Tom and Nicole have won the lottery and moved into an incredible new home and think that all their dreams have come true, until one day Tom is found dead in the swimming pool.

This book followed several different characters and it felt a bit all over the place in parts, it was fast paced and I raced through it but I just found some of it a bit random and unrelated to the main story. I enjoyed Gilly Macmillian’s The Nanny so i’ll definitely still read her next book but this one wasn’t a favourite.

An excellent thriller that keeps you guessing. Tom and Nicole win the lottery and build a state of the art house with everything they could need. However when Tom is found drowned in the stimming pool, things take a sinister turn. Who amongst their friends and neighbours could be involved? Lots of drama and suspense.

When Nicole and Tom win the lottery, they buy the house of their dreams with all mod cons. But when Nicole arrives home one day, to find that Tom has drowned in their swimming pool, everyone is a suspect. Patrick, Tom’s best friend, who keeps asking for money and has a violent temper, the neighbours, Olly and Sasha, who don’t seem friendly but rush to help, or even the mystery man seen lurking around the grounds recently. And why does Kitty, the neighbour’s housekeeper seem so keen to speak to the police in secret?
This is a brilliant book, with unguessable twists and turns and a fabulous ending. Highly recommened.

TW: Coercive control, murder.

"There's a priest hole here, and other hidden passages like this one, dating from the sixteenth century. She can only imagine how terrifying it must have been to hide in these walls while you were being hunted, back then. But she also knows how it's possible to use these secret places to your advantage, and it's time she stopped being so passive."

A domestic, psychological thriller, it's set in two large and expensive houses, neighbours of one another in a beautiful, rural location. Character-driven, there are a number of perspectives at different times (including the police detectives), to provide context for the murder of one of the residents. The location and wealthy owners add to the claustrophobic yet expansive atmosphere. It's pacy, with plenty of action and the greedy and deceptive characters play their games; once I had a feel for the characters I was desperate to know what ws going on and who was behind it. Untrustworthy narratives, drama and red herrings abound, making this tense and involving read. This is an accomplished and complex psychological thriller, I'd recommend to those who love the genre.

I'm really not too sure about The Fall; it started off well enough and had chapters where I was really immersed but overall it was far fetched and had far too many unpleasant charaters for my liking.

I found myself glued to this book and reading in record time, with the plot following the death of recent lottery winner I found this to be a refreshing stance from the usual thriller books I read.

With plot twists throughout following greed and deception, I grew hatred towards specific characters. With my verbal reactions of shock, my partner was equally intrigued about what I was reading and this has been added to his read list.

Throughout I was convinced this review would be 5 stars and I am regretful it didn’t quite reach that; I just found the ending ran out of steam compared to the details of earlier chapters and I was expecting more drama. Nevertheless this book is still of my top reads this year and was very well written from each characters perspective.

Haven’t we all dreamt about winning the lottery? It is a reality for Tom and Nicole, childhood sweethearts who are now living the dream. It soon turns in to a nightmare when Tom is found dead, and Nicole is one of the suspects. I loved the way this story was written, giving Toms movements and the suspects viewpoints, this was a great characterful read.

Loved this one! Was hooked from the first pages with that opening. Don't you just love a good domestic drama with a whodunnit at the centre. Dual points of view in this one give lots of edge and add to the drama. Terrific read!

3.5 . super enjoyable & fast paced but the reveal was too predictable for me :( i also feel like there was a lot of loose ends that didn’t get tied up so it wasn’t very satisfying.

Ticking a book off the Netgalley list with the next one, keeping with the thriller theme and another new author for me.

'The Fall' by Gilly Macmillan introduces us to Nicole and Tom, a couple of childhood sweethearts who have the perfect marriage and then, to top it all off, become lottery winners. With money no object they build their perfect house, controlled by top of the range technology, everything they've ever dreamed of. This dream soon becomes a nightmare though when Tom is found dead in the swimming pool, but was it an accident? The remote location means the suspects are limited with only the Manor House next door housing a young couple and their housekeeper being the only people within close proximity.

Lots of suspense through this title with many characters stories being uncovered as you read each chapter. It did get a little confusing in elements as so much information was thrown at certain parts, sometimes possibly a little unnecessary as I felt the story was drawn out at times. Felt a little rushed towards the end and also elements of unbelievability with some of the storylines, an ok read though.

A gripping story of greed and deception - I absolutely loved this. You’d think winning the lottery would be everything you’d ever want but in this book, it leads to a death and a mystery. The characters were well drawn and developed and the twists kept me guessing. Recommended read and I’ll be looking out for more by this author.

Two lottery winners build their dream home, move in and start living their lives. Nichols the wife comes home and finds her husband dead floating in their pool. Full of twists and turns and quite a few surprises but rather a bit too predictable. Still a good read but nothing that got my heart racing.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

Nicole and Tom are the ideal couple, devoted to one another and quite happy with their lot, living an average life in their average house on a regular housing estate. Then their fortunes change with a staggering £10 million win on the lottery. They have a state-of-the-art, all singing, all dancing smart home built in the area where Nicole has fond memories of visiting as a child with her dad. Tom is a very passive person, he's happy as long as Nicole is happy. The only thing he insists on is having the best technology in the house that money can buy - and they clearly have no problems there - oh, and every man's dream: the flash Maserati on the drive. Nicole's more than happy keeping herself busy with the interior design of the property, but she has a strong dislike of all the techy stuff Tom has had installed. The camera and security system should put her mind at rest that they are safe from intruders and the like, but it's constantly glitching and she can't get to grips with the controls. Tom says he'll get it sorted but he never seems to get round to it and it sets her on edge rather than calming her nerves.

The story is told from multiple viewpoints, but it's always crystal clear whose voice the reader is hearing, so this is never an issue. The reader gets to hear different people's opinions and secrets that are never vocalised to anyone else but even so, when Nicole returns home from a day out to find Tom dead in the pool we are as much in the dark as she is.

I don't think there is a reliable narrator among the whole cast of this book - except maybe the detectives, Hal and Jen. Nobody is exactly who they purport to be and some of the later revelations were particularly shocking. There are the obvious ones who make up the bulk of the story but some of the others will be complete curve balls - unless I'm just not particularly astute at noticing the clues!

May be some events in the story are a little far-fetched, but not to the point of being off-putting. I did however feel the ending ran out of steam a little compared with the detail of earlier parts of the book but there is the potential that the whole thing could have dragged on too much if it were any different.

A very engaging read - the moral of the story: Trust no-one - especially sheep!

An easy read with twists and turns to keep you interested! I would recommend this for a holiday read definitely. I would love to read more from this author as I did enjoy the writing style and the storytelling.

Nicole and Tom win the lottery and appear to have it all. However, Tom is found dead in the swimming pool. This was an easy read with lots of twists and turns. In some aspects the plot was not a new idea but the execution and suspense held my attention with unusual narrative form various points of view. Who and why kept me reading. Thanks to NetGalley for ARC and I will be looking out for more from this author.

An enjoyable book. Unfortunately Tom was the only good person and he was found dead in the first few pages. It was an easy holiday read though the end stretched credulity. Still an enjoyable read.

The Fall is a dark and twisty thriller that I enjoyed.
Nicole and Tom have won the lottery and they have built their dream home, a lovely glass house. Nicole goes off to a farming show and returns after lunch to find her husband, Tom, dead in their swimming pool. She runs next door to Olly, Sacha and their maid Kitty who are quick to help but to no avail. When the police come round to question everyone is everyone telling the truth about where they were at the time of Toms death? Who can you trust?
This was a twisty read that had me reading at all times of the day, I have knocked a star off as I felt the pace was really good throughout the book until the ending where it just seemed to come off the boil a bit and the payback wasn’t as good as I thought it could have been but nevertheless it was still a very good read that I would recommend.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone Century for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5

Lottery winners Nicole and Tom move on to a state of the art glass house barn conversion. Nicole returns home one day to find Tom dead in their swimming pool. Neighbours Olly, Sacha and their maid Kitty come to her aid, but were they where they said they were when questioned by the police?

2023 seems to be year of book releases called The Fall! This is the second of the year I’ve come across so far!

This is a first for me for this author and it certainly won’t be my last as I love love loved this! It’s a really engaging read. At the end, I would loved to have a bit more information as to why, but I am just nit picking 😀

The Fall is a dark and twisted psychological thriller. It was a little bit predictable but the denouement was satisfactory and it was an easy read.

For most of The Fall (oddly, the second book I've read recently of this title), I thoroughly enjoyed it in a suspend-your-disbelief kind of way. For whatever reason, though, it went a bit off the boil at the end.

Nicole comes home to the house she and husband Tom built with their lottery win - the Glass Barn - to find him dead in the swimming pool. Distraught, she runs to neighbours Sasha and Olly, inhabitants - along with housekeeper Kitty - of the nearby Manor House. We see subsequent events from the viewpoints of each character, along with the police investigation. There are also snippets from both the five-years-ago diary of a woman called Anna, and flashbacks to what actually happened to Tom on the morning of his death. Safe to say, not everybody is what they seem.

The plot was intriguing if far-fetched, but - though I love a police procedural - the police investigation here was probably the least engaging aspect. I wanted to know what had happened, but I wasn't very interested in the two main detectives or their relationship.

I did guess the identity of one character before it was revealed, but it didn't really spoil anything. The "Granny" situation was possibly a twist too far, though - it didn't seem necessary- and towards the end everything started to get a bit silly. Ultimately I just ended up feeling bad for poor Tom.

Thanks for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy!