Following a student beach party, a shy, awkward and humiliated girl named Pippa is found dead in suspicious circumstances. Now, 20 years later, the friends from the party meet up at the funeral of one of their party, Jodie, who wracked by guilt had apparently committed suicide.
This is a twisty psychological thriller, suggested for anyone who enjoyed the Housemaid, which I did. I didn’t find this as gripping as the Housemaid and having read a number of books by Freida McFadden, I was suspicious of all the characters from the beginning.
The main protagonist is Becky, who after years of trying is 7 months pregnant, and has been struggling to move on from the earlier tragedy. Becky had lost an earlier baby shortly after the events of 20 years ago, we have her first person POV, along with some other third person POVs. She has been with Richie, a seemingly mild mannered and dependable accountant since before the fateful party. The book moves between past and present as we learn about this particular group of friends and their secrets start to unravel. Some of the characters are distinctly egotistical and unpleasant, Tom is a philanderer, Emelia is an alcoholic, Becky at one point catches her husband in a compromising position with Emelia, Tom’s partner. The action escalates buildings are burned down and the body count mounts, “Jealousy is one of the prime motives for murder, Becky.” Too much stress isn’t beneficial during pregnancy, and Becky is dealing with immense stress throughout the novel. The tension mounts and there is a morass of lies and explanations. There are some wild twists, one I saw coming but a second blindsided me. The book is intense and dark and delivers some thrills, I would have liked some of the supporting characters to have been more fleshed out.
Thanks to the publisher, the author and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy of the book, for which I am voluntarily leaving this review.

Sheryl Browne has created another fabulous thriller. I couldn’t put it down once I started it and it’s definitely one of her best. The book is fast paced, intriguing, packed with twists and turns, and also has an unexpected ending. It’s a great read!

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have always enjoyed Sheryl Browne's books, and this one is one of her favourites. It has an unpredictable plot with plenty of twists and turns. It is a page-turner and a recommended read.

pretty fun thriller, though you're not gonna find anything too unique or surprising in this one! still, would recommend as a fun little plane read. 4 stars.

This was a very engaging thriller, I never quite knew what was coming on the next page! It drew me in from the first page, knowing there was this horrific death happened during a party with this group of friends, but no one seemed to know what actually happened to make Pippa die. The main character that we follow is Becky, who seems to be the friend with the most amount of guilt of her death, leaving us as the reader to not know if she was actually a reliable narrator or not, but could any of those who are there that day be trusted? The story continues to escalate, with even more deaths and deception. There were some plot twists that I thought I had guessed, but then turns out there was a deeper level to them than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise. Some of the POV switches seemed unnecessary and even to detract from the story at points, but also sometimes it was a helpful shift. I throughly enjoyed the read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for the advanced copy of this book.

Great read. The twists just kept coming. I struggled to put this one down, I was so engrossed with who, when, where and what.

Becky, how far will she go to keep a deadly secret.
Psychological thriller that is totally captivating.
After what happened back twenty years ago the university students are together again for another funeral.
Pregnant Becky is still haunted by what she did, so this time will she lie again?
Oh my word what a fantastic book page after page. I was totally gripped into this story, that is the best I've read so far from this author. Big thumbs up from me.

Becky, Richie, Tom, and Emelia are college friends who treated another classmate, Pippa, very badly, and she died. The group felt varying degrees of guilt about what happened to Pippa, but mostly have managed to keep the past in the past, and life has carried on. The friends have paired off, and now Becky is pregnant. The friends meet up at the funeral of another old friend, Jodie, who supposedly committed suicide, and this triggers old memories, causing suspicions to rise to the surface.
This is a novel of revenge, the lies and secrets of the past coming through to the present day and affecting all the four friends, making it difficult to decide which of them are trustworthy. The plot has several twists and turns, some I guessed were coming, but the ending was a surprise to me. A great read, I really enjoyed it. 5 stars.

Loved this read. It was an edge of you seat suspense that I couldn’t put down. The twist and turns kept me wanting more. Thank you for the advance copy

Another page tuner from Sheryl Browne. I adored this book. I loved the storyline, it had me reading late into the night. I also loved the relationships between all of the characters. A definite 5 star book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Once again Sheryl Browne has written a deeply twisted psychological thriller that was absolutely a page turner. I needed to know how this was going to end, FAST!

A party on the beach leads to a night no one will forget but for all the wrong reasons. Now twenty years later, the friends have gathered for the funeral of one of their group. This triggers memories from that long ago night and starts everyone spiraling. Revenge appears to be the catalyst for the events following the funeral, but who is seeking the revenge? Everyone appears to have their own version of the events of that long ago night.

This was a fast paced book that kept me guessing the entire time. The ending was superb and definitely not what I guessed.
It alternated between past and present and alternating perspectives.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for the advanced copy

I always enjoy reading Sheryl Browne's books, and this one was no exception. The points of view alternating in short chapters keep providing new reasons to suspect one character or another and, even when something has become very obvious, there's still more to discover. And I'm still a little perturbed by the ending.

What a rollercoaster this book was. A group of friends go out for a drunken get together on a beach only one of them doesn't come back. Years later some of them have moved on from it but not all. This has a major impact on what happens next.
Brilliant book from start to finish. I always enjoy this authors books.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this earc! One of my favorite psychological thrillers of the year.

Sheryl Browne is one of my favourite authors so when I see this I could not wait to read and wow it did not disappoint. Once I started reading I could not put it down definitely a page turner with many twists and turns. The story goes from past to present with multiple perspectives which definitely built up the suspense. It was filled with suspense from start to finish and wow what a ending it was I really didn’t see the ending coming. Once again the author has written a fantastic gripping thriller which I can’t wait to recommend to everyone. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this great book.

Married couples Becky and Richie and Emelia and Tom are long time friends who meet up at the funeral of another longtime friend, Jodie. Everyone has seemingly perfect lives, until little by little, secrets are revealed. The story is mostly focused on Becky, who is pregnant but living with regret over Pippa’s death while at a college beach party twenty years ago. Pippa’s death has haunted Becky, who seems stuck dwelling on the past while the others have spent every day trying to move on and forget the horrible night. Pippa’s killer was never found and Jodie’s death seemed suspicious to Becky, Is someone in their friend group a killer or was someone else there that fateful night?

I was a bit confused by all the characters introduced at once as we jumped from present to past, but quickly caught on. I knew where the story was going and guessed who was who as characters were introduced. I found Becky to be quite passive and found myself constantly questioning her actions and thoughts, especially to the obvious. As the story carried on, I felt as if we did not get closure for some characters. Ok read, though nothing stood out to me as memorable compared to others with similar plots.

I keep saying I need to stop reading the “20 years ago…” types of mysteries, because they all sound different and new when I read the synopsis, but then they’re almost always the same. Unfortunately, this was another book with the same formula: 20 years ago at a university beach party, a shy and bullied girl named Pippa was found dead the next morning. Now, the friends who were there are brought together by another tragedy, and the secrets they all hold may be their undoing.

That’s about it - if you read a lot of mysteries and thrillers, you know the drill. Becky and Richie, as well as Emilia and Tom, are married now and Becky is pregnant (a side story that just kind of vanished in the end). Their friend Jodie, who was at that beach party years before, has killed herself and now the group is back together for her funeral. Only, after talking to her therapist and her ex-partner, at least one of them believes this wasn’t suicide. All of the friends are now turning on each other, even their spouses, as the police start asking more questions.

There were some twists in this, but they were relatively small ones. The ending was good and unexpected, but not anything that shocked me. The characters wanted to be developed, as the book jumped between Pippa in the past and the others involved now in the present, but they weren’t very interesting or deep. I feel like I’ve read this variety of book dozens of times, and historically, they usually aren’t my four and five star reviews, so I think I’m going to pass the next one up. For this one, 3.5 stars.

(Thank you to Bookouture, Sheryl Brown and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on November 18, 2024.)

I have read many of this author’s books and have always enjoyed them and this one was n exception.

The book moves between past and present as we learn about this particular group of friends, what has happened before that now brings us to where we are today. The author did a great job of setting the story up and as it moves forward, we are given read herrings along the way that kept you on your toes thinking as to who the guilty party was.

The main theme of the book focuses on revenge, and we are presented with characters we do not always like but do add a lot to the story. All of them seem to have secrets and these secrets keep the book moving along at a good pace.

I do have to say that I did figure out one of the main culprits from about half way through the book but was quite taken aback by the ending, I did not expect the final twist.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an advanced copy of the book, all opinions expressed are my own.

Becky has never gotten over Pippa’s death at a beach party during their university days, and when her friends from back then start dying suspicious deaths twenty years later, the past has clearly come back to haunt them. I enjoyed this thriller but didn’t love it as much as the author’s previous books. Perhaps it’s because the trope of past cover-ups from university days is a common theme amongst psychological thrillers, and although the final twist was shocking, it came rather out of the blue. With a cast of horrible characters, the author does a fabulous job of character development and there are plenty of plot twists. I will definitely be reading the author’s next book.

Thank you to Sheryl Browne, Bookouture and Netgalley for my advance copy.

I raced through this pacy thriller in two days and it was a wild ride. I had no idea where the author was taking me, but I knew I wanted to follow…..⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️