.This was a most unusual book in that I am not certain if I truly warmed to the central character of Janet, although I was absolutely invested in her finding the truth. She is a very troubled woman, her past haunting her in untold ways and her present sullied by taking the job at Halvergate. It ultimately costs her her relationship just when she needs the support the most. Thankfully she has a friend in new prison Pastor, Steven, who is also finding it hard to settle in this most unusual of environments. It seems almost as if it is them against the rest of the staff, and when faced with some hardened criminals, the last thing you want is to make an enemy of your colleagues. And yet this is exactly what Janet seems to do, her persistent nature setting her against almost everyone from the start.I really liked Steven. He was down to earth, not ready to accept the idea of a supernatural presence within the prison, the manifestation of evil, no matter – or perhaps because of – his faith. But he also had a natural instinct for when things were going wrong and was so very supportive of Janet, regardless of the madness she appeared to engage in. He is a man who is not without his own doubts and fears, most surrounding the impact of his job upon personal relationships. But, like others, he is quick to take the true measure of one of the inmates, Michael Donovan, a man who lacks any remorse for his crimes and whose ability to manipulate those around him makes him a dangerous foe.To my mind, Donovan was much like a Hannibal Lecter character. Not in that the ate his victims, although his crime was a true demonstration of the evil nature within him. More that he had an unnerving charm, so outwardly cool and controlled but with laced with the knowledge that he had the ability to snap at a moments notice. He became somewhat of a challenge to Janet, constantly hinting at his knowledge of the ‘white visitor’ and all that she stands for, and of the truth of what happened to her predecessor, Dr Helkin. You can feel the energy between them in every scene, the tension and the smug knowledge that exists within Donovan. But nobody could be prepared for the startling revelations which are yet to come, ones which will lead to a final, highly dramatic showdown between Janet and Donovan.It’s so hard to put into words how this book makes you feel. From the oppressive atmosphere of the prison which has been captured brilliantly in the prose, the constant underlying threat of violence which only occasionally bubbles to the surface, or the dank climate and depressive environment in which Janet lives, everything combines perfectly to unnerve the reader, to keep them on edge. It keeps you guessing as to how much of the story is true and how much a kind of group hallucination, one which you as reader are also being sucked into. From the passages where Janet is nearly attacked by an inmate, to those in which she allows her mind to drift back to the past, you are always left with that feeling of unease, that knowledge that something is gradually building and that nothing can stop it. Does the white visitor merely represent all of the rage, anger and guilt which exists in that most neglected of environments or is it more than that? Is she a spectre, truly terrorising the halls of Halverston, reaping a kind of revenge from which there can be no escape.

After reading the amazon Wolf Den, I tracked down some more books by Elodie Harper. I have got to say this book is not a patch on wolf den!It feels like a failed attempt to be different but the story is quite boring and disjointed.I read it to the end but it was a trial!

Dr Janet Palmer has taken on more than she bargained for in her new job as psychologist at Halvergate prison. The entire building has an atmosphere of doom, and that's before you take in to account the unexplained deaths.There is a hint of the supernatural in this book, but thankfully not too much as to be too far-fetched. This is the first book I've read by this author and I hope to read more.