Published by HarperCollins UK on January 24, 2019
Format: Audiobook, eARC
Source: Library, Net Galley
Pages: 406
Amazon UK
Goodreads
Everyone's invited...everyone's a suspect...
For fans of Ruth Ware and Tana French, a shivery, atmospheric, page-turning novel of psychological suspense in the tradition of Agatha Christie, in which a group of old college friends are snowed in at a hunting lodge . . . and murder and mayhem ensue.
All of them are friends. One of them is a killer.
During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.
They arrive on December 30th, just before a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead.
The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps.
Now one of them is dead . . . and another of them did it.
Keep your friends close, the old adage goes. But just how close is too close?
A group of friends visit a remote area with no access to the outside world when celebrating New Year’s Eve. What could possibly go wrong? Well, a lot really. I don’t think I really warmed or cared about the characters completely. But to be honest, I don’t think you have to. The story is so riveting that anything could happen to any of them and you may revel in it!
I did love the isolation and whodunnit feel of this book. Full disclosure I guessed fairly on who had been killed but not why or who by. And I guessed another little side storyline of the stalker. However, it added to the thrill of just enjoying the story and not playing detective because some of the time I couldn’t figure how it would link together.
I loved watching the story unravel and the friendship group at the same time, with the different perspectives too, with alternating points of view, adding that extra element of suspicion and excitement to the story. I just had to know what happened. Because not only did we have different points of view, we had different timelines.
Each and every element of the above just drove me further into the book. I was dying to know what was going on in the future but at the same time, I was itching to get back to the build-up of it all. What the heck happened?!!!!
I had a small gripe with one of the couples that brought their baby on the holiday. No problem with that, but it’s when the baby was mentioned as being left on its own in their cabin I wasn’t impressed with it. Just asking for trouble. Ignoring that, I was hooked. Hooked from the get-go by these “friends”. Learning their history and their present and their future.
And who doesn’t love a humdinger of a twist? There are a couple here!!
I would definitely read another book by Foley. She knows how to set a scene, amp up isolation and stick the knife in when she needs to. Even though we have quite a few characters, I never once felt lost with who was who. They were all distinctive with their little traits. The audiobook added to this, with the different voices. The characters were brought to life and it was like we were sitting there having a conversation about the group. I just loved that aspect.
Until the next time xxx
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nickimags @ Secret Library Book Blog says
Fab review lovely! I read and listened to this one as well and really enjoyed it too! Hope you well and that you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year xx
Zoé says
Thanks lovely! Hope you had a lovely Christmas!! xx
nickimags @ Secret Library Book Blog says
I did hope you did too! xx