Some uneven pacing but, overall, an engaging and enjoyable read.

Kate, Rowan, Jennifer and Izzy have been friends since meeting on their first day at university. For ten years after graduating they had made appoint of having a long weekend away, in different cities, every summer but for a variety of reasons it has been five years since they had a reunion However, this year they will turn forty so have decided to mark this shared milestone by having a week’s holiday in a luxurious villa in Provence but, breaking with their previous tradition, this one will include husbands and children. It all sounds idyllic but, within hours of arriving at the villa, Kate discovers messages on her husband’s phone which appear to show that not only is he having an affair, but that the other woman is one of her three closest friends. But which one could it be? Who is prepared to destroy years of loyal friendship and trust? Rather than immediately confront Sean and ask him, she decides to use the skills she has honed through her job as a crime scene investigator to try to discover who it is. She is all too aware that during the coming week she must also decide whether there is any chance of saving her twenty-year-old marriage. However, when she discovers that someone in the group is prepared to kill rather than have their secret revealed, she realises that there is even more at stake.
Much of this story is told through Kate’s first-person narrative but eventually there are chapters dedicated to the voices of other characters and these gradually introduce more depth, and an increasing tension, to the developing storyline. This was a relief because initially I found the pacing rather slow and was staring to get irritated by Kate’s repetitive musings about the messages on Sean’s phone … who could have left them, how long had the affair been going on, what they meant etc. I found myself wanting to shout at her “for goodness sake just ask him” – but of course if she had there’d have been no story to build into an intriguing mystery! Once I did feel fully drawn into her search for the truth I found it very difficult to put the book down, staying up far later than I’d meant to in order to finish it! The author introduced countless red herrings, drip-feeding nuggets of information which hint that each of Kate’s friends has felt let down by her in the past, so any one of them probably has a motive to seek revenge.
Alongside all the questions about the possible affair, there were developing storylines which concerned the teenage children – Kate and Sean’s daughter Lucy, and Jennifer and Alistair’s two sons, Jake and Ethan – which added to the complexity of the thriller aspects of the story. Although there were certain elements of the unfolding mystery which I’d guessed, there were a couple of huge, unexpected twists towards the end which caught me unawares – always a very satisfactory outcome to a psychological thriller. Admittedly there were moments which required a certain degree of suspension of disbelief, but these never felt outrageous enough to spoil my enjoyment!
I was impressed by the author’s skill in creating such a credible mix of multi-dimensional characters, gradually revealing their strengths, their fallibilities and their secrets; whatever their age or gender he made their reactions, behaviour and decision-making feel psychologically convincing. As result, I found myself able to emotionally engage with each of them – loving some, disliking others, wanting to protect the more vulnerable ones (especially Lucy and her sweetheart of a younger brother Daniel!) – and this made a huge contribution to my overall enjoyment of the story.
The wide range of themes incorporated – marital relationships, affairs, friendships, parent-child interactions, the lengths parents will go to try to protect their children, their distress when they find themselves powerless to do so, the dangers of social media, the effects of the betrayal of loyalty and trust (to name but a few!) –made this an increasingly thought-provoking story to read.
This is the first T.M. Logan novel I’ve read but I’ll now look out for others by him.