Reviews

If you're going to use the plot and plot twist of a classic Agatha Christie (the author at least acknowledges her influence, and Josephine Tey), you better have some exceptional writing skills to justify your book. Unfortunately this falls short. Very derivative of 'And Then There Were None', but not in the same league. The characters are all shallow and unlikeable (a romantic interest good guy who is also a drug dealer, anyone?). For once, I can genuinely say I saw the twist and knew the killer halfway through, and anyone who has read Christie will too. The dialogue is achingly trying to be modern (and yes, we have social media influences in our cast). A lot of annoying discrepancies - ch.4 ' oh dear, the whisky hasn't arrived, there is only sherry' - rest of the book everyone drinking copious amounts of whisky... Perhaps the biggest miss is the setting of a fictional island in the Outer Hebrides, but the author fails to give any sense of atmosphere or mood that the setting would lend itself to. I wish the author all the best with their future books, but I'm afraid this didn't do it for me. At least it was a fast read.

lee_readsanything's review

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4.0

Thanks for the opportunity to read this as an arc reader. I wasn’t sure where this was going to begin with - it had vibes of a murder mystery weekend type book. It had plenty of twists and turns and the outcome at the end was not what I was expecting. Not my normal genre to read but enjoyable all the same.

I just reviewed Auld Acquaintance by Sofia Slater. #AuldAcquaintance #NetGalley

bookswithboo's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense

4.0

katiec626's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

rosamund4096's review

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2.0

I love a good mystery and am generally pretty easily pleased and not very good at predicting the twist at the end. Unfortunately this book did not do it for me at all. I found the characters shallow and two dimensional and didn’t find anyone’s motivations particularly convincing. The plot was pretty basic and just felt a bit rushed, there was no time for tension to build. There were attempts to misdirect you as to who was the killer but to be honest by the second half of the book I just didn’t care, and when the motive is revealed it was very flimsy and improbable.

Given the remote setting and mismatched group of guests I was hoping for something in the vein of Ruth Ware’s One by One, or Lucy Foley’s The Guest List, but this book did not live up to my expectations.

l1nds's review

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3.0

I was at a loose reading end on NYE and this one piqued my interest due to being set at the same time of year, and having an obvious nod to Agatha Christie. It started off well - a contemporary thriller NOT written in the present tense? Be still my beating heart! I didn't know that modern thriller writers were aware that the past tense existed!

Sadly my enthusiasm waned when I realised just how much was owed to And Then There Were None. If you have never read that there is much to enjoy here, but if you have just skip it. The queen of crime did it better and you will remain unsurprised throughout! I didn't hate it though, which is more than can be said for 90% of books in a similar vein (I love them when done well so I remain optimistic and keep trying!) so I will definitely try future books by the author.

*ARC from Netgalley for an honest opinion*

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