Remarkable! Couldn’t put down. The ending was a bit rushed, as if the author thought that its getting too far, but managed to end it beautifully. Maybe that was what it needed.

Recommended 100%!!

overall the story dragged a liittle for me, it's about family secrets. it has slow moving start but kept me intrested.

This was a quick fun read! I will admit that I skimmed through a lot of it, as I found it to be somewhat predictable (it reminded me of a Lifetime thriller). Nevertheless, if you're into domestic thrillers, you might enjoy this book.

Looked forward to reading this book as I have enjoyed her previous publications. Was disappointed and find it very hard going and admit to finding this book very hard to get into and just couldn't get into the story. Eventually put aside and started a new book Apologies to the author!
Many thanx to NetGalley, the author and publishers for allowing me to read and review this book

Saskia Sarginson’s One Dark Summer is a haunting, slow-burning novel that masterfully peels back the layers of a family’s dark and tangled history. From the very first page, you’re drawn into a world where secrets linger just beneath the surface—and as the story unfolds, the weight of those secrets becomes almost suffocating.

What begins as a quiet narrative quickly turns into something far more intense, as lies are exposed and the truth proves more disturbing than imagined. Sarginson weaves tension and atmosphere beautifully, allowing the emotional unraveling of her characters to reflect the chaos brewing beneath their carefully maintained facades.

This is a story about the destructive power of buried truths and the liberation that comes from finally facing them. It’s gripping, emotionally complex, and deeply unsettling in the best possible way. One Dark Summer will stay with you long after the final page—and it serves as a stark reminder that some secrets refuse to stay hidden.

This book will pull you in immediately! I could not put it down, read it in one night and then couldn’t sleep! Definitely recommend if you like a good suspense novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat!

Put down the Freida McFadden and pick up a copy of One Dark Summer by Saskia Sarginson.

(Thank you to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for the eARC.)

4.25 stars from me—a fast-paced, twisty thriller with big *gothic summer mystery energy* 🖤

Meg returns to Deben Manor fifteen years on, to find out why her mother disappeared and what exactly happened that summer. She thinks she killed a man here. Now she’s back to find answers.

She’s undercover as the nanny to her cousin’s children. But someone remembers her, and they’ll do anything to keep the past buried.

I loved the eerie atmosphere, dual timelines + the slow-reveal secrets. A couple plot points were a bit wild, but I couldn’t stop reading. 🫢

Fans of dark family secrets, rich people drama, and layered mysteries ~ this one’s for you.

This is an average read, but not what I would call a psychological thriller, it’s more of a mystery, as I felt no tension. It’s very slow and ponderous, and I skim read quite a bit of it. The jumps between timelines are jerky, no smooth transitions, and this interrupted the flow of the narrative for me.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

I'm reviewing this via NetGalley, as part of a tour with Rachel's Random Resources.

This is a dark and twisty thriller. When Meg accepts a job as a nanny at Deben Manor, she's haunted by a secret from her past. Meg has another reason for returning to Deben Manor, and soon after she arrives, she starts to receive anonymous notes that are threatening in nature.

I chose this book because I typically enjoy books with a manor house setting, or something similar. I particularly enjoy this type of setting for a thriller or mystery novel, and I really liked how the author worked with that setting. I found myself questioning the intentions and motives of some of the characters - even Meg herself. I enjoyed the atmosphere, and I thought the author did a wonderful job of building suspense. This book actually reminded me of authors like Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine and Erin Kelly, so I wonder if fans of those authors would enjoy this too.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rachel's Random Resources, Boldwood Books, and to the author, for the opportunity to read and review this.

Saskia Sarginson’s One Dark Summer is a slow-burning, atmospheric psychological thriller that pulls readers into a tangle of memory, guilt, and long-buried secrets. With a hauntingly beautiful setting and a protagonist on the edge of unraveling, this novel blends suspense with emotional depth in a way that keeps you turning pages late into the night.

The story centers on Meg, who returns under an alias to the very house where her life splintered fifteen years ago—the summer her mother vanished, and she believes she killed a man. Now, posing as a nanny to the same family, she’s determined to uncover the truth about that pivotal summer. But the house hasn’t changed. Nor has her former employer. It’s Meg who’s different—and not just in name.

Sarginson excels at creating a sense of creeping dread. The house itself feels like a character, holding its breath, guarding its secrets. The tension builds slowly, with flashbacks and present-day clues revealing just enough to keep readers guessing. Meg’s internal conflict—torn between the need to remember and the fear of what she might uncover—is deeply compelling.

The novel also explores themes of identity, trauma, and the fragility of memory. Meg’s disguise isn’t just physical—it’s psychological. As she slips back into a world that shaped her, she must confront not just the events of the past, but who she was, and who she’s become.

While the pacing may feel deliberate at times, it mirrors Meg’s own hesitation, her tentative steps back into the darkness. And when the revelations come, they’re both satisfying and chilling, with a twist that lingers long after the final page.

One Dark Summer is perfect for fans of domestic suspense and psychological thrillers, especially those who enjoy stories where the past never truly stays buried. It’s a gripping, emotional ride that asks: What if the worst summer of your life wasn’t what it seemed?

I love dual timeline books and this thriller had a lot of intrigue, plenty of twists and turns and a great final showdown. I would recommend for lovers of twisty thrillers. It started off quite slow but did pick up towards the end.

Ok so if you have never read a psychological thriller before then start with this.
It has all the twists and turns thriller should have but more. I could not work out what was going to happen and more than once I sat mouth open like I was catching flys. Gobsmacked at what I had just read. It was absolutely brilliant. One I will always recommend.

This takes you on a slow journey of unravelling a family's terrible secrets.

Meg is quite rightly looking for answers but they don't come easy. She's determined and persistent and I like that she doesn't give up.

Ophelia and her sisters are initially quite annoying but they grew on me in the end. I think they were all just naive which wasn't their fault given the lengths their mum went to protect herself and her husband. There's a lot of skeletons in the family's closet!!

Fred is my favourite character and a little hero 😁 Glad he gets a better chance to live with love and warmth.

Meg's ending is much more positive than what we are presented with which does tie things up quite nicely. I think she gets the ending she deserves!!

★★★ 3.5 stars

A missing mother...a forgotten child...a house full of deadly secrets...

I'm not sure what I expected when I dived into this one but it wasn't what was delivered. It is a dark, twisted and atmospheric with a real claustrophobic tension throughout. Though a slow burn (not usually my favoured type), that tension is palpable from the first page as we, the reader, try to unravel the mess left behind at Deben Manor. The mystery that Meg has come looking to uncover.

Meg was just a child when she first came to Deben Manor after her mother disappeared, her father depositing her there with her cousins while he tried to get his life back together again after his wife, Irene's, departure. Meg missed her mother terribly and her three cousins - Orphelia (17), Thea (15) and Clementine (12) - were not entirely nice to her. Her uncle Lucian came and went as she saw fit whilst her aunt, the girls' mother, Calista floated about in her own little world. Neither parent did any parenting and the three sisters pretty much brought themselves up. And Meg? No one really cared about her or what happened to her. When she disappeared one morning and then reappeared after a boating accident, the sisters were glad to see the back of her.

Now fifteen years later, Meg's back at Deben Manor. This time under the guise of nanny Margaret Danby (her mother's maiden name) to Orphelia's two children >b>Artemis (5) and Kit (3). Her primary goal is to find out what really happened to her mother all those years ago, believing she had been to Deben Manor at some point though she didn't know why. Or what the connection was. She has done her best to disguise herself, fearing that one of the sisters will recognise her and end her mission. So every chance she gets, she sifts through Orphelia's study, searches her room and even tries to gain access to the forbidden attic...where strange sounds emanate from there at night. Footsteps on the floorboards, whispers behind the walls, cigar smoke filtering through the floors. But the attic has been locked up tight since Lucian's time. And no one has been up there since. Calista forbids it. Although she's in France where she's remained ever since Lucian's boating accident fifteen years ago, for which Meg was blamed. The problem is, Meg has trouble recalling what really happened that day...and why.

But someone knows what Meg is up to. They know her real identity and have been watching her, logging her movements and following her when she goes into the village, spying on her in the summerhouse. The question is who? And why? Meg isn't sure who she can trust and when she finds a pair of Orphelia's diamond earrings in her belongings, she knows someone is trying to set her up. Then she begins to receives notes warning her to leave...or else. But how can she? When she's this close to finding out what really happened to her mother fifteen years ago during that one dark summer. When she left for school one day only to return home to find her mother had gone for good.

The scene is set for an atmospheric and chilling thriller that will keep you guessing...even when you think you have it all worked out. The book takes on a gothic air of melancholy reminiscent of those that have gone before such as "Jane Eyre" or "Wuthering Heights". Though the air of romance in those takes on something else entirely in this one as the years peel away the trauma, the abuse, the cruelty and harm at the hands of those in a place of trust.

When I started this book, I found it slow moving and dragged on a little but I stuck it out and it did get better and yet it still felt lacking in something though I'm not sure what. I was definitely intrigued enough to continue reading and did so in one evening.

I would like to thank #SaskiaSarginson, #Netgalley, #BoldwoodBooks and #RachelsRandomResources for an ARC of #OneDarkSummer in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

The twists and turns of this book never ended. It was almost like whiplash, but it kept me going, I couldn't guess!

Absolutely loved this book which delves deep across 2 timelines, into generational trauma.
The story travels through the perspective of Margaret Danby (Meg) who applies for, and is given the job of Nanny to 2 small children , in the estate of Deben Manor, a place where they go through nannies like a knife through butter.
But Margaret has a hidden agenda... she wants to know exactly what happened to her mother, the summer she disappeared and Margaret's world imploded..
Her father had a breakdown following Irene's disappearance and left her in the care of her uncle and aunt and 3 cousins at....Deben Manor.
What happened that summer is pieced together from the fragments of Margaret's memories, but as she gets closer to the truth, things start appearing disappearing in a manner which cannot be explained-there are footsteps heard over head Margaret's room, in the attic, which is locked and no is seen going into or out of. Jewellery is found in her drawer as if to frame her for thieving , and a beloved, hidden phot of Margaret's mum, Irene, disappears.
Is Margaret getting too close to the truth of what happened the summer her mother vanished, her uncle died and her family broke apart?
How far will someone too close to her go to keep the secrets which have been buried for so long?
As Irene takes the narrative in between Margaret's investigation into her employers' past, the sense of overwhelming trauma, abuse and harm done by those who say that they love you, is cruelly exposed.
This is a novel with gothic traits and an air of melancholy over the way generations will pass harm down the years, tainting the children with events and secrets they are actually quite far removed from.
Atmospheric and gorgeously twisty I really loved this novel.

One Dark Summer is a tense and atmospheric mystery with a haunting setting and emotional depth. Meg returns to the estate where her mother vanished years ago, posing as a nanny to uncover long-buried secrets. The narrative shifts between past and present, slowly unraveling the events of that dark summer.

The strength of the book lies in its moody, character-driven storytelling and the vivid, slightly gothic atmosphere of the manor house. The mystery unfolds gradually, revealing emotional layers and complex family dynamics. While some twists were predictable and the pacing in the first half a bit slow, I found myself invested in Meg’s journey and eager to uncover the truth with her.

This isn’t a fast-paced thriller, but rather a suspenseful, emotionally resonant mystery. Perfect for fans of family dramas with psychological twists.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the ARC.
🌟 4 stars

Full review coming soon on Goodreads. My initial thoughts are that I enjoyed being hooked from the very beginning with the mystery of Deben Manor and why it was so familiar to Meg and how she knew the people who lived there. I liked that there were other mysteries introduced that were slowly revealed and resolved as the plot went on (e.g. the necklaces, the cardigan, the room in the attic, the noises heard upstairs). I also enjoyed the different points of view.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for a review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

"One Dark Summer" is a gripping and emotionally layered thriller that pulls you in from the very first page. Meg, a professional au pair, accepts a job at Deben Manor under the false identity of “Margaret”, but she has a hidden agenda. The manor is owned by her three cousins, and returning gives her the chance to uncover long-buried secrets from fifteen years ago: the summer her mother disappeared...

The pacing is tight and packed with twists. Just when I thought I had things figured out, Sarginson expertly pulled the rug out from under me. The story keeps you second-guessing all the way through.

As readers, we’re given more pieces of the puzzle than Meg’s family has, and it’s fascinating (and tense!) watching her edge closer to the truth. While there are moments where better communication could have unraveled the mystery faster, the emotional weight behind the characters' choices makes their silence believable.

The final twist is powerful, and the ending ties everything together with all questions answered, something I always appreciate in a thriller.

A twisty, suspenseful read that kept me hooked late into the night. Perfect for fans of family secrets, unreliable memories, and slow-revealing truths.

This was such a gripping read right away, the twists and turns were so well done and they had me shocked.