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Debbie Howells
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The Beauty of the End Kindle Edition

by Debbie Howells (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 445 ratings
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A haunting and heartbreaking psychological thriller from the international bestselling author of The Stepdaughter, “a terrific new talent” (Peter James, New York Times–bestselling author).
 
Now living an aimless life in an inherited cottage in the English countryside, ex-lawyer Noah Calaway is haunted by the memory of the beguiling young woman who left him at the altar sixteen years earlier. Then one day he receives a troubling phone call. April, the woman he once loved, lies in a coma, the victim of an apparent overdose—and the lead suspect in a brutal murder. Deep in his bones, Noah believes that April is innocent. Then again, he also believed they would spend the rest of their lives together.
 
While Noah searches for evidence that will clear April’s name, a teenager named Ella begins to sift through the secrets of her own painful family history. The same age as April was when Noah first met her, Ella harbors a revelation that could be the key to solving the murder. As the two stories converge, there are shocking consequences when at last, the truth emerges.
 
Or so everyone believes . . .
 
Set in a borderland where the past casts its shadow on the present, with a time-shifting narrative that will mesmerize and surprise, The Beauty of the End is both a masterpiece of suspense and a powerful rumination on lost love.
 
“A combination of lyrical writing and smart mystery. It’s a winner.” —Sandra Block, author of What Happened That Night
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  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Kensington Books
  5. Publication date
    July 26, 2016
  6. File size
    1533 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Debbie Howells is the author of "The Bones of You," her debut thriller which sold internationally for six-figures in several countries. While in the past she has been a flying instructor, the owner of a flower shop, and a student of psychology, she currently writes full-time. Debbie lives in West Sussex with her family, please visit her online at DebbieHowells.com.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B017G7HD2M
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Kensington Books (July 26, 2016)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 26, 2016
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1533 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 445 ratings

About the author

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Debbie Howells

Debbie Howells

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Debbie's first book was the psychological thriller, The Bones of You (2015), a Sunday Times bestseller and picked for the Richard and Judy book club. Others have followed, including the #1 Ebook bestseller, The Vow (2020).

More recently, Debbie has returned to writing women's fiction novels. Published by Boldwood Books, the first was The Life You Left Behind, followed by The Girl I Used To Be and The Shape Of Your Heart. Boldwood have also republished her self-published novels: It All Started With You, The Impossible Search For The Perfect Man and Time To Take A Chance.

Her most recent, The Last Days Of You And Me, is out now.

After working as cabin crew, a flying instructor, and a wedding florist, Debbie now writes full time in the peacefulness of the countryside where she lives with her partner and Bean the rescued cat.

Follow her on Instagram @_debbiehowells, on Facebook @debbiehowellswriter or on Twitter @debbie__howells.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
445 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Deborah M. Bickford
5.0 out of 5 stars Great transaction
Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2023
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Was a great transaction and would definitely buy again
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Pamela Garner
4.0 out of 5 stars I enjoyed this fast read very much
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2016
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I enjoyed this fast read very much. It contained many surprises and well developed characters. I look forward to this author's next book!
One person found this helpful
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Jane F
5.0 out of 5 stars My new favorite!
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2017
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Howell's storytelling is wondering. I love touch of the fantastic in her works. Keep them coming, please. Great characters and plots that keep you guessing.😊
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Bill Kupersmith
3.0 out of 5 stars Narrator Noah is a bit damp
Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2016
There are things that seem to work better in some literary genres than in others, & revisiting a past relationship that didn’t work out seems to be one of them. Great in romantic fictions such as Jane Austen’s Persuasion or Jojo Moyes’s The Last Letter from Your Lover. But in crime fiction, I’ve been disappointed: Peter Swanson’s The Girl with a Clock for a Heart, Mark Edwards’ Because She Loves Me, & David Bell’s Somebody I Used to Know, all tanked. Perhaps it’s that the bereft lover has to play such an unappealing role, passively waiting for the beloved’s return steadfastly but without hope. (Granted, Captain Wentworth was anything but passive facing a French - or American - frigate captain, but as a wooer of Anne he hangs back till the very end.)

In The Beauty of the End Debbie Howells could give the narrator Noah Callaway a personal soundtrack: ‘Have You Heard about the Lonesome Loser?’ His parents (& the author) graced him with an awfully wet name for a hero (even he jokes bitterly about it) & it fits him - one of those unfortunates who go through life with his own little raincloud over his head. (His surname is also redolent of ‘callow’.) He allows himself to be repeatedly jerked around by April, the the object of his obsession, by Will, his BestFrenemy, & by Detective Sergeant Ryder (@ one point the author forgets his rank & promotes him to Detective Inspector tho’ he subsequently reverts). Noah even allows himself to be bullied by his landlady @ the BnB, even tho’ he is supposed to be both a lawyer & a moderately successful crime-fiction writer. (We are told that he abandoned practice @ the criminal defence bar stricken by remorse when a client he successfully defended proceeded to reoffend. Surely even the most junior defence barrister - not to mention detective story writer - knows that 9/10 of the defendants actually did it - the reason for defence is to make the Crown prove it.) You would think a trained barrister, not to mention crime fiction writer, would know how to stand up to an overbearing cop, not to mention a landlady.

Not only did April’s giving Noah the el dumpo nearly @ the altar break his heart; it also ruined the storybook wedding he was planning: he was ‘imagining a country house wedding with April in a beautiful dress & all our friends crowded around us. “We should check out some venues,” [he] told her. “Places get booked up.”’ Had I not requested this book from NetGalley, it would have hit the DNF pile here. The groom makes the wedding plans? Most us guys’ notion of wedding planning is going online @ Expedia to book two tickets to Vegas!

As the story unfolds the improbabilities multiply. April has apparently ODed & is in the ICU & Noah believes that one of the doctors is sneaking in & altering her medications to kill her - this doctor supposedly being a distinguished paediatric surgeon & having the nurses so in awe of him that they don’t question anything he does, even tho’ he is not April’s attending physician or qualified to be assigned to such a unit. There is no chance @ all of anything like that happening in any real ICU, where the nursing staff closely supervise & administer all medications - that’s why it’s an ICU. Not only do the nurses constantly monitor the pt’s medications & condition, but they review them daily as a team. There’s no way a consultant in another speciality - such as paediatric surgery - could simply walk in & start administering something other than what the pt’s proper doctor ordered.

We are also supposed to believe that April practised as a grief therapist for bereaved mothers of newborns, tho’ we are not told how she acquired her qualifications, but after so many other unlikelihoods, why complain? Finally Noah uncovers the very much expected villain and the villain’s very much improbable plot. Oh, & there’s also another occasional narrator who talks in italics & we finally find out what she’s doing in the story. At the end, Noah finds a new role: it’s not as a wedding planner.

In future I’ll not request advanced review copies of NetGalley except when I’ve already read & liked books by that author. But tho’ I am grateful to NetGalley & to Kensington Books for this ARC, I thought the only thing beautiful about the end of this book was actually reaching the end.
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Kathy in NM
4.0 out of 5 stars A riveting mystery that moves at a steady pace to a somewhat shocking and unexpected conclusion (4.5 stars)
Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2016
With an intriguing premise and an interesting spin on the unreliable narrator plot device, The Beauty of the End by Debbie Howells is a riveting mystery that moves at a steady pace to a somewhat shocking and unexpected conclusion.

Noah Calaway is a part-time solicitor and author who lives a solitary life in the countryside. However, a phone call about his ex-fiancée April Moon pulls him out his self-imposed exile when he decides to look into the circumstances surrounding her apparent suicide attempt. Even more surprising than the supposed overdose is the crime April is suspected of committing-the murder of her stepfather Bryan Norton. Although he has not seen her since she inexplicably ended their engagement years earlier, Noah is convinced April is not capable of murder and he has serious doubts she tried to kill herself. As he pulls back the layers of this enigmatic and complex woman whom he has worshipped from the moment he first saw her, Noah is forced to revisit old memories and revise his perception of long ago events. But will this new insight and information about the past lead Noah to the truth about what is happening in the present?

Noah’s infatuation with April began as a teen and despite their complicated history, he still views her as perfect and completely flawless. In the past, he easily excused her faults and he turned a blind eye to her less than appealing traits. Their paths crossed many times over the years and although April broke his heart more than once, Noah never hesitated to give her a second chance. But as he begins to investigate the murder of her stepfather and her overdose, he gradually realizes that he willingly ignored, consciously overlooked and simply blocked out anything that contradicted his vision of her “perfection”.

Noah was guilty of this willful ignorance of facts with his childhood friend, Dr. Will Farrington, as well. He caught on much quicker to Will’s manipulation and arrogance much sooner, but unfortunately not before Will interfered with his relationship with April. Noah has not had any contact with either Will or April in years so he is surprised when Will calls to tell him about the situation with April. Never forgetting Will’s betrayal, Noah still remains a little naive as he initially takes everything Will tells him at face value. It is not until he scratches below the surface of April’s life that he begins to realize what Will might be capable of but Noah still cannot figure out where he fits into the current situation. By the time Noah eventually pieces together all of the clues will it be too late to save himself from his old friend’s lies and manipulations?

In addition to Noah’s first person narration of past and present events, there are occasional passages from a teenager’s therapy sessions. Ella is the daughter of wealthy parents whose lives are often so busy they do not have time for their child. Forced to see a therapist by her mother, Ella tries to keep her sessions impersonal as she dances around the real reason her relationship with her parents is so strained. Seemingly unrelated to Noah’s drama, the two storylines finally converge as the novel nears its explosive finale.

The Beauty of the End is an intricately plotted mystery that will leave readers reeling as Noah uncovers a sinister plot as he tries to prove April’s innocence. Atmospheric and full of chilling secrets, lies and manipulations, this latest release by Debbie Howells is a must read for anyone who enjoy a well-written, suspense-laden psychological mystery.

I received a complimentary copy for review.
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rise hatten
5.0 out of 5 stars Very entertaining read. I passed the name on to ...
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2016
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Very entertaining read. I passed the name on to friends. Will look for other books by her
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Sheila D. St John
5.0 out of 5 stars She is great!!
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2017
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Another winner by Howell. Keeps you wanting more. She is great!!!
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Top reviews from other countries

Lynda Davies
5.0 out of 5 stars very good read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 30, 2016
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Very good read, written on same line as The Bones Of You, and was gripping right to the end.
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Bristol Book Blogger 📚📖📓
4.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 1, 2016
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I didn't find this title as pacy as Debbie's debut, but it was just as beautifully descriptive and very well plotted. I think because I didn't empathise that well with our lead, I didn't find the reason behind Norton's death as shocking as I could have done. I found most of the characters a little annoying and detective Ryder was not particularly strong either. I also would have liked a little more motive reasoning behind Norton's actions which would have given a bit of substance to the killers decision to commit murder. I felt a little distanced from the story and the characters if I'm honest. But I had to read on to find out the ending, which fit nicely.
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Sue UK
5.0 out of 5 stars A great story with no fairy tale ending.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 19, 2016
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After a terrible start, April's life was not going to get any better after she killed her son. Anyone else would have taken him to hospital. It was cruel the way she treated Noah, the man who only truly loved her. Noah wasted his life dreaming of a woman who was never worthy of him, a woman with more flaws than good points.
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Won’t disappoint
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 28, 2023
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Jolly good buy
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Suze Sparkles
5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn’t put it down
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 25, 2018
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Stunning and thought provoking read - love this author- more please
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