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The Cliff House (2022)

by Chris Brookmyre

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
724366,758 (3.53)2
'Chris Brookmyre is a genius, every new book of his is a cause for celebration' --- RICHARD OSMAN One hen weekend, seven secrets... but only one worth killing for Jen's hen party is going to be out of control... She's rented a luxury getaway on its own private island. The helicopter won't be back for seventy-two hours. They are alone. They think. As well as Jen, there's the pop diva and the estranged ex-bandmate, the tennis pro and the fashion guru, the embittered ex-sister-in-law and the mouthy future sister-in-law. It's a combustible cocktail, one that takes little time to ignite, and in the midst of the drunken chaos, one of them disappears. Then a message tells them that unless someone confesses her terrible secret to the others, their missing friend will be killed. Problem is, everybody has a secret. And nobody wants to tell. PRAISE FOR CHRIS BROOKMYRE 'Strikingly original and definitively Brookmyre - there's nothing he can't do' Mick Herron 'I recommend The Cut SO HIGHLY! A fast-paced thriller, lovely characters, [and] it kept me guessing' Marian Keyes 'A twisty spiralling rabbit hole of a book that draws you deeper with every chapter. Brilliantly original, compulsively readable, right to the final page' Ruth Ware 'Dark, heartfelt, stylish and thrilling, the kind of wonderfully original tale I just adore. Chris Brookmyre is a storytelling mastermind' Chris Whitaker 'This is a special novel. A brilliant, original, up-to-the-minute tale with all of the dark, edgy, humorous brilliance we've come to expect from one of the finest crime fiction writers in the world' Abir Mukherjee… (more)
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Showing 4 of 4
Way too many red herrings! The ending though was good.

Thank you to GoodReads for my review. ( )
  juju2cat | Dec 17, 2023 |
An exclusive Scottish Island retreat is utilised for a hen party for old and new friends of a bride-to-be. Apart from their host and the chef they’ve hired for the weekend then the seven women should be alone and out of touch from the outside world for 72 hours. Seems like a good idea at the time but when a body is discovered and another member of their party is kidnapped they may have wished they’d stayed at home. Especially when they receive the ransom video saying that the kidnapped member will die unless a terrible secret is revealed because each of them has a secret they’d rather not be known. They must each decide if it’s worth letting someone die to keep it.

The last solo Brookmyre book that I read wasn’t his best and this one continues the trend (does 2 books constitute a trend?) in downward quality. Even though the characters are well drawn I just couldn’t care if they all made it off the island or not by the end of the book. The secrets are revealed slowly as the tale unfolds with alternating viewpoints and this may be some of the problem I had with the book. It’s sometimes easy to forget who’s who so there’s no real investment. The story itself is not a bad one but having read all his previous books I know the author can do better. ( )
  AHS-Wolfy | Jul 13, 2023 |
This was another group of 'people with secrets' cut off on a remote island (I am never going to stay on a remote island) with a murderer. I found there were slightly too many women for me to focus on (I kept forgetting who Nicolette was), and the frequent shifts in perspective were frustrating and distracting. Some of their secrets seemed a bit inconsequential, and others so extreme that the way they were all forgiven and forgotten at the end was implausible. I saw most (but not all) of the twists coming, although I am not sure if that was due to my superior skills of perception or the author's skill at seeding clues. I feel sorry for Jen's fiance... ( )
  pgchuis | Sep 19, 2022 |
It kept my interest, and I enjoyed the narration. I'll read more from this author ( )
  daaft | Aug 13, 2022 |
Showing 4 of 4
It’s less an Agatha Christie novel than a Jane Austen one, in which characters are brought to an understanding of who they are, of what right thinking and right behaviour are. The characters are indeed more fully imagined and developed than is usual in crime fiction. There are the makings of a realistic novel in the treatment of relationships between them, but the demands of the plot drive realism out of the window.
added by rv1988 | editThe Scotsman, Allan Massie (Jul 21, 2022)
 
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'Chris Brookmyre is a genius, every new book of his is a cause for celebration' --- RICHARD OSMAN One hen weekend, seven secrets... but only one worth killing for Jen's hen party is going to be out of control... She's rented a luxury getaway on its own private island. The helicopter won't be back for seventy-two hours. They are alone. They think. As well as Jen, there's the pop diva and the estranged ex-bandmate, the tennis pro and the fashion guru, the embittered ex-sister-in-law and the mouthy future sister-in-law. It's a combustible cocktail, one that takes little time to ignite, and in the midst of the drunken chaos, one of them disappears. Then a message tells them that unless someone confesses her terrible secret to the others, their missing friend will be killed. Problem is, everybody has a secret. And nobody wants to tell. PRAISE FOR CHRIS BROOKMYRE 'Strikingly original and definitively Brookmyre - there's nothing he can't do' Mick Herron 'I recommend The Cut SO HIGHLY! A fast-paced thriller, lovely characters, [and] it kept me guessing' Marian Keyes 'A twisty spiralling rabbit hole of a book that draws you deeper with every chapter. Brilliantly original, compulsively readable, right to the final page' Ruth Ware 'Dark, heartfelt, stylish and thrilling, the kind of wonderfully original tale I just adore. Chris Brookmyre is a storytelling mastermind' Chris Whitaker 'This is a special novel. A brilliant, original, up-to-the-minute tale with all of the dark, edgy, humorous brilliance we've come to expect from one of the finest crime fiction writers in the world' Abir Mukherjee

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