A slow burn with the excellent back drop of the alps.

The characters are well developed and, whilst I didn’t like all of them I found I cared about them in the context of the story.

Book is well written.

This is an easy read, pretty short, with a really good storyline, and it’s pretty clear that there will be a follow up book.

The scene setting here is crucial, and the author has done this really well, I felt like I was in the mountains.

An excellent holiday book...especially if you are skiing!

My thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the advance copy

I really enjoyed this, it was a fun escapist read and will be perfect for long lockdown winter nights when the wind is howling and the snow is falling. I liked the hint at the end of a possible sequel...

It took some time for me to really get into this story. I disliked the majority of the characters initially but I'm so glad I pushed through. Ended up being reading in two sittings (only because I had to go to sleep for work!) It really gripped me with its red herrings and breadcrumbs. I don't work out several of the twists! Brilliant who dunnit type book with plenty to keep you guessing

What to say about this amazing book without giving anything away. Centred round a ski resort chalet - twice, 22 years apart. In 1998 Will and Adam are skiing with their girlfriends and the brothers go out at a stupid time with 2 instructors but because of the weather and circumstances only one of them comes back.

22 years later a happenchance brings the surviving brother back to the resort to identify the lately found body of the other one. From there the story gets twisty and exciting.

Loved it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I read a free advance review copy of the book. This review is voluntary, honest and my own opinion.

So many coincidences I couldn't quite believe it by the end. Most of the characters were detestable and not even in a way I was compelled to read them. In other books I really enjoy flashbacks and revisiting scenes of crimes and this book did that concept justice but the actual story wasn't there to hold it up.

For a short book it felt like I made no progress quickly as I was not interested in how it was going to end. The end also left a lot of loose ends with some of the characters never being heard about even though at times they had been pivotal or the central focus.

Ok this was an ok book but I did guess a lot of the plot but nevertheless it was an enjoyable thriller with some nice twists and turns #NetGalley#TheChalet

I read this book in a day because I was that hooked and really wanted to unravel all the complicated twists and turns. I wasn’t disappointed. This is a debut novel from Catherine Cooper and everything about it from the title to the cover to the contents of the book is spot on.

The chill of the French Alps creeps through the pages as we alternate between the tragic events of 1998 and the current day. Catherine clearly plays on our assumptions of ‘who is who’ throughout this as well and that really adds to the twists and plot turns.

I wasn’t particularly endeared to any of the characters but I think that’s what made this book work for me. I disliked a good handful of them and that’s testament to Catherine’s character construction and portrayal.

Overall this is a brilliant read especially with the darker evenings upon us – a great mystery/thriller to lose yourself in for a few hours.

This really wasn't very good. Peopled by unlikeable cardboard characters and full of cliches, with very confusing split timelines and narrative voices but nevertheless very easy to see what was going to happen.
Does the auther really think Hugo could succeed in business with his avoidance of meetings ? Or the chalet owner really succeed in the super-luxe chalet business with his behaviour and voiced opinions of his super-rich clients ?
She clearly knows something about skiing, but not about how France regulates guides or instructors or indeed that they are two very different things. And the idea that either would take skiers they have not evaluated down an off piste run in bad conditions is just laughable.

Had me totally gripped from the first chapter. The setting, characters and storyline were well written and even though it was being narrated by several characters it added to the suspense, without being confusing.
Loved this and look forward to reading more by Catherine Cooper.
Thank you netgalley.

Welcome to a skiing holiday with a twist! A story of revenge for an historic death on the slopes which takes a turn when the frozen body is found following a blizzard. The perfect holiday becomes a nightmare as we are embroiled in the gradual revelation of what actually happened all this years ago.
Keeps the reader guessing right to the end!

As with many thrillers at the moment this book is set over two time frames - 1998 when two brothers and their partners take a skiing holiday and 2018 when a larger group has the same idea. The weather is a huge player in this story causing the brothers to make a fatal error of judgment back in the day and exposing long buried secrets in the later time frame. Was it the brothers' competitive spirit which caused the accident or were their instructors negligent in allowing them to attempt the run they did that day? Someone knows more than they're letting on - but who? And do they know what actually happened or are they making some dangerous assumptions?
The atmosphere is tense and fraught with suspicion in the later setting, with hidden friendships threatening to become public knowledge as the group is locked down during an intense snowstorm.
None of the characters is particularly likeable and some are not who they first appear to be but this just adds to the intrigue as the story unfolds. The reader is privy to some insights between the different camps but even with this extra information the plot twists still took me by surprise and I was left shocked by events on several occasions.
A great holiday read - although if you're tucked up in a ski chalet in the Alps at the time maybe wait and take it with you to the beach instead!

When I started this book a little bit sceptical about it, due to the main subject being about skiing. I dont understand anything about it, but I needn't of worried.

This story was cleverly written which played out well for the twists towards the end.

I did find that the end got a bit complicated and the summing up and what actually happened was revealed very quickly like it was rushed. Which was a shame just due to the fact that the rest of the book was cleverly built up for it all to come out.

I always tend to enjoy books which use the storytelling device of going back in the past to give us hints about the current plot. This novel does it well, introduction the story slightly over 20 years ago and then leading us to this year, same location (we assume) but different set of characters.
We alternate viewpoints between our current set, trying to figure out what is going on with the relationships here and how they tie into our other plot, while flashing back to the 1998 plot of two brothers being lost on the mountain and their ski instructors panicking trying to find them.
At one point I thought I had it figured out (which I don't enjoy not even half way through) but I quickly realised I hadn't a clue and I had been lulled into that assumption by the author!
Overall quite enjoyable, keep me wondering until close to the end.

**4/5 Stars**

As the leaves change (well, at least it does here in the Midwestern United States) and the weather gets colder, there’s nothing better than reading a mystery novel with a cup of hot cocoa by your side. Catherine Cooper’s debut novel The Chalet is the perfect fall read. Set in a posh ski resort in the French alps, this book will make you feel ready for winter even if you hate snow.

The book flips back and forth between two timelines. The first timeline is set in 1998, where college friends go on a skiing trip in the middle of a blizzard (yes, always a bad idea). This trip ends in disaster (shocking!), with one college student going missing up on the mountain, never to be found again.

Was foul play involved, or just really bad luck on the part of not so experienced skiers and irresponsible, selfish ski guides?

The second timeline is set 20 years after this fateful ski trip. The second timeline involves several couples stuck in a ski resort amid another bad winter storm. The contemporary timeline involves people who are somehow connected to the 1998 incident.

How they are connected is a mystery that readers must untangle.

Most of the characters in this book are not the most likable. There are unethical businessmen, cheating partners, and deceitful friends. This means everyone is suspected of something, although what that something is does not become clear until the latter half of the novel.

This book was a strong first novel for Cooper. The setting really sold the book for me, perhaps because I am tired of being stuck at home amid COVID! A blizzard in the French alps somehow sounds appealing after 7 months of being at home. I will definitely read another book from Cooper if it is a mystery!

Thank you to the author, Catherine Cooper, the publisher, HarperCollins, and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of The Chalet.

Catherine Cooper was unknown to me before reading ‘The Chalet,‘ and what a pleasant surprise it turned out to be. Ms Cooper’s knowledge and experience of the holiday industry is readily apparent in this novel set in a French ski resort, but the subtle plot devices that help this book to stand out are the clever and unforced use of two time periods separated by a lengthy interval; the sensitive use of a range of voices, as the various characters provide their perspective on events - both current and in the earlier time period; and an especially clever use of developing language when one character grows from early childhood to adulthood. To say much more would really involve more of a plot spoiler than I am comfortable with; suffice to say that a death on the slopes some 22 tears prior to the current action provides both the mystery and the hook that fastens the various strands of this clever novel together. It’s likely to be a quick read, partly down to its length, but just as much because most readers will be eager to reach the denouement and see if their suspicions over key characters are well-founded.
Strongly recommended.

This mystery/thriller follows a group of people staying in a luxury ski chalet in the French Alps. When a body is found on the slopes, links are made to a disappearance 20 years earlier and events are set in motion leading to a dramatic conclusion.

The author has chosen a terrific setting for this story. If there’s a killer on the loose, the last place I would want to find myself is stranded in a secluded mountain village in the middle of a blizzard!  However, saying that, the chalet where they are stranded does appear to be wonderfully luxurious. I’m imagining stunning views across the mountain range, fur throws, wood-burners and champagne on tap - it does all sound rather wonderful!

Despite the gorgeous setting, the characters themselves are not particularly likeable. From the secretive Ria and her dull husband Hugo, to the meek Cass and her crass husband Simon, no one seems to be having a good time. None of the narrators struck me as being particularly reliable, however the author does take the time to focus on the development of certain characters and whilst I may not have liked them, I did find the characters backstories to be particularly interesting.

The story has a great flow to it. Told in first person narration whilst switching between several vantage points, it also includes a dual timeline with the inclusion of flashbacks to some 20 years earlier. The story is well-plotted with a compelling backstory and the structure encourages the reader to become fully immersed in the story whilst the layers are gradually peeled back. There are a few decent twists in the plot, one of which I did not foresee - I love it when I get caught off guard by a good plot twist! - along with a couple of red-herrings thrown in for a bit of misdirection.

The Chalet is the first novel from Catherine Cooper and, in my opinion, it’s a solid debut. It’s tense and absorbing, a real page turner that kept me gripped until the very last page. I would be happy to recommend The Chalet to anyone who enjoys a fast paced and well written mystery/psychological thriller. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for the author’s next book, which I believe is due to be published sometime in 2021.

The Chalet is a wonderful wintry novel set at the foot of the ski slopes in the French alps. The plotline jumps between two time periods following different sets of people in each storyline. In 1998 two brothers came to the Alps with their girlfriends Louise and Nell and they went skiing in very bad weather. There was an accident and only one of them made it from the mountain.

In the present two couples are spending a week at La Madière (Ria and Hugo who invited Simon and Cass with their little baby and the nanny in the hope of reigning in Simon as a new investor for Hugo's travel agency) and Millie and Cameron (the 'cabin girl' who cooks and cleans and the owner of the luxurious chalet). Someone among this (not always very lovely) bunch of people is putting on a show and it becomes clear that there are some invisible ties to the past and someone has to pay for what this person believes is not an accident but murder.

The Chalet intrigued me from the word go! I was looking for someone with a hidden agenda and at least one of them seemed to fit the bill a little too perfectly but could it be that easy? It took me a long time to make up my mind but in the end I settled on a suspect, even though my conclusion didn't even sound very logical to my own ears, there was just this thing that didn't add up, but in the end I was still right on the money! It is only with the big reveal that everything falls in place though and it finally makes so more sense. I loved how the background story of the past bleeds so well into the present happenings and I didn't even mind that I had a hunch who was masquerading in The Chalet because I was so engrossed in untangling the secrets in the lives of all these people. I did feel Ria and Louise were the most developed and deep of the whole cast and I liked to read about these women most of all. It felt to me that the bad guy was in this case actually a bad woman so I didn't mind that the men's contributions to the story were smaller, I was interested most of all in the women anyway. Revenge is a dish best served cold and The Chalet hits the spot. 

The Chalet is a great debut with interesting characters and a decent revenge plot, and it didn't disappoint at all. Mystifying, addictive and surprising!

The main action takes place at a ski resort in the French Alps, where secrets from the past, thought to be buried in the snow, come back to haunt those who were involved in a fatal accident that took place in 1998. Twenty years later, a group of four acquaintances gather to schmooze, enjoy fine dining and a bit of skiing, if possible.

Hugo seeks to impress and create profitable business connections with the rather arrogant Simon, who’s accompanied by his wife, Cass, a shadowy background figure who is predominantly preoccupied with their young baby. He also wants to forge business opportunities with Cam, the high-end chalet lodge owner but a pretty unpleasant person to win over.

Hugo’s wife, Ria, feels out of place and out of her depth even though she loves the luxurious aspects of their accommodation. She’s harbouring secrets from her husband and tries her hardest to minimise contact with the others, in case she gets found out.

Cameron and Andy, the two ski guides at the time of the accident, try to downplay their part in delaying the rescue operation, and hope the deceased’s brother, Andy, returning now to identify his brother’s recently discovered body, won’t recognise them.

They come across as an unlikeable, unsympathetic cast of characters, which doesn’t make for such an enjoyable read. Minnie, the Chalet Girl initially seems sweet as pie. Too sweet, in fact, to be true, and too obliging and deferential to be believable. She has history as well.

On the plus side, there’s a gripping enough plot and an intriguing storyline, which helps, as the action swings back and forth between 1998 and 2020. There’s also an abrupt interval story, which jarred a bit before it began to make sense and link up with the rest. It’s a well written novel with a good, suspenseful build up and chilling atmosphere. A creditable debut but not an outstanding one as the ending felt predictable. Grateful thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the ARC.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher HarperCollins UK for the ARC.
This is just such an excellent debut novel, well-written with good dialogue, good character depth and loads of atmosphere, I was totally engrossed from start to finish.
Set in the French Alps and told between two timelines - 22 years apart. In 1998 two brothers, Will and Adam are skiing in atrocious weather with guides Cam and Andy. Cam despises clients and cannot stand Adam trying to compete with him. During a run the guides lose sight of the brothers - only one, Adam, was rescued from the mountain.
Now, 2020, Hugo Redbush, the boss of a travel company who is desperate for investment and to expand his portfolio into the luxury ski lodge market, together with his wife Ria, an events manager, are hosting a potential investor, Simon, and his wife Cass (with baby Inigo and Nanny) in a luxurious ski lodge in the same resort.. Cameron owns the lodge, along with others; Matt is the company rep. and Millie the chalet girl.
Soon relationships become strained as Hugo desperately tries to impress Simon, Ria hates skiing and prefers to drink too much and Simon has little interaction with mouse-like Cass. Only Millie keeps everything running smoothly, catering to their every whim.
Then the weather starts closing in along with the claustrophobic atmosphere in the chalet. A storm, a small avalanche, and Will's body is discovered.
Gradually, from different points of view between the timelines, underlying tensions, connections and secrets are revealed, especially when the chalet has to accommodate Adam who has returned to identify his brother.

There are lots of little twists and mis-directions as it's really cleverly written and keeps the reader guessing.

Thoroughly recommended.