Review & Giveaway: 'To Catch a Creeper' by Ellie Campbell (2014)

Cathy is riding high in her brand-new job at a (surprisingly bitchy) top London advertising agency working with best friend Rosa. But when Rosa’s pregnancy goes amiss and enemies sabotage her new career, she finds herself leading a chaotic double life of lies and deception, hiding a shameful secret from all, especially husband Declan who appears in the throes of a nervous breakdown. 
Meanwhile she’s agreed to unmask the notorious Crouch End Creeper, a burglar terrorizing their neighbourhood. Little does she know that her meddling, assisted by fellow mothers (the Wednesday Once Weeklies) and the Neighbourhood Watch, will lead their dangerous opponent to murder. And that it's not only the tall elegant transvestite who is placing herself at risk...
In March this year I reviewed my first Ellie Campbell novel, ‘Looking for La La’ (click here to read the review). Ellie Campbell is actually a pseudonym for Pam and Lorraine, two sisters who decided to start writing novels together. I was lucky enough to be approached by Pam and Lorraine to also review one of their other novels, ‘To Catch a Creeper’, which was released in the Spring. The book is the sequel to ‘Looking for La La’, and I was curious to revisit the characters and see what would happen to them this time around!
Cathy has turned her life around from being a stay-at-home mother and loving wife to having her own job within the world of advertising. Luckily, Cathy’s best friend Rosa is there to help her learn the ropes of the business. However, when Rosa has a pregnancy scare she is forced to stay at home until the labour and Cathy is on her own to figure things out. Yet, things don’t go exactly according to Cathy’s plan... Meanwhile she also has other things keeping her occupied, such as the mystery of the Crouch End Creeper, a burglar who has been robbing homes in Cathy’s neighbourhood. Together with her friends and the Neighbourhood Watch team Cathy wants to catch this burglar, but with everything going on in her life, it doesn’t take long before she starts losing grip on all the things she’s trying to juggle at the same time...
‘To Catch a Creeper’ is the sequel to ‘Looking for La La’ and even though I enjoyed the first part of the series, I definitely liked this book better. The reader is invited back into Cathy’s hectic life, but this time things are different because Cathy has a job. I really enjoyed this change in the story, also because it shows a development in Cathy’s character; I felt myself warm to her much more than I did while reading ‘Looking for La La.’ I loved revisiting the already familiar cast of secondary characters and the fun new characters that were added, such as Cathy’s neighbour Mrs. Baker and the Neighbourhood Watch team. There are definitely quite a few characters, but most of them do add something special to the story which consists of two main plotlines. I enjoyed both of them, and wouldn’t have minded if the book had perhaps been a bit longer so there ‘d been more space to go into detail and focus on specific elements of the story a bit more (such as Cathy and Rosa’s friendship).
This book can be read as a stand-alone, but I would personally recommend to read the first part as well, just so you are familiar with Cathy and the other characters and what happened to them before this particular story takes place. The book is quite quick-paced and a lot of things happen; your mind can’t drift off for even a second, and it kept me turning the pages which resulted in me finishing the book within a relatively short amount of time. ‘To Catch a Creeper’ is a light-hearted, quick, enjoyable read that will have you guessing with every page you turn; another fun Ellie Campbell novel! Rating:

8,0/10

  For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads
Thanks to the author for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Want your own copy of 'To Catch a Creeper'?
The Kindle version of Ellie Campbell's 'To Catch a Creeper' can be downloaded from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com for just 99 cents/pence at the moment, so be sure to grab your chance to get a copy of the book!
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