It is sad to see experienced writers trying their luck with genres that have been long ago satiated with hackneyed tropes and identical plotting due to the mass publication of mediocre novels throughout the last decade. Christopher Brookmyre, one of the leading representatives of the Scottish Tartan Noir tradition and author of the enticing Jack Parlabane series, is a seasoned crime writer whose books are known to arouse both the readers' emotional and intellectual side with their strong narratives, thoroughly researched storylines, and credible characterization. In The Cliff House, Brookmyre's upcoming thriller due to be published in July 2022, the author attempts to create a blend of closed-room mystery and psychological thriller, featuring solely women characters and exploring the burden of secrets that become the main theme of the novel as their effect regarding the relationships between the protagonists is the primary narrative vehicle that thrusts the story forward. Unfortunately, the final result is a lukewarm thriller lacking even the slightest trace of suspense and strongly reminiscent of several similar works by authors who dominate the aforementioned genres such as Ruth Ware, Shari Lapena, and Lucy Foley.

It is not so much that I resent the novels written by these authors, but the truth is that it is tiresome to read mysteries, supposed to be exciting and drive the reader to a state of thrilling expectancy in order to see what's coming next, repeating the same storyline and placing their action in kindred settings, thus losing any capacity to surprise. It is essential for a decent closed-room mystery to have a strong sense of place and an inventive plotline destined to keep the reader in tenterhooks, guessing and speculating as to who is the villain and what will be his next move. Sadly, the majority of the authors who thrive in the genre exhaust their stories with twist after twist that purportedly render their novels original and unpredictable while in fact their obsession with constantly upending the narrative results in a farcical reiteration that leaves the reader cold and with a strong sense of deja vu. The pioneers of the genre were prudent enough to furnish their novels with clever plots that were not based on the element of surprise and their primary aim was to entertain rather than bewilder the readers with their ingenuity.

In The Cliff House, seven women travel to the exclusive resort of Clachan Geal, set in an isolated island in the north of Scotland, for a hen weekend though things take an unexpected turn when a brutal murder takes place in the opulent mansion that entertains them and soon after one of them gets abducted by a mysterious individual calling himself "The Reaper". Jen, Helena, Michelle, Samira, Beattie, Lauren, and Kennedy are a divergent group of women whose relationships are fraught with antagonism and bitterness due to past events that mark their personal histories. The secrets that have remained buried for several years will be forced out in the open as The Reaper informs them that one of them is not who she claims to be, thus injecting the poison of suspicion which leads to their questioning each other. In the course of one evening, the protagonists will unearth the most disturbing of past misdeeds of their peers and they will search for a way to make amends in order to save Samira who is the one that gets kidnapped. Who is the person that the Reaper indicates as an impostor? And will the women win the race against time and find the person responsible for their dire predicament?

Brookmyre tells his story through the eyes of each one of the characters and there is not a single one left out. The gradually accelerating pacing of the narration is further accentuated by the heavy use of dialogue which dominates the novel. The isolated setting remains an untapped background and its lost potential is one of the novel's cardinal sins. What could become a sinister, all-consuming backdrop is reduced to a locale to which the author devotes some sparse descriptions, failing to realize its significance for the mood and atmosphere of the text. Furthermore, the perpetual disclosure of secrets by the characters is the sole source of dramatic development, leading to a lopsided outcome and unwillingly highlighting the rest of the novel's deficiencies. The characters are also undeveloped, diminished to mere machines of confession and defined by their past transgressions rather than their actions as agents of the story in hand. We are supposed to empathize with them and excuse some of their misdemeanors by means of the author offering a great deal of exposition regarding the reasoning of their behavior. Nevertheless, I thought that the overall characterization was rather scrappy and I wasn't moved by any of the personal sub-stories.

To conclude, The Cliff House is not a book that has anything new to offer and certainly not the ideal start for the readers who are not familiar with Brookmyre's corpus. If you want to for an opinion concerning his writing skills, you should go back to the first installments of the Jack Parlabane novels. This upcoming aspiring amalgam of crime fiction's sub-genres doesn't succeed in its mission to entertain and thrill as it features all the cliched tropes that we've encountered in numerous other works by authors who have gained enormous, and frankly undeserving, reputation simply by copying the narrative form of the classical cozy mysteries of the 1920s and 1930s, and adding some splashes of modern thriller in the mix. It would be better to revisit the works by the godfathers of the genre such as Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and John Dickson Carr. I only read this book because of my admiration for Brookmyre as a crime writer, but my worst fears that sprung from reading the synopsis became a reality as I was reading this one. If you are into these kind of crime novels, you may find some redeeming qualities in The Cliff House, even though I sincerely struggled to find one. I want to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free ARC of this title in exchange of an honest review.

I tried and got to about 50% but I just couldn’t get on with this book.

Maybe I should have continued, but I honestly couldn’t relate to any of the characters, nor did any of them seem to have much in the way of redeeming character.

I’ve not read Mr Brookmyre before so possibly he’s an acquired taste but sadly not for me.

My thanks nonetheless to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Its Jen’s hen do but, not only does the idea fill her with dread, she’s also not sure about her upcoming marriage. On the guest list? The new sister in law, who Jen’s never met before. The old sister in law, who hates Jen’s guts. The tennis coach. The childhood best friend. And the superstar pop singer who dumped the childhood best friend on her ascent to stardom.

All staying on a remote island off the Scottish coast.

What could possible go wrong…?

I’ve been a fan of Chris Brookmyre’s ingeniously twisted thrillers for over 20 years, and The Cliff House lived up to all of my expectations. Cleverly plotted, brilliantly characterised and bleakly comic, to say much more about it would be to risk spoilers so I won’t. 5 stars: highly recommended.

The premise of this book is a sound one, 7 women on a remote island there to celebrate a hen weekend. It obviously goes wrong from the start. I bit slow in places and unbelievable in others. Generally a good read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book UK for the advance copy of this book.

A Wonderful read. A weekend on a private island in absolute luxury, so what can go wrong at Jen's hen party with her carefully chosen friends, seven of them, each with a secret. Although it starts slowly, it very quickly develops, it becomes past paced and thrilling.
I was expecting it to be predictable, its not, its anything but. Its up to the minute, has some humour and is up there as a great modern "who done it".
Excellent.

I enjoyed this book but some parts I found were a bit ridiculous. It did have moments where I had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen. I didn’t think the ending was very good. Overall I would say have a read but don’t expect too much.

On the face of it, there’s not much new about this story. A group of people stranded on an island while a mysterious killer threatens them, cutting off all communication to the outside world. In the hands of Brookmyre it speeds along like Agatha Christie on acid.
All the women seem rich, lucky and successful……at first. With some wildly inventive scenarios it moves at a pleasing pace, with some masterful cliffhangers as you switch from the pov of one character to another.
To say more would be to invite spoilers so I’ll just say that it’s a cracking way to spend a couple of evenings. Who among us wouldn’t get a tiny frisson of concern if an unknown person asked what Secret we were hiding……?

A great setting and a great plot filled with characters who all had something to hide! The relationships were cleverly written and complex with friend sold and new coming together to celebrate a hen weekend. It was face paced with twists along the way and a suspense that built to a conclusion I did not see coming.

Everything Chris Brookmyre turns his hand to is worth reading and this is no exception. There are plenty of' "locked room, ill-advised reunion of old friends" books around at the moment but this is a particularly good one. The backstories of the characters are revealing and their present-day fear is palpable. A neat twist, which I hadn't foreseen, made for an excellent ending.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would.
Strong characters who all have something to hide so the twist at the end was very welcome.
An easy, fast paced read, particularly suited to taking on holiday as I read this in a day and a half.

Six friends on an island for a hen weekend. What could possibly go wrong? Well, enter the author Chris Brookmyre and his talent for bringing the past and present to bear on the characters with potentially disastrous consequences...

One of his best and that's no mean feat given his strong backlist.

Another in the reuninon/locked room/ mystery thriller genre but I did feel it this one is definitely at the better end kf the scale. It does start off a bit slow with a lot of background and such but one it actually gets into the drama then its a really written and engaging book. It's sent from multiple character povs and also multiple timeliness which really does create a very realistic and 3d storyline. It also never gets messy or confusing about which characters pov is currently being explored. The twists were also really well done and not the usual predictable same old, same old. You might think this js just yet another "old friends meet up and someone dies" type but it's definitely worth a read

This is a story of friendships, secrets and lies from the past and what happens when those secrets start to emerge and cause enormous problems for everyone. From the synopsis, I thought the story would be a phycological thriller, but, I'm afraid I felt slightly let down by the pace, which for me was too slow. However, the book redeemed itself with the writing and the actual idea for the plot of the story which was actually a really good one.

Jen has hired out a remote island for her hen party with five other people, some she knows and some she doesn't know so well, the only other person with them is the personal chef that comes with the package. From the off, you could feel the tension between all of these women, which I felt could be a good start to the story but sadly I didn't connect with them or like any of them very much.

The story is told from the perspective of each woman it also goes back in time to relive the past so the reader can understand what was happening in the present. I did find this slightly confusing in places. A number of times I found myself having to go back to re-read some paragraphs to get my bearings, and at other times I felt as though I was wading through thick fog and never getting anywhere.

Although the story was a fair read, if slow-paced, I felt it lacked the excitement and anticipation I was hoping for; those nail-biting moments that make a thriller that good you just can't wait to turn the page. It didn't really pick up and get to the nitty-gritty until around 80% of the way through and by then I was more than ready for the story to conclude.

3.5 rounded up

They say that confession is good for the soul, in this case it’s a restitution, a price for absolution but for what? It’s Jens hen weekend in a luxury Cliff House located on Clachan Geal a tiny island south of Barra in the Outer Hebrides. Guests include her childhood friends as well as her future sister-in-law and a new friend of the last few months. Each of them has reasons to be uncomfortable about at least one of their companions and following a couple of dramatic incidents they are told the price of their freedom is confession. It becomes a game of survival.

First of all, it’s a bit long winded setting the situation up via the perspectives of all those on the island and so the pace is initially slow. However, it’s worth the wait as the author is almost certainly lulling you into a false sense of security! The setting is excellent and allows the author to play with several situations which elicit big confessions some of which knock you sideways as it doesn’t quite fit with your first impressions. The dynamics are excellent, starting with discomfort and building to suppressed bitterness and the tempo definitely rises.

Parts are quite chilling especially about who is controlling the narrative although I do guess correctly I also enjoy how all the secrets come leaking out as water through a sieve deepening the plot and the mystery of who the ultimate target is.

There are some good red herrings as the pace builds, some intriguing cons and counter cons as it builds to an ending it does require some disbelief suspenders though I do still enjoy the entertaining denouement!

This isn’t my favourite Chris Brockmyre but it’s still good and well worth a read.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Little Brown Book Group for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this thriller! I love finding authors that I have the instant need to read more books from! Read it in one sitting as I couldn’t put it down! Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this arc!

"They had been on the island less than five hours and already the whole thing was falling apart".

For just for a brief moment at the start of The Cliff House I thought I caught a glimpse of something recognisable as the Chris Brookmyre of old. Opening with that ominous first line, it seemed like classic Brookmyre. Ok, a hen party on a remote island is a little different from those classic thrillers but who knows whether the island mightn't turn out to be the base for a terrorist group on manouvres, planning an assault on the Scottish parliament or at least a unit planning to kidnap and hold the entirely fictional leader of the Scottish Conservatives there for ransom. If only...

But no, while there are flashes of humour and self-awareness in the characterisation, there is more than an air of Agatha Christie than Tartan terrorism to The Cliff House. Seven women in their 40s, two of whom have a longstanding grudge against each other, although an ex sister-in-law and a new one hold potential for other conflicts ahead. On a remote unpopulated island, albeit in a luxury mansion kitted out with the latest hi-tech (although with a patchy mobile reception natch), will they get on or will it turn into a murder- mystery killing spree? The fact that Jen's fiancé has been acting strangely and deleting emails to a mystery account definitely points to trouble ahead, albeit promising nothing particularly original.

Jen has just made a fortune selling her bakery business, specialising in muffins. About to be married to Zaki, she has invited a select group of friends to her hen party on the remote unpopulated Scottish island of Clachan Geal. Her old schoolfriends Michelle and Heather were formerly in a successful rock group together, but there is animosity between them now since Michelle went solo and became a major celebrity. Also there is Nicolette, who works for a major fashion house, Beattie, the sister of Jen's ex- (disappeared) husband Jason, Samira, the sister of fiancé, and Kennedy, their tennis instructor. Also there is Lauren, property speculator and owner of the house. With a mixture of flaky characters, some with a history between them, secrets, jealousy and resentment, we have a recipe for trouble.

Evidently. Which is the point of this kind of thriller. You know the drill. It's just a matter of time, but sooner rather than later there will be a murder, it's just a question of who will be first. Someone, apart from Jen (we expect) has arranged to got them all together on a remote island, and when the inevitable body turns up, they find all the communication channels have been cut. Is the first murder the only one, or is someone outside the group going to pick them off one by one? Or since they all have issues and grudges, it could someone in their group. Messages from someone called the Reaper tell them that one of the ladies is not who she appears to be and they want that person to confess and make reparation. The problem is that they ALL have secrets they don't want their friends to know about.

It's surely not too much to expect that the closed murder-mystery situation will develop in a direction similar to one of Brookmyre's best books. Although his output has been varied (in quality and genre) since the scathing satire of his Jack Parlabane books, there are flashes of brilliance in his more recent co-written 'Ambrose Parry' books and Fallen Angel, which in my estimation might be the best thing he has ever written. Unfortunately, despite playing with convention, mixing Real Housewives with Agatha Christie and giving it a Brookmyre spin, The Cliff House is still ridiculously contrived and mainstream friendly. Which of course doesn't mean it can't at the same time also be a compelling thriller. You'll probably find this is just as/almost as entertaining as the average Brookmyre, but far from his most original or best work.

Six women travel to a remote Scottish island for a hen party. They are to be alone on the island for the weekend with the exception of the female host and a hunky chef, there to cater for their culinary needs (and maybe a little more). It’s a luxurious setup and the reviews from previous guests suggest that their visit will be one to remember. Well, that bit is accurate at least, but unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.

We’re introduced to Jen (the bride to be), her tennis playing friends, the sister of a former boyfriend, the sister of her fiancé and her tennis coach. It’s soon clear that there are tensions here, old wounds that haven’t healed. Perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to put this combustible mix of women together for the weekend after all. And very soon there’s an incident, a dramatic discovery that quickly repositions the whole weekend. No, it looks like very little fun will be had at this hen party.

Secrets – everybody seems to be nursing their own and this is feeding what is now an extremely tense atmosphere. We’ll be fed snippets of background information as we go and will view what happens through the eyes of the various guests. It’s a claustrophobic psychological thriller with a whiff of Agatha Christie about it. But is it all remotely believable? No, I really don’t think it is and I also started to tire of this group of wholly dislikable characters very quickly.

I’ve enjoyed Brookmyre’s writing in the past and I do admire his ability to write novels that have a distinctly different feel from each other. But I found this one hard work. From the beginning there’s a lot of information thrown at the reader and I quickly found that I had to take notes or I’d lose track of the various linkages or perhaps overlook something that might later on turn out to be significant. This stood me in good stead but I really didn’t like having to employ pen and paper just to keep track of the tale.

There will be others that’ll lap this one up but I was frankly glad to survive it and battle my way through to the end. There are some clever twists and interesting moments but overall I’m afraid it didn’t really work for me: just too complicated, too contrived and way too unlikely.

The Cliff House review
Jen is planning her hen weekend, and has chosen to gather her closest friends together for a girls weekend in a luxurious house on a remote island. However, the tension begins to build quickly when things start going wrong. How well can you ever really know your friends, regardless of how close they are, and how long you’ve known them? Someone in the party is abducted and held to ransom, but the ransom is for someone’s darkest secret to be revealed. The only problem is, no one knows just whose secret is the one that’s meant to be revealed, and as it turns out, everyone has something that they’d like to hide…


I really enjoyed this books, and I am a huge fan of Christopher Brookmyre. I did find this story took a few chapters to get off of the ground for me, but I think that was because of the structure of the story - you jump right into the middle of it, literally the day before the action starts so there isn’t a lot of backstory laid out for the characters, which I think made me take a minute to engage with the characters. I liked the structure as it revolves around all of the characters so you get everyone’s points of view and see different aspects of the story, instead of sticking with just one character. I liked the story as well, it was well plotted with plenty of twists and turns, and kept me reading as I was enjoying finding out what everyone had done and how they were going to move forward. I do feel the characters could have been fleshed out a bit (and the majority of them were extremely successful in their ventures) but that may have ended up being at the sacrifice of the pace, so the correct decision was made in my opinion.

I’d definitely recommend this as a solid thriller, please don’t be put off if it takes you a few chapters to get into, as the story is worth it!

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Following his stand alone novel 'The Cut' which I found to be an enjoyable and original premise involving movie making/ special fx and murder, The Cliff Island is a more 'of the moment' novel - and by that I mean, the basic premise: a group of characters on a holiday/ retreat/ celebration seems to have been the 'must have' concept on every publisher's list for the past couple of years.
Of course, with a writer of Brookmyre's experience and skill it's not surprising he has a few of his own twists to the story as we get a narrative told from multiple perspectives from each of the characters attending for a hen party and he's content to tease out the details of each of their secrets as murder occurs and possibilities around motive and suspect constantly shift.
As always I found the author's work very readable and settled into the characters relatively quickly (with six alternating POVs there is always going to be a little bit of adjustment and checking back at the start of the story.)
There are definitely Agatha Christie vibes in basic concept - everyone has a secret - and I certainly enjoyed it more than certain other island based novels I've read recently..
Of course there are twists along the way and no-one is quite what they seem. And if it isn't as 'different' as his last novel, it's certainly one of the better 'strangers in a strange and luxurious place where things start going wrong' approaches I've seen recently. Overall though, (and this is no reflection on this author or this book), I'm hoping the publishing trend of the basic concept is reaching its' current cycle end.

This book is, in some ways a modern version of Agatha Christie’s novel “Then There Were None” being a group of girls going for a hen weekend to a remote island in Scotland where it appears that they will be the only inhabitants of a hotel ( apart from the chef ) Soon after settling in , they find the blood soaked body of the chef in the kitchen. Then the demands from the so called Reaper arrive and soul searching amongst all the girls reveal that no one is without sin .
A good read with a few surprising twists.