A holiday out of town to a remote barn for three couples. The three wives are brought together through their husbands and are quite pensive about this holiday, adding to that they arrive to a threatening letter telling them one of their husbands will be dead by the time the note is read.

The atmosphere of the remote barn and the inclement weather make this a great read.

The Long Weekend - Gilly Macmillan

I thoroughly enjoyed To Tell You The Truth and The Nanny so was looking forwards to this one.

Three couples are off to spend a long weekend at a remote converted barn rental. The three wives - Jayne, Ruth and Emily are heading up on the Friday with the husbands set to join them the next day. On their arrival the women find a chilling note telling them that one of the husbands will be dead by the time they read it.

There are two main strands, the three woman at the remote barn and the other strand follows an as yet unidentified character who has an as yet identified dead body in the car boot.

A promising premise and start, personally I don't really like having as yet unidentified characters, especially when they are a key player, and when, as in this case In is extended through most of the book and various twists, misdirections and the build up of tension rely upon this character's identity. I find it makes it hard to get into the story and works against the reading experience.

I enjoyed the barn scene, cut off from the outside world by no phone signal, bad weather and a harsh landscape but found the unidentifiable character strand muddled and quite confusing.

The characterisation is good around the three woman as well as the farmer and his wife who are renting out the barn, we don't get to know much about the husbands until later on. The plot ties together well eventually, but I found myself quite uninvolved with some of the characters.

Sorry to say this wasn't really one for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK

Former army staff Jayne, doctor Ruth and newly married Emily know each other through their husbands and are not really friends, so a long weekend in remote holiday rental was always going to be problematic. When the three women check in, ahead of their husbands, however, it becomes clear quite how problematic, as a menacing anonymous message awaits them. When a storm draws in and mobile phone reception is interrupted, things get more menacing still. Speeded up by rapidly changing points of views, this is a rollercoaster of a novel that can, at times, be hard to follow. The ultimate revelations make the pursuit of the plot worthwhile, however, and I recommend this book to fans of contemporary thrillers set in isolated locations. Thank you to NetGalley and to the publishers for my free ARC that enabled me to produce this honest review.

It was supposed to be a weekend of fun with good friends. But, first Edie dropped out. She didn’t want to join the annual tradition, the first one to take place since her husband Rob died. Then Paul, Mark and Toby all gave different reasons for travelling to join them the next day. That left just Emily, Jayne and Ruth to arrive at the rural converted barn where they were all supposed to stay, and the only thing they all had in common was that they’d married members of the same group of school friends.

The weekend quickly descends into disaster as the women arrive to find a letter warning that one of their husbands is dead. With a storm coming in and the farm track to the barn impassable in the mud they’re stuck up there, no phone signal, no way to get help, and no idea if the letter is true or just a bad joke.

The action takes place across different locations. The barn and back home where we see what the writer of the letter is up to. We also switch rapidly between the view points of each of the characters. This is sometimes disconcerting as it can happen mid-scene but as all the rest of the character viewpoints are told in third person it’s easy to follow who we’re looking at now.

Overall this is an easy to read thriller. I sped through it fairly quickly, and although there are a number of different threads to the story, it does pull together well.

I’m afraid that I didn’t really enjoy this.
Because it is written in chunks of someone talking and saying what they are thing doing etc, I found I was loosing track of who was doing the talking.
It was a good concept for a book but just not one for me.

Rating: 2.0/5

Three women find themselves in a secluded retreat in deepest Northumberland, with their respective husbands due to be joining them the following morning. But when they receive an ominous message saying, "By the time you've read this, I'll have killed one of your husbands" the mood amongst the group of friends changes very quickly.

The premise sounded appealing - not completely original - but the kind of basis that has formed a solid foundation for many enjoyable mysteries I have read over the years. However, unfortunately, I found this latest offering from Gilly Macmillan heavy going. I didn't really mind that the setting with the isolated location and the group of women with troubled, secretive histories has all been done before - but I have seen it handled so much better. This is clumsy, more than a touch melodramatic, unbelievable and silly.

Shortcomings of the storyline aside, I also found the reading experience hampered by the fact that the book is not broken down into chapters. This seemed like a particularly strange decision when you consider that the narrative is provided from the viewpoints of several different characters. But, not only are there no chapter intervals, but there is also no signposting to make clear whose point of view you are seeing at any given time. This was regularly frustrating and meant that I found myself having to check back or re-read sections to make sure which protagonist was providing the account at that time. I am all in favour of writers challenging a reader's expectations and experimenting with literary devices, but in this instance it really didn't work well.

Ultimately, I was just glad to get to the end, so that I could put this back on the shelf and move onto something else. Sadly, another case of a synopsis that simply flatters to deceive.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

I loved the blurb for this book - a great hook. The story didn’t pan out quite how I expected and I found the first quarter a bit slow. However, things soon ramped up and the tension and intrigue were really well sustained throughout..

There were some good twists and turns with the odd red herring thrown in. Some aspects stretched credibility a little - mainly how the antagonist hid their true selves for so long - and little explanation as to why they changed.

I think the number of characters also made it hard for the author to develop them all, such that some remained a little one dimensional by the end of the book.

That said, overall I really enjoyed the story which generally moved at a decent pace and the plotting was skilfully done.

Well I usually love Gillian’s books but for some reason I found this not her usual flair . I not sure on the pace or where it was going and u find out who it is fairly early like the middle and ruins suspense
I did enjoy the way that all the characters get para due to the letter and the villain and their obsession is creepy ,just somehow there wasn’t enough for me and wasn’t that intrigued and sorta rushed it so cd move on as my curiosity was killed due to an early reveal .
Will read another one of hers though as her past ones have been good

This a murder story with a difference as the possible protagonists have known each other for years! I enjoyed it but found it confusing at time as there were no chapters in my ebook and I lost track of the narrative at times as the changes happened in the next sentence. I’m not sure if this was to do with my download.
There is some suspense over who the murderer is/ could be, and confusion within the group of friends as the truths revealed.
A good read. Recommended.

This is not as good as her other books and very hard to follow couldn’t understand where I was so definitely not for me I couldn’t finish it.

Hope her future books are better thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an early copy.

Bit of a slow burner for me, and never quite got me hooked. Readable. I think some will love it. Just expected a little bit more.

I thought this was a good, gripping novel filled with unexpected twists and turns and for a long time I had no idea who was the perpetrator my guesses always seemed to come back wrong… which is a massive plus in my opinion I do love a crime novel where you have no idea who it could be. Though I really didn’t like any of the characters, I found the whole mystery intriguing and compelling.

A chilling book with an astounding outcome! A couple weekend in the middle of nowhere turns into an unexpected game of cat and mouse, but which is which? A really clever and brilliantly written thriller which is really different and original. I gasped often and read it in a couple of nights, I cannot recommend it enough!

A fab story with some great twists but yet so much emotion and heartbreak packed in. Characters are fab and you question everyone...

Three women arrive at an isolated retreat in the Northumbria moors, for a weekend getaway. Their husbands are due to join them, but then they find a note saying that one of their husbands has been murdered. Their phones won't work, there is no internet, and they are stranded. They try to find out what has happened and who is responsible, fracturing their friendships along the way. What will happen? A thrilling tale with twists and turns. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of the book in return for my honest feedback.

The threat of one friend to a group of three women sharing a long weekend looms. Are there husband's safe? A thrilling read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book.

A slow burner of a story. Three women plan a weekend away with their husbands on a remote farm. For various reasons the husbands were not due to arrive until the following day. A stormy night and chaos ensures. A twisty story that was not difficult to unravel. The story was told from multiple points of view which I enjoyed, however, I didn't feel that any of the husbands really came alive, and at times the narrative dragged a little. The husbands seemed almost interchangeable and I had problems remembering who belonged to who.

I think this is the first book I've read by Gilly Macmillan but it won't be the last.
The story is based on a group of friends from school & their families. The Long Weekend is an annual weekend away for the group but unfortunately this one doesn't quite turn out as planned.
The writing touches on a number of different subjects including addiction and mental health.
It took a bit of time for me to get into, however midway through the pace picked up and there's quite a few twists along the way.

From a slow-burning start this ramps up the tension to a fast-paced, edge of your seat page turner. The twists come thick and fast - some are more credible than others, and the big twist underpinning the whole plot is a little too easy to figure out. But that said this is a great thriller, with characters who aren't necessarily likeable but great plotting and the build up of intrigue still leaves you feeling invested in what happens to them.

Omg omg omg!!! I just loved this! It might actually be one of my top 10 I've read this year. It is so creepy and you just spend the whole book trying to figure out what's happened but if you're anything like me, you'll still be shocked at that final twist. Everything from the plot the premis, the characters, the pace, the overall sinister vibe....... its all just so so perfectly done. If only there could be more books that lived up to thses high standards then id be a very happy bookwork. This one definitely stands head a shoulder above the average mystery thriller.