Do Not Disturb: A Novel

Written by Claire Douglas

Narrated by Hannah Daniel

From the award-winning author of The Sisters, Local Girl Missing and Last Seen Alive, comes a taut psychological thriller in which family secrets and hidden pasts build to a violent climax in a guesthouse among the idyllic Welsh mountains. 

Following a traumatic event in London, Kirsty Woodhouse packs up her family and moves back to her native Wales. There she sets up her new home with her husband and two young daughters, and goes into business with her difficult mother managing a guesthouse in the Brecon Beacons. 

But when the guesthouse is ready to be occupied, Kirsty encounters the last person she ever expected to see: her estranged cousin Selena. It has been seventeen years since they last talked—when Selena tore everything apart between them.

Why has she chosen now to walk back into Kirsty's life? Is Selena running from something too? Or is there an even darker reason for her visit?

As Kirsty becomes increasingly concerned for the safety of her daughters, her dream home begins to feel like her worst nightmare.

Kirsty knows that once you invite trouble into your home, it can be murder getting rid of it . . .

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Nov 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9780063001534

Claire Douglas

Claire Douglas is the Sunday Times number one bestselling author of eight stand alone novels: The Sisters, Local Girl Missing, Last Seen Alive, Do Not Disturb, Then She Vanishes, and Just Like The Other Girls, The Couple at No. 9, and The Girls Who Disappeared. Her books have sold over a million copies in the UK and have been published worldwide. The Couple At No 9 was an Amazon number-one bestseller, a number three Sunday Times bestseller, and most recently hit number one on Germany's Der Spiegel paperback bestsellers chart. The Girls Who Disappeared was a Richard and Judy book club pick for Autumn 2022 and was an instant number-one Sunday Times bestseller. Her books have sold over a million copies in the UK and have been published worldwide.

Reviews for Do Not Disturb

[meboles · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nice twisty complex plot with good characterizations and a consistent narrative voice. A bit too much yammering on about relationships, for my taste.

[juju2cat · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Secrets. Why do we feel the need to have so many? This family has a lot of them and boy does it create the perfect storm for a murder. Take your pick of possible suspects, there are many. This was a fun book to read (although at the expense of someone dying!). Loved the locate and storyline.

[miss.mesmerized · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

After her husband’s breakdown, Kirsty and her family move from London to Hywelphilly, a small village in Wales where they buy a guesthouse. After weeks of refurbishing, they look forward to welcoming the first guests, among them to Kirsty’s dislike her cousin Selena whom she hasn’t seen for more than sixteen years. They had been like sisters, but Selena’s constant lying lead to the inevitable break. Kirsty’s two daughters Evie and Amelia struggle with the move at first, but when Selena and her daughter Ruby arrive, the house awakes. The cousins manage to sort out their quarrels; yet, Kirsty cannot get rid of the feeling that Selena still does not tell her the complete truth. When Selena’s former boyfriend shows up to rent a room, the atmosphere gets tense and with the arrival of Kirsty’s brother and his wife, trouble is in the air. And then, the worst fears come true: Selena gets murdered.I really liked the novel because Claire Douglas has well dosed the revelation of secrets the characters keep - and there are many of them. Everybody has something to hide, buried down in his or her mind, even the nice ones are not what they seem at the first glance. There is something mysterious about the house, the whispers of the village inhabitants add to this and many of the incidents are hard to make sense of.The novel is told from Kirsty’s perspective, quite normally, you are biased in what she tells as you only get her limited point of view. On the other hand, this adds to the suspense and you can easily share her feeling of unease. To me, Kirsty is authentic in her action and in the way she tries to protect her family. Since it is not clear where the threat comes from, you suspiciously eye all the other characters simply to learn in the end that you were completely wrong. I absolutely liked that especially since the whole mystery is solved convincingly. “Do not disturb” triggers the biggest fear: having evil in your own home, the place where you want to feel safe and secure and where you assume that also your children are protected. Many twists and turns and unexpected revelations keep suspense high throughout the novel, a mystery thriller just as it should be.