“Five old friends.
One glamping weekend.
A storm that will change everything.
Max and Annie Kingsley have left the London rat race to set up a glamping site in the wilds of Cornwall. They invite old university friends – TV star Dominic, doctor and new mum Kira, and free-spirited Jim and Suze – and their children for a trial weekend but the reunion quickly veers off-course.
First, there’s The Incident around the campfire on the first night. The following afternoon, a storm quickly develops off the rugged North Coast. When one of their group goes missing, all hell breaks loose. And as the winds batter the bell-tents, emotions run high and tension mounts for all the characters.
Who is lying in hospital, who has gone missing and who is the body on the beach below the cliffs . . .?
Gripping, cleverly structured and brimming with secrets and lies, this is a masterclass in narrative tension and a chilling exploration of the ways in which aspiration and anxiety collide. It will keep you guessing until the last page. “

I was offered an ARC of this book – out in January 2024 – by NetGalley, and though the blurb sounded interesting. I did, however, wonder if I was going to be bored by yet another ‘old friends reunion’ book – but I need not have feared at all!

Firstly I want to say how cleverly constructed this book is, and massive kudos to the author and editor for what must have been a painstaking task to ensure that everything entwined perfectly. I am a massive knob at pointing out plot inconsistencies – and despite this being crazily complicated, I didn’t find any! Before the book starts there is a list of characters which was super helpful to work out which children belonged to which parents etc.

The prologue is a very atmospheric description of a girl standing on a cliff top before jumping off – so you definitely have a idea of where the story is heading.

The book is then told from multiple perspectives – often by way of recounting events to the police. There are various timelines running – from the Friday evening when all of the old friends, and in some cases new partners and children, unite in Cornwall, to the Saturday afternoon when the storm happens, to the Sunday evening when the search is continuing as some of the group are at hospital and finally the Monday morning. I was concerned it would be really complicated and confusing – but it wasn’t at all, but kept the momentum so high as you were desperate for things to be further explained.

Max and Annie and their adopted son Kip have relocated from London to the coast of Cornwall, near St Ives (which I’ve been to recently and was described perfectly by the author) and before they open their glamping site to the public have invited their uni friends and all of their kids to try it out. Dominic is a TV star – and the ‘baddie’ on a TV talent show (in my head he was a hybrid of Simon Cowell and Craig Revel-Horwood and physically looked like Dom Joly!) His two teenagers from his first marriage were with him – along with his second wife Tanya and their 6 year old. Then there were Jim and Suze and their 3 kids, and Kira and her new boyfriend Fred and their baby daughter. So quite a mix of characters and ages, with various connections and histories – and secrets.

All of this then unravels throughout the book – jumping backwards and forwards, giving you little clues as to what is going to happen next, but not enough to work the whole plot out in advance – it’s just brilliant!

Obviously I don’t want to give away any spoilers – but I doubt you would be able to predict it all.

This is by far my favourite of the books I’ve read recently – but you’ll have to wait until January 2024 when it comes out – sorry!

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.