4 Star
They were six university students from Oxford--friends and sometimes more than friends--spending an idyllic week together in a French farmhouse. It was supposed to be the perfect summer getaway--until they met Severine, the girl next door.
For Kate Channing, Severine was an unwelcome presence, her inscrutable beauty undermining the close-knit group's loyalties amid the already simmering tensions. And after a huge altercation on the last night of the holiday, Kate knew nothing would ever be the same. There are some things you can't forgive, and there are some people you can't forget, like Severine, who was never seen again.
Now, a decade later, the case is reopened when Severine's body is found in the well behind the farmhouse. Questioned along with her friends, Kate stands to lose everything she's worked so hard to achieve as suspicion mounts around her. Desperate to resolve her own shifting memories and fearful she will be forever bound to the woman whose presence still haunts her, Kate finds herself buried under layers of deception with no one to set her free.
Kathryn - 4 Star
A slowly paced mind-messing thriller this novel kept me engrossed for the subtle details placed sporadically throughout the novel. There was no big reveal and no moment of climax but I still found myself determined to seek the truth.
The idyllic scene that these friends found themselves in in France a decade prior was obviously filled with secrets and sexual activity. Swapping of partners, slow burning interest and sometimes even love threw chaos into this group and a decade later the truth starts to emerge when an accidental death of a local girl becomes murder and not an accidental death.
The friends are forced into a scenario they had all hoped to avoid and are now looking at each other with suspicion. The characters were all very interesting and melded well into a group though I was also impressed with the author's ability to give them each a solid foundation as well.
As I mentioned before though this novel moves slowly, very slowly, and there were times when I may even have been a bit bored. In actual fact though, this may have made the novel more fascinating as it gave time to give each person a daily existence and developed character for each. Kate was the main character so she obviously got more air time but I didn't find the others lacking. Each additional scene and dropped snippet of information was valuable.
A great first novel and an author I have ear marked- waiting for her next book!
Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group for our review copy. All opinions are our own.
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