A disappointing read, the characters weren't likeable so I didn't really care too much what happened to them. The writing felt quite immature and simple, not what I expected from the author.

Luca Veste has written some very enjoyable books, notably his Murphy and Rossi series.

The Six is his second standalone book in recent years; it’s an enjoyable enough book however I did not feel it was up to his usual standard. Heavily steeped in nostalgia, it features six friends attending a 90s-revival festival, the after events of which cause their lives to spiral out of control.

In my opinion, the plot was somewhat predictable in places and I occasionally found myself skim reading paragraphs as I just wanted to get the book finished. It saddened me that I did not like this book as much as Veste’s previous novels, however that is only my opinion.

I’d suggest giving it a read to see what you think.

This serial killer thriller was a slow-burn, but picked up speed towards the end and certainly kept me guessing. The main character, Matt, wasn’t the most likeable of characters although I could empathise with him. I liked how the author explored the different ways in which each of the six were affected by what happened. The dynamics of the group were great and I thoroughly enjoyed the 90's nostalgia. I went back and forth quite a few times with my theories on how the story would pan out but was still surprised by the ending!

A few things that niggled me; the characters made silly decisions which I always find annoying in thrillers, and the first person POV was a little wearing. I would have liked another perspective. If I’m being super picky, I will also say that the descriptions were overwritten. A lot of unnecessary words that slowed the pace. It was a good read but lacked the urgency I usually like in thrillers.

<i>Thanks to the publisher for the free review copy<i>

<b>actual rating 3.5 stars<b>

6 friends go away for the weekend, accidentally kill someone and decide to cover it up! But what happens after? .

The first half of the book sets the scene, introduces the characters, tells the start of the story. This mostly fell a little flat for me. The main character Matt is a bit boring and a bit of a sap really! I found it hard to warm to him, well any of them really! Although they have individual personality traits I felt like I didn't really get to know any of them throughout the book!

The second half was much better. The action picks up and secrets start coming out. For the last 100 pages I was gripped! The twist is good, I didn't guess it before hand but I'm no Agatha Christie even on a good day so it always needs to be quite obvious for me anyway! The final few pages I thought were really good! .
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What I really liked about this book was how the story, told by main character Matt, really showed how living with the guilt of covering up a murder mentally impacts you and affects your life. This isn't something I've come across often in books as usually the POV is the victim or the detective rather than the (accidental) murderer!

So a bit of a mixed bag here. I'd say if you don't read thrillers often and don't like to be too scared then you'll enjoy this one. If you're an avid thriller fan like myself and like them dark and dirty then I'd maybe give this one a miss.

It gets 3.5 stars for me. I was leaning for 3 until the action packed, explosive ending!

I loved Luca Veste’s The Bone Keeper which started with an urban myth – a bogeyman made large when four children go wandering in of one of Liverpool’s woodlands chanting the Bone Keeper song as they go – and then only three came back.
So I was raring to pick up The Six, to see where he was going to take his penchant for grisly tales next.
Our narrator is Matt, a man who is loyal to his friends and in love with his girlfriend, Alexandra. They are preparing to settle down and have a family. But they decide to have one last fling – a nostalgia trip with their closest friends – to a nineties themed musical festival.
Matt’s an ordinary bloke. He can’t help it if he thinks the best song of all time is Britney’s Hit Me One More Time. Matt’s narration takes us from the present back into the past where we learn about how the bonds of his friendships were formed and why they are so strong.
So three blokes and three girls go camping in a clearing at the edge of the woods, adjacent to the music festival field.
Everything about this opener feels right. Authentic characters, lots of vivid detail about the 90’s and cultural references that make you feel as if you were living in the era. It’s a kind of Stand By Me for the 90’s generation.
As you’ll see from the blurb, something terrible happens out in those creepy woods. Something that will mark these six for the rest of their lives. An event that is so horrific it changes them and alters their course forever. A killing is linked to an urban legend, ‘The Candle Man’; he is a flickering figure allegedly responsible for the deaths of a number of missing people across the country. These deaths are apparently marked by the leaving of a lit red candle inside a storm lantern.
The events of that night leave an indelible blot on the six friends who drift apart; relationships are sundered and contact severed. Matt and Alexandra split up; the others simply don’t renew contact. Then a year later, five of them meet up again, at the funeral of the sixth and this serves as the catalyst for a new series of terrible events.
It’s the brilliant contrast between a group of close happy friendships – people you feel you could have known and got on with – to the pale shadows of themselves they become after that music festival. The air that was full of fabulous 90’s songs and culture is now tainted with images of blood and destruction.
Matt becomes almost completely agoraphobic. He is an insomniac, full of anxiety and constantly worried about the existence of the mythical figure who is ‘The Candle Man’. Does he really exist and if so, is it one person, or two? The internet provides all sorts of theories that link the killings, but the police are not linking the missing people at all.
As Matt becomes increasingly obsessed, his friends start to look at him askance. Is Matt losing it, or is he onto something?
Luca Veste has plotted this book beautifully. His story paths lead us on all sorts of crooked walks, so that you feel like you’re constantly walking on crazy paving - none of which lead to the truth until the shocking, startling denouement.
Verdict: Creepy, atmospheric, full of pace and best of all, wonderfully surprising, this character driven narrative is the perfect read for a cold winter’s day. The Six is a serial killer thriller with a strong heart and an unsettling psyche.

To be honest, I was a little under-whelmed by Luca Veste’s previous stand-along novel, “The Bone Keeper,” but I thought I would give him another try.

Six friends go a music festival and, when one of the friends is attacked in the middle of the night, it results in murder. The friends, Matt, Alexandra, Chris, Nicole, Stuart and Michelle, believe they have stumbled on a serial killer and so, against some of their better judgements, they decide to cover up the murder. This is not really the most original plot, but it could have worked if you cared about the characters, but I was not drawn to any of them. Matt, the narrator, is something of an ‘everyman,’ and you see many of the events through his eyes, as the stress of the situation begins to break up the group of friends.

I found the writing a little repetitive and felt that the author tended to labour a point. A reasonable, psychological thriller, but I have to say that I don’t think this author is for me. I received a copy of this novel from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

I have read other books by Luca Veste but they were from a series, so when I saw this as a stand-alone novel I knew I had to read it, especially after reading the blurb.

This book didn’t fail to deliver, at times scary and creepy. The story just hooks you from the beginning until the ending that just comes from nowhere stunning you. I thought I had it sorted but I was just so wrong.

If you like a good serial killer read then grab this one, it will not disappoint. The pages are turned fast as you are engrossed, with the lights on.

Six friends, made up of three couples, now in their 30’s, but have known each other since they were at school, decide to go to a 3 day 90’s music festival, to reminisce the days when they were all young, and when they first met. All is good, after the festival they all bed down for the last night. But in the middle of the night they realise someone is missing, but where could he have gone, hearing screaming, they search the nearby woods looking for him. But what they witness will change them all forever. Everyone is agreed that they will never talk about it again, despite the impact it has on their lives, as they struggle with the consequences. They have a secret, but what is it?

I would like to thank #netgalley and #SimonandSchuster for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest, fair and unbiased review.

A year later, two of the couples have separated, they had not really got over what happened that night, the other couple are the only ones who appear to have moved on. But then it becomes clear someone is targeting the six, is it someone out for revenge, how many will survive?

The story is told from the point of view of Matt, one of the six, through his voice you pick up on the guilt felt, he cannot sleep, he just wants to be able to save his friends from this nightmare and be able to sleep. Learning how they all met, things they did as they grew, university accomplishments, everything up until the night that changed it all. The strain it put on their friendships.

This is such a well written novel, with plenty of twists to keep you engaged and hooked. Full of suspense a brilliant book I highly recommend.

The Six has a fairly unique premise, six friends head to a music festival where a series of unexpected events lead them all into sharing a dark secret. Said secret soon comes back to haunt them. I really liked the setup, it felt different to a classic serial killer novel, and that kept it interesting.

The book was certainly a little slow to get started, and the initial dialogue was a little stilted, but once the story kicked in, I was captivated. Lots of little twists and turns to keep things interesting. A decent thriller.

This was a gripping book which followed a set of friends who had an unpleasant and rather unfortunate experience at a music festival. That’s putting it mildly. What happened that night will overshadow their lives for the next year, until the action ramps up and they become even more embroiled in a troubling situation.
This kept me on the edge of my seat, I felt quite panicked and I could feel the fear and tension dripping off the page. There were elegant twists and turns and the story moved at a decent pace.

The only drawback for me was that I felt the characters were slightly underdrawn, I didn’t have that much feeling or sympathy for them, despite being of a similar age. The first few chapters were a bit repetitive. They were teenagers in the 90’s and listened to music, we certainly got that. We could see that that would be important later on, and is down to Veste’s excellent writing which meant it was only slowly drawn out as to why. The flashbacks, similarly, were obviously leading somewhere but you couldn’t really guess where until near the end of the book.
Luca Veste is an accomplished crime fiction writer, and continues to go from strength to strength.

The Six is a solid murder mystery with an excellent, twisty ride throughout. Six friends go on a trip to a music festival that ends with one of the friends being buried. A year later, another of the friends commits suicide. The others begin begin to wonder if it wasn't a suicide after all, but a murder as a result of what happened a year earlier. Does someone else know what happened in the woods that night? Highly recommend to readers of mysteries who are looking for something original with a good twist.

If you are looking for a cracking Autumn psychological thriller then The Six by Luca Veste is the book for you. I love a good serial killer thriller and although this is not a classic it is still highly enjoyable.

What I really loved about this book is the examination of the friendships in this group. The author takes us back and forth from the present in their adulthood to the past when they were kids and how these friendships were born. He does a great job of fleshing out the motivations for each of these characters littering red herrings along the way. If you loved #TheChalkMan then this book has a similar vibe, the past revealing truths in the present. The book is different to most thrillers in that there is no police investigation here, only via the perspective of one of the group Matt are mysteries surrounding the group slowly revealed.

The book is definitely of two halves, the first few chapters are full of optimism and hope for a future of these friendships and then the second half is a descent into distrust, depression, and loneliness as the lives of these friends evaporate under the weight of a secret. In some respects the serial killer element is secondary to the disintegration of this friendship. You may guess the ending however it is still a fun read.

Murder, secrets and lies a ⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of five

Despite having had Luca Veste's previous book, The Bone Collector, stashed away somewhere for ages, this is actually my first time reading one of his books. I mean, who could possibly resist that incredibly intriguing book description, right?

Six friends decide to spend a weekend camping out at a music festival. This could be the last time they can do something like this together before responsibilities get in the way and they are determined to make the most of this weekend away. But things do not exactly go as planned. Someone dies. The six friends vow never to talk to anyone about what happened that weekend and yet, it seems someone knows what they did and the time has come for the six to pay the price.

The Six ended up being somewhat of a story in two parts for me. The actual events of that weekend are super tense and sometimes slightly creepy in that whole "I'm never setting foot in a forest or going camping ever again" kind of way. This first half grabbed my attention from the get-go. It was utterly compelling and a true page-turner. However, the second half slowed down quite a bit and became just a tad predictable. When I reach that point where I'm thinking "just wrap it up already", let's just say that's never a good sign.

Nevertheless, as a whole, The Six is gripping and a well-written suspenseful crime thriller with extremely fun back-to-the-90's vibes, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It's clever, hugely character driven and quite unsettling at times. In the midst of a reading slump, I read this one in one afternoon and despite some of my misgivings, I think that's really saying something. I'm calling my first introduction to Luca Veste's books a success and I'll definitely be trying one of his books again some time.

The Six is a well-written psychological suspense thriller about a group of friends living in fear after an accident at a music festival. I had not read anything by this author before and was only vaguely aware of his name, but would be keen to try more of his novels.

Matt, a 30-something website designer with endearingly awful taste in music, heads off to a 90s revival Glastonbury-style concert in the countryside with his girlfriend Alexandra, and best friends Chris & Nicole, and Stuart & Michelle.
Hearing screaming in the middle of the night, they get up and leave their tent to investigate, and finds a man with a machete attacking Stuart, and in the melée that follows, the man dies.

Sure that they will be accused of murder, and believing they have stopped a serial killer known as The Candle Man, they agree to cover it up, bury the body, and never speak of it again. A year on, the death still haunts the group, Matt and Alexandra have split up, and when Stuart’s body is found dead from an apparent suicide, Matt fears that the killer’s partner is out for revenge and will not stop until they are all dead.

I really enjoyed the start of this book, as the six old friends relive their youth and joke around, then the suspense ratchets up once they make their fateful decision. The later part slowed down, as they bicker about whether to go to the police and Matt’s sanity begins to crumble. I really wasn’t sure what was going on, as Veste throws in one red herring after another, and while I felt increasingly frustrated at Matt’s weakness and stupidity, I totally didn’t expect the reveal. Sometimes in order to fool the reader, an author will make the perpetrator so unexpected that the end of the book feels completely implausible, which is what I felt happened here. Some more explanation might’ve helped here, and a more definite ending for our hero (who is the narrator so we know he must survive.)

Overall, I’m giving this 3.5, rounded up for effective suspense and seamless writing. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc which allowed me to give an honest review, and apologies to the author for the delay in providing my review. The Six is available now.

This review will go live at the link below and on Goodreads + Amazon on 20 November:

Six friends are off to a festival: three women, three men, three couples. They have known each other for ages, some have gone from friends to lovers, and this festival is like a rite to say goodbye to their youth and welcome adulthood. They’re having a great time, until one of them is attacked at night. The others jump in and the attacker dies. The logical thing to do would be to call the police. But they don’t. Something like mass hysteria kicks in, they convince themselves and each other that they will be blamed and they decide to bury the man instead. So far so good, but then they stumble over another body in the woods, a young man, a red candle in a storm lantern next to him. They have to assume this is a victim of the elusive Candle Man, a serial killer whose trademark is exactly that: leaving a red candle in a storm lantern by the body, a killer whose very existence is denied by the authorities, but legend has it he is responsible for many more bodies than those actually found. And if this is the Candle Man’s victim, does that mean they’ve just killed the killer?

Wowsers! That was one creepy as hell start! The tension simmers down a little after this epic opening, and we fast-forward a year to the current events, while alternatingly going back to the 90s so get to know our characters a little better. A year after what happened in the woods, two of the three couples have fallen apart and then tragedy strikes again when one the six friends dies. Is it suicide because he couldn’t live with the secret anymore, or does someone know what they did last summer and was he punished for it? And in that case, will they be picked off one by one?

Told in the first person from the POV of one of the characters, The Six takes you on quite the rollercoaster ride! There’s an underlying tension, a constant threat simmering just below the surface, and you can’t help but wonder who will be next. I was also dying to figure out what was what! Loads of questions and zero answers propelled me through the book in search of answers. And let me tell you, the answers I got were ones I hadn’t expected in the least!

I also loved the 90s vibe emanating from the pages right from the start. I’m about the same age as the characters, so their nostalgia is my nostalgia and I felt right at home with the six.

So there you have it: I loved everything about this book! I really enjoyed The Bone Keeper last year, but with The Six, Luca Veste really knocks it out of the park! If you’re in the mood for a creepy, suspenseful thriller, look no more and pick up The Six!

Many thanks to Simon and Schuster UK and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

Big fan of the Murphy & Rossi series plus the Bonekeeper so looked forward to this one and didn't disappoint. Great example of how to amp up the tension in a relatively small cast of characters. A seemingly harmless trip to a festival for a group of mates takes a pretty dark twist, and try as they might to leave what happened behind, it follows the back to their lives and the group slowly starts to unravel. A proper page turner that'll keep you hooked all the way to the bitter end.

This story begins with a group of friends going to a music festival. If you are a 90’s music fan, you will love all of the references. While they are at the festival, something happens that will change their lives forever.

We then jump to a year later and one of them is dead. The others start to fear they might be next. Is it related to what happened that night? The characters can’t agree, and their relationships continue to become more and more strained.

I thought the characters were interesting, especially within the group dynamic and how that has changed dramatically in the year between the major events.

A great character driven thriller.

This was a fantastic book to read. Well written and intriguing story to draw you into the book. It was thrilling and intense whilst building tension to work out the killer. You are told when the book is set i.e a year later, 1992,,,,,,,

Six friends, Chris, Nicola, Stuart, Michelle, Matt and Alexandra. They had known each other since university, if not before. They went to a music festival one weekend, they camped and were really enjoying it, until Saturday night. Stuart and Michelle had something of an on/off relationship over the years. Things had been really good over that weekend but then they started arguing and Michelle refused to be anywhere near Stuart for the rest of the night. Chris bunked in with Stuart, Nicola in with Michelle. They heard shouting in the night, saw Stuart about to be attacked, then they had a body.

We buried him and then made a pact between the six of us to never tell. Matt had lost virtually all contact with Stuart so was surprised to hear from his sister to say he had died and about his funeral. He spoke to Chris and he confirmed it. It turned out he had committed suicide but why would he do that? That wasn’t Stuart. They all attended the funeral but could not face going to the wake. The group took themselves off and chatted about what had gone on the year before, whether they had done the right thing or not. It was coming up to the first year anniversary.

Matt cannot get over the fact that Stuart committed suicide and read as many articles as he could about it. He spoke to Chris as he had stayed in contact with him. Alex mentioned some online forum’s about ‘the candle man’ so Matt went online and did some research. He even managed to meet someone who seemed to have met up with Stuart who had asked similar questions as he did. Could this guy have been real? A year later it seems that our pact has been broken, the killing has started again. What price will we have to pay? Will he come after all of us?

I just loved reading this book, it was written really well. The detail was exceptional and I found it hard to put the book down, I was gripped. This is the first Luca Veste book I have read but it seems I have some catching up to do.

I have read all of Luca Veste's books and although I don't know Liverpool, I live in an area not too far away that he also describes in detail which is interesting! I did enjoy this book about 6 friends and events that they are trying to cover up from their past. Suspension of reality is required but a good twisty read. I prefer his series of detective novels but I would still recommend this.

I loved this book, it was gripping with a real twist. It was about a group of friends who murdered a man in self defence. It shows that their decisions of what to do after the incident can have catastrophic events. It also shows how friendships can be divided when pacts are made, and what can happen if somebody wants out of the pact. A great thrilling story and worth a read. Review also shares on Facebook group Books and Booze 🥂

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster UK for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A group of 6 college friends, now in their 30’s, reunite to attend a music festival. In the woods, in the middle of the night, one of the friends is attacked and they kill the attacker. All agree to never speak of the incident again. Fast forward one year and one of the friends has died in an apparent suicide, which reunited the friends who are now concerned that someone knows what happened in the woods.

I had real trouble getting into this book and staying with it. When I put it down I was not anxious to get back to it. I didn’t love any of the characters and had a hard time caring about what happened to them. I also thought the book was pretty slow until maybe 70%. The ending was not one I had figured out but I thought the explanation for the killings was not that interesting. It was competently written, it just wasn’t a good match for my tastes.