The Midnight Secret
by Karen Swan
You must sign in to see if this title is available for request. Sign In or Register Now
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 29 Apr 2025 | Archive Date 24 Apr 2025
Pan Macmillan | Macmillan UK
Talking about this book? Use #TheMidnightSecret #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
Jayne Ferguson has always been a keeper of secrets, most especially her own . . .
If there’s one thing Jayne Ferguson has learnt in her life, it’s that every blessing comes with a curse. She married the most handsome man on the isle of St Kilda - but he’s a bully. She inherited her mother’s gift of second sight - but only ever forsees her fellow islanders’ deaths. She has learnt to keep to herself, treading in the shadows and shirking the highs for fear of the lows.
When a needless death strikes at the heart of her home, Jayne’s bad marriage becomes worse and she finds solace with an unlikely friend. Glimmers of happiness tantalise her, though there’s no possibility for anything more, especially once word comes of St Kilda’s evacuation.
But as the day draws near, tensions on the island rise. Secrets are being forced to the surface, passions and enmities erupting with equal violence. A man is killed, as Jayne knew he would be, and her closest friends Effie, Mhairi and Flora are each implicated.
On the mainland, the villagers scatter into new lives, hoping distance means refuge. But then Jayne has another of her dreams and she knows the past isn’t done with them yet.
Available Editions
EDITION | Hardcover |
ISBN | 9781035051595 |
PRICE | US$27.99 (USD) |
PAGES | 480 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews

Thanks to PanMac and NetGalley for the ERC of the final book in the Wild Isles series.
The book neatly ties up all the loose ends of the previous 3 books.
The book is centered around Jayne, married to Norman, she has been cursed with a second sight.
I loved this final book, and spent the whole day completely engrossed!

The fourth and final book in the series. It ties up all the loose ends beautifully with a really satisfying twist. I’ve loved all the books, although the cliffhanger at the end of each book and the gap between books has been hard on this devoted reader! Karen Swan’s books are always a thrilling and soul warming read, this has been especially so.
Thank you to Netgalley the author and publishers for an arc in exchange for an honest review

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for a review copy of this book. I am a huge fan of Karen Swan's novels and I have especially loved the Wild Isle series, so I was thrilled to be able to receive an advance copy of the conclusion of this series. I inhaled it, I have to say, reading it quickly but also feeling reluctant to part with the characters that have made up the four novels.
The novel opens with Jane’s viewpoint, the sister-in-law to Mollie who'd sadly died of pneumonia, and who was the prompt for the nurse Lorna, to request the islanders be evacuated to the mainland. Jane is reclusive. Married to a bully and an abuser, she also has the sight, both of which lead her to keep to herself for the most part. With Mollie’s death, Jane is able to share her deep grief with David, Mollie’s sweetheart who'd hoped to marry her. It's that shared grief that caused David and Jane to be at the graveyard the last night on the island, and for Jane to witness certain events that take her months and many calamities to make sense of. Those months cause her to question the kind of person she is and forces her to make critical choices.
The novel continues the stories, too of the other three women – Effie, Mhairi, and Flora, as they all continue to face the challenges of the events before they left Kilda and the choices they made.
I really loved all the novels of this series and this one was no exception. To successfully tackle such intricate weaving of parallel timelines is so impressive, especially given the stellar result. Swan continues to produce compelling and wonderfully descriptive novels with rich characters that create a world you can't help but inhabit and are reluctant to leave. In this Swan recreated 1930s Scotland in vivid detail.
She mentions writing more series and I look forward to it as I would look forward to any of her books. Highly recommended.

Was saving this for my half term holiday and devoured it on Day 1!
Lovely to be back on St Kilda with all the familiar characters. And also in so many other locations!
The scene with Effie, clad in a green evening gown, clinging to a mast through a storm is one that will stay with me.
Lots of twists and turns but resolution in the end.
Thoroughly enjoyed this series. Thank you Karen Swan. And thank you to Pan MacMillan and NetGalley for the eARC

What an utterly fantastic book, last in the series for the St. Kilda girls and I never wanted the book to end as it would mean farewell.
No spoilers or hints, just simple advice that you must read the collection.
Karen Swan is an amazing author but this series surpasses all of the other books I have read by her.
My thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy in return for an honest review.

A fantastic conclusion to The Wild Isles series. The main characters line up for their curtain call . The lives and story are all intertwined from this close knit community and your attention is kept carefully alive right until the surprising finale.

This final story in the saga is told from the viewpoint of Jayne married to Norman - she sees visions of deaths amongst community members but can do nothing to stop them. Both on St Kilda and after the evacuation this leaves her feeling as though she is an outcast. She is stuck in an abusive marriage and is childless.
We follow the fortunes of both Flora and Effie - both with their struggles to find their identities and roles post St Kilda.
A revisit to the island allows Jayne to orchestrate events following her vision to allow justice to be done and hope to return.
The strands of the story are brought together well and the outcome highly satisfactory!

This is book 4 in the Wild Isle series from Karen Swan.
Its a return to the island of St Kildey were time seems to have stopped.
This one follows the islanders as they are evacuated from there home and follows there lives before they leave and after when they are spred across the world looking for there loved ones.
i havn't read the books that come before this one but will do now to get the full story from the islands.

As usual in my reviews, I will not rehash the plot - there are already some reviews like that out there if that's what you are looking for.
This is the fouth - and final - book in this series, and well worth waiting for! This time the action is split between the beautiful isolated isle of St Kilda, the Scottish mainland, and Canada (not a spoiler as it was referenced in the previous novel!).
Like the previous books, this one includes some events that happened in the earlier novels, but from different points of view. This time, we see events through the eyes of Jayne - a friend of Effie, Mhairi and Flora - who has "the sight" and is thus rather more on the fringes in many ways.
This novel follows up the multiple strands running throughout this series, and brings them to a (largely) satisfactory conclusion. I will give nothing away - except to say that I was surprised by a final twist or two.
I've thoroughly enjoyed this series. It's quite remarkable how Karen Swan has managed to write such a satisfyingly rich saga based on tiny St Kilda and her 36 (or so) inhabitants. I really hope that she will write more in this ilk (if she can find the time, as she is a prolific novelist!)
My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.