One of my favourite authors and this is exactly what you want from him.

Great thriller that throws you right in-told through the perspectives of several different women to ensure you never really know what’s true and what’s not and with just enough intrigue to keep you turning the page.

The Cliff House centers on a group of friends heading to a remote Scottish island for the hen party of Jen, the person who ties this group of very different women together! Among them is the sister of Jen’s former ex-husband, a pop star who used to be best friends with Jen and another member of the party, Jen’s tennis coach, and others. Soon it becomes clear that everyone is keeping secrets – of varying sizes!

Then one of their party gets kidnapped and these ‘secrets’ become much more important… whose secret is the one they’re all being punished for?

The book is good fun and I got through it quickly. The premise didn’t feel that different to other books I’d read recently, to be honest, but it was well-written and there were some unpredictable moments that kept me intrigued throughout. It’s easy to read and the characters are entertaining. I liked that each of them had their faults, too – no one was painted to be ‘perfect’ and that felt much more convincing than trying to give us a clear ‘hero’, which I hate in novels.

The setting felt atmospheric and I really liked the focus on how the women were (or weren’t!) friends. It’s good fun and though it didn’t blow me away, I certainly enjoyed it! I’ve read Black Widow, also by this author, which I absolutely LOVED, so will be checking out Chris’s other novels too!

This is another excellent novel from Chris Brookmyre, who has explored a lot of different writing techniques and styles - and all with great success in my opinion - since his debut featuring a rather off-beat detective in the "Tartan Noire" genre.

This is a "locked room" mystery, set in luxury a retreat isolated on a remote Scottish island a la "And Then There Were None". The characters are looking forward to a relaxing hen weekend with the usual copious quantities of alcohol and gourmet dining provided by their very own personal chef. However, the bloody demise of the chef on the first evening is a fairly strong indicator that things are not going to plan... and then they discover that they have no communications with the outside world...
The story is narrated through the eyes of each character in turn, gradually revealing that each of them has a (greater or lesser) dark secret in their past, increasing the tension as we wait to find out which of them might be bent on such a ghastly form of blackmail and revenge.

If you share my own taste for well-written twisty plots and properly rounded endings, you can always be sure of a great read when you open any of CB's books - this one being no exception.

A good summer read with a good twist. What could go wrong on a remote Scottish island with seven women there for a hen do? Lots apparently when they all have secrets from each other!

When a murder occurs they are left wondering what they know about each other. They pair up to race across the island to safely and to try and find out who the killer really is.

Definitely worth a read.
.
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown book group for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Seven women go to a remote luxury island getaway for a hen weekend. One of them goes missing and they are told one of the women must confess her secret to ensure the woman’s return. Small problem – all of the women are harboring secrets, and none of them want to reveal their particular peccadillo. While the events of the novel are in now way realistic, once you suspend your disbelief, this is a lot of fun, and is well written.

Jen rents a luxury house on a remote Scottish island for a hen weekend. The only other people there are the owner and a private chef. When one of them is kidnapped and the kidnapper demands that one of them are not who they say they are, he demands they tell the truth or she dies.
This was a superb thriller that keeps you guessing as they all have secrets they want to keep hidden. loved the characters especially Jen. The pace is fast and lots of twists.
Would highly recommend for the summer.
Thanks to NetGalley & Little, Brown Book Group UK, for a advanced copy.

Not the usual from CB however the story is still very enjoyable and keeps you guessing until the end. What could possibly go wrong on a hen weekend set on a remote Scottish island with a group of people who all have something to hate about another in the group and then one goes missing! She is being held hostage until one of the group tells their deepest secret however as is real life, everyone has a secret to tell, the question being whose is the worst and who do you share it with. Good summer read though maybe not if you are island hopping in Scotland!!!!

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC to review.

I've only been to a handful of hen parties and thankfully none of them have been like this. Note to self: avoid weekends away with people you don't know that well!

Jen is the hen. She has organised a tip-top luxury weekend on a remote Scottish island for five of her friends. Two of them haven't spoken for years, another is her sister-in-law who thinks Jen has killed her husband. Another is the sister of the man she is marrying, They've never met before. Finally there is Kennedy, Jen's tennis coach who is not very well known to any of them.

The weekend doesn't get off to the best of starts with the private chef being found dead in the kitchen and one of the party going missing. It gets worse. They can't contact the outside world but they do get a message telling them that one of the party is not who they seem and unless they confess then the missing woman will be killed.

Of course, as we all know, everyone has secrets and so the novel goes from one point of view to another, each of them agonising about whether to reveal their dastardly past.

I love Chris Brookmyre's writing and have read many of his books. The female point of view is done very well here. Sometimes when men write from a female perspective there is something a little 'off'. Not in this case. The only slight quibble I have (and this is down to me) is that I've read quite a few books over the past few years which have this type of theme. But if you haven't read something like this before, I think you'd find it very enjoyable. Oh, and very tense at times. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

A fantastic thriller that kept me guessing until the very end. A superb page turned that I would absolutely recommend to my audience, Will definitely be reading more from this author

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this gripping book

my first by this author but not the last

a hen party on a remote island ...what could go wrong

childhood friends and enemies they all come together on this island each of them has a secret

but they are being held to ransom for those secrets.....

who will spill the beans first...

a classic whodunnit it with an added twist...loved it

Chris Brookmyre has created the perfect summer beach read - a little bit And Then There Were None, a little bit Ruth Ware, but completely Brookmyre. It’s always difficult to create a real cut-off-island.locked-room mystery in today’s internet connected age, but The Cliff House manages it beautifully.

Five stars and safe in the hands of a master storyteller!

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

Seven friends rent a luxury house on a remote Scottish island for a hen weekend. The only other people there are the owner and a private chef. When the chef is murdered the friends start to wonder if they really are alone and if any of them are prepared to kill to keep a secret.

Group of friends, isolated location, murder, secrets. All ticks. This book has all the right ingredients but the recipe didn’t allow it to quite rise as much as it could have.

The first few chapters were chaotic with too many facts and backstories thrown into the mix with little opportunity to digest each one before another one was stirred in.
The middle section I very much enjoyed. Here we follow pairs of friends as they navigate different parts of the island to try and save one of their own. It gave me a chance to breathe and a greater opportunity to understand each character and built up vital suspense.
Sadly the ending felt overworked. Saying that though, I was comfortable with the style of writing and the middle section gave me the ‘page-turning’ thrill that I’m always looking for and therefore I would not be deterred from reading another book by the same author.
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown book group for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

This book is suspenseful and tense, and will really get your heart racing. It is fast paced, and has a captivating plot.

What I enjoyed the most is how we get to know the characters, with their backgrounds being introduced at just the right time to provide for maximum impact. Moreover, the clues are dropped in throughout the book, providing some idea but not enough to give the ending away immediately.

A very cleverly written story.

4.5 rounded up.

Jen invites 6 of her best friends to a remote island for her hen party. They all have a secret that they are blackmailed into revealing to each other.
I enjoyed this story as the various characters have to reveal their pasts to each other and also enjoyed the twists and reveals along the way.

Jen is about to marry for the second time. Her first husband, Jason, disappeared and, after this early marriage, she set up a successful business and is wealthy and successful and about to marry the handsome Zaki Hussain. Before this, though, she has organised a trip to a remote Scottish island with some of her oldest, female friends - oh, and some who aren't. There are Michelle (now famous singer, Mika) and Helena, now a music teacher, who was ousted from Mika's band, both childhood friends. From Jen's more recent life are Kennedy, her tennis coach and Nicolette, who also plays tennis. Then there is Beattie, Jason's sister and her former sister-in-law, and Samira, Zaki's younger sister and mother of baby twins. Lastly, there is Lauren, the owner of the luxury house, not part of the group but on the island when everything erupts.

This is a fun beach read, as Chris Brookmyre tips a lot of female characters onto a luxury island and involves them in danger from virtually the word go. On the day they arrive there is a murder, a kidnap and the demand that someone unearth their secrets. The issue is that everyone has secrets and they will all be discovered by the end of the book.

On the plus side, this is a really fun read. I liked the characters and the setting. It is outrageous and the plot totally unbelievable, but I was able to go along with it, however much it seemed totally implausible, and I did want to know what happened. I would have liked events to have unfolded more slowly - the characters didn't even get a chance to unpack or eat before the action started. Brookmyre uses the trip to the island to explore the characters, but I would have preferred a more leisurely pace. That said, if you go on holiday, you could do worse for an exciting read by the pool. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

I've read so many of these 'friends meet up somewhere secluded for a birthday/wedding/hen weekend and everyone has secrets/people start dying' books but I love them, so that's ok! This was a really good example of the genre and I enjoyed it.

I liked how well we get to know all the characters and I think information is released to the reader at the right time for maximum impact. Clues are laid cleverly throughout the book so whilst you do need to suspend reality a bit to believe everything, it doesn't just come out of nowhere.

I don't know if this book will stand the test of time and really stand out for me in this particular sub-genre but I had a good time reading it so would recommend it to others.

Well this is quite the tense, pulse-racing thriller. I came to reading Chris Brookmyre's work very, very late, but I'm glad I finally joined the party. I'm also quite glad I didn't join this party - the hen weekend from hell as it should probably be subtitled. Heading off to a remote Scottish hideaway, an exclusive property on an island only accessible by helicopter or boat, probably seemed like a great idea at the time, but for Jen is it anything but the relaxing weekend of celebration she might have hoped for. Her best and oldest friends are practically at loggerheads, she is meeting her future sister in law for the very first time, one of her guests is injured, and Jen herself is starting to have a few doubts about her husband to be, Zaki. This is not her first time down the aisle and it seems her experience with hubby number one really has clouded her feelings about her impending nuptials. Oh ... and the small matter of someone on the island seemingly wanting to kill one or all of them. No biggy ...

This is kind of your locked room mystery with a twist. There is, in theory, a very finite number of suspects when it comes to the whodunnit aspect of the book, but then again, just because the women can't get off the island, doesn't mean someone else can't get on. It is that tantalising aspect as well as a few clues scattered amongst the early pages of the book that really kept me on edge and hooked to the story. When asked to confess to their little secret, it is not immediately clear who the keeper of the secret might be or what exactly it is that they are meant to confess to. And over the course of the book we learn that none of the women in this book are exactly squeaky clean and the confessions, whilst not exactly coming thick and fast, are certainly quite the revelation. Secrets, lies and potential matricide, all make practically every resident in this suddenly not quite so luxurious getaway an unreliable narrator of sorts. I never quite knew where, if anywhere, to put my trust and it kept the excitement flowing through each and every page.

There is a real sense of threat that feeds through this book, and from the very beginning there is somewhat of an ominous atmosphere and tension that you can feel building, even as they women first meet up for their pre-transfer drinks. This is one of the things that the author really excels in - creating that kind of vibe that intrigues and grabs your attention straight away. Those small touches such as songs that spark a memory in an individual character, reopening old wounds that have never quite healed. The contrasts of the sheer luxury of the resort against the wild nature of the landscape around it. Even just the remote setting, that sense of complete isolation that comes from being on an otherwise uninhabited island totally cut off from everyone and everything else. Or so they thought ...

Chris Brookmyre is also truly adept at creating diverse and believable characters who get under your skin. I can't necessarily say I especially liked any of them, but I became very invested in them in spite of their (many) character flaws. You have Jen, entrepreneur and the 'bunting' that holds this strange party together, music icon Michelle, of Mica, and music teacher, Helena, both childhood friends of Jen's and between whom there exists such a tension that you can practically feel it explode off the page. Then, to complicate matters you have not only Jen's future sister-in-law, Samira and former sister-in-law, Beattie. Safe to say that the latter is not a relationship made of love and close friendship. Rounding out the group are tennis coach, Kennedy, fashion marketing expert, Nicollette and their host for the weekend, Lauren. Each one of them is multifaceted, flawed and ultimately vulnerable in their own way, but together they made up a formidable and determined team.

This is ultimately a story of revenge, but the who and the whys of it may come as a surprise. One part of it I did second guess, but the more we learn of the women it's perhaps not meant to come as that much of a surprise. But there are plenty of shocks and twists in store, and moments of high action, where the peril the women are exposed to is magnified tenfold, and those are the moments that really get the pulse rate spiking and the pages turning at speed. I liked watching the faltering friendships, the quieter scenes in which each confession is slowly revealed and where it's impact really strikes the right note, getting the mind whirring as to whether that could be the one that tips the balance.

A really tense, finely plotted psychological thriller where everyone is hiding something and in which you'll probably end up wondering if you can even trust yourself anymore. Definitely recommended.

When a group of women head to a remote island for a hen weekend the most they are expecting is to feel slightly uncomfortable as they don’t all know each other but each is important to the bride to be. However, soon after they arrive one of the group is kidnapped and to secure her release each has to reveal her darkest secret.

Set over a single weekend this book is full of tension. Fast paced with a gripping storyline. A great read.

Jen’s getting married and a group of her friends, some who know each other, some acquaintances and some who are meeting for the first time, gather to celebrate on a remote island retreat. Some of the group have history between them. All of them have secrets.

The weekend already has potential to be explosive but when they find a body and one of the group is kidnapped the stakes are raised. The only way to save their friend is to reveal their deepest secret. How far will each woman go to keep her secret and is everyone as they seem?

Having been on a few girls' weekends I felt Brookmyre caught the dynamic pretty perfectly. From the excited airport drinks to the underlying tensions and resentments. He did a great job of writing a set of believable, interesting female characters and some of the interactions were spot on.

I felt this book was really well paced with the action developing alongside the unfolding of the characters' stories and possible motives. The humour we associate with Brookmyre’s books is there, definitely not as dark but there all the same.

This book is a total corkscrew - twist after twist after twist. My head was spinning come the end. A couple of things I thought I had definitely worked out. One in particular I thought I had right and I did - until the story twisted again!

Loved the music references throughout. I’m probably a similar age to the characters so definitely a bit of nostalgia and some songs that I had forgotten about.

It has been a few years since I have read any of Chris Brookmyre’s books. This book felt different from his earlier work but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and LIttle Brown for the chance to read an early copy

{{Frontpage
|isbn=1408712172
|title=The Cliff House
|author=Chris Brookmyre
|rating=5
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=''Many of them didn't know each other, one of them didn't know anybody, including Jen, one of them quite possibly hated her, and two of them definitely hated each other. What could possibly go wrong?''

That's the round-up for Jen's hen party which is to take place on Clachan Geal an island just south of Barra. They're all staying in The Cliff House, hosted by Lauren, and it's the utmost in luxury living but then Jen can afford it. She's just sold her muffin business for millions but is staying on to run it. She's got her doubts about the long weekend: fiance Zaki Hussain has been acting a little strangely of late and wouldn't explain to her what the email he was hurriedly deleting was about. Added to that, he's just about forced her to bring his sister, Samira, whom Jen's never met, on the trip, on the grounds that she's been stuck at home with newborn twins for the last six months and desperately needs the break.
}}