5 stars
Lucy Foley is back at her specialty: a twisty, edge-of-your-seat, thrilling mystery at a posh English hotel surrounded by potentially haunted woods.
The brand new, ultra-chic Manor, located in the seaside English Village of Tome, has been met with hostility by local residents who see it as encroaching on sacred woods that according to local folklore is protected by mythical creatures called The Birds.
It is opening weekend, and no expense or luxury has been spared to welcome the rich and famous guests. From necklaces of hand-selected healing crystals for each guest to drinks with a dash of CBD oil, all is edgy and trendy.
Francesca, the Manor’s founder and sparkling leader, obsesses over every detail. Her husband, Owen, is a famous architect who revitalized the Manor into a modern masterpiece. But circulating among the staff and guests are locals who all share a past trauma that took place at the Manor fifteen years prior and that has been kept a secret since. The trauma and all its accompanying secrets are about to get revealed – especially when a dead body is found at beach at the bottom of cliffs adjacent to the Manor.
The stunning revelations of who’s who among the guests, staff and police, along with unraveling the legends of the Birds keep you flipping the pages fast. To give away more would steal the book’s non-stop thunder of a plot!
Stay tuned, as this novel is getting adapted for streaming by Universal Studios!
Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.