Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this one. I had a little bit of trouble getting into with the storyline but felt it had the makings of a good story, just failed to captivate me enough to hold me.

I was drawn by the description of the book, but sadly it just wasn't for me! I'm sure other readers will love this horror story set during Christmas time though!

Fast paced and well written. Winter in the Highlands sounds magical (without all the deaths and murderous animals that is!).

What I originally thought was going to be a horror novel turned into, to me anyway, a comedy.

Elena didn't seem to take anything seriously at all and there was a rage simmering beneath the surface of Andrew (dun, dun, dun).

I did love the humour though and some of the scenes made me laugh out loud, unfortunately, some of those were supposed to be horror scenes.

The takeaway from this for me was 'don't eat meat or you will be stalked by vicious animals who will undoubtedly murder you, be best if you became a vegetarian or, better yet, vegan lest you be ripped apart by angry badgers'.

We are, however, left with a possible sequel which I would definitely pick up if the same humour runs through it and would love much more horror in it.

*Huge thanks to Chris Coppel, Troubador Publishing Ltd, Matador and NetGalley for this copy which I chose to read and all opinions are my own*

Not for me. I couldn’t get into this one at all. However I don’t think it’s the authors fault, I just couldn’t gel with the story.

I found this to be a fun horror novel with a really interesting concept that hasn't been done to death. i would def check out more work from Chris Coppel.

Unfortunately the writing style of this book did not gel with me. I imagine other readers will enjoy this, however I was unable to finish the book

I haven’t read anything by Chris Coppel before but I love mystery and thriller novels and the synopsis really got my attention. We are introduced to Constable Andrew Whiting who is a police officer working in the Scottish Highlands which is a boring and cold posting until one night he gets a call about someone being found dead at the Waylight B & B. On the drive there, Andrew has a strange encounter with a stag as when he touches it to move it out the way of his car, he gets a vision of a car crash and a strange sensation which quickly passes. This might be hinting at something to come but we know once Andrew arrives at the Waylight he isn’t going to be leaving for a while due to the horrendous weather conditions. Here he learns that a guest called Alan chocked during dinner which was ironically the quail he shot that same day and while the others tried to help remove the bone from his throat and performed CPR they were unsuccessful. Andrew, however, has bigger problems as the weather is getting worse and they are in for a real snowstorm but in order for everyone to stay at the Lodge, the scene needs to be documented and the body removed but Andrew’s car won’t make it in the snow and his only chance is the owner’s 4 by 4 but he has been having trouble with it as well as the phones but Andrew decides to give it a shot.


Andrew quickly finds out that the car won’t run as a pack of rats have chewed through the fuel lines and they have also damaged the phone line which also powers the internet so Andrew, Elena, Helen, Leon and the 9 remaining guests are trapped at the Lodge. In between the main plot we also get some background on the characters in the form of little flashbacks to give you a sense of the characters and their relationships to each other which I found really interesting. As the snow fall gets heavier, Andrew has no choice but to spend the night at the Lodge and they have to find a way to preserve the body the best they can with what they have so Alan’s body ends up in the meat dresser where it won’t freeze but it minimize the risk of contamination. The following morning this get stranger when a woman claims that her knife cut her hand but she words it in a way that makes it seem like the knife had a mind of its own which seems insane. They also realise around this time that the Lodge is completely snowed in and they will be stuck there for a while until the weather improves and Andrew uses this time to begin questioning the other guests on the events on the night of Alan’s death.

Andrew spends the next hour or so interviewing everyone that was present at the dinner including Elena who tells Andrew that Alan did choke on a bone but he hadn’t started eating his quail yet which begs the question where did the bone come from. However, things continue to get stranger when Alan’s body completely disappears and yet there is no sign of anyone else being around as the snow would show human footprints or car tracks which is unlikely given the weather. Andrew much like Elena continue to avoid the meat, not because he is vegan but because he has an intolerance to white flour meaning he can’t eat a lot of the meat dishes on offer. As Andrew slowly gets to know the guests he is beginning to realise how cold and callous most of them are when they make jokes about Alan being the only body he has seen when he had to identify the remains of his parents after a bad car crash, and then they proceed to kill and doe and fawn who wandered too close to the Lodge purely for fun as they have plenty of meat stored for weeks. The strange happening continue when one of the guests claiming to have been deliberately tripped by the zebra rug claiming it moved but it is more likely to be the four bloody Mary’s he consumed. So far, the atmosphere is interesting as are the guest but I am hoping for something more substantial that a disappearing body and the furniture playing minor tricks on the guests as the most dangerous “trick” we have seen is a woman’s knife cutting her which is chalked up to an accident.

Learning more about the characters is one of the most interesting aspects about the novel so far as we know relatively little about them including Andrew even though we are almost halfway through. Things do begin to get more interesting as there seems to be a relationship developing between Elena and Andrew who are the only ones at this point who haven’t seen anything strange around the Lodge. Leon is the next target as he ventures into the basement to deal with the boiler which is acting up in the bad weather when suddenly the hunting relics in the basement begin moving. At first, Leon thinks it is his imagination acting up in the dark and slightly creepy basement but very quickly they begin circling him almost coming to life in hunting position to attack him but he is saved when Helen comes down to check on him and everything returns to normal. As she takes him upstairs to treat a burn on his arm he looks back down to see a stuffed cat scampering across the floor. Given that we don’t know much about the characters and their existing mental state we can’t say whether this actually happened or whether it was a delusional Leon suffered. Another guest witnesses something similar but rather than moving stuffed animals she sees the dead body of Alan being held up by masses of birds which makes sense since he was a birdwatcher but no one else saw it. Despite this Andrew does spot a single dark feather sitting on top of the undisturbed snow giving some weight to what Mrs. Adams saw but he still thinks it is impossible since Alan was clearly dead when he arrived.

The creep factor is slowly rising but there still isn’t much happening and I was waiting for another murder or serious injury of some sort to make the book really suck me in. More and more strange events keep happening around the Lodge and I think I am beginning to understand why. We have seen that both Andrew and Elena are exempt from these attacks, and I think this is because they both have a huge compassion for animals. Elena has this compassion because she is a vegan but Andrew’s comes from the car accident that killed his parents as the lorry that killed them was an animal transporter and he saw how badly the animals were killed and injured in that crash and he formed a sort of bond with them. Leon also seems to be targeted more than most even though he hasn’t really shown some of the callousness we have seen from some of the other guests, although I have to say the attack of the Christmas tree and Leon’s reactions afterwards were hilarious and literally made me laugh out loud despite the serious mood the book has tried to build. As we are getting close to the end of the novel I was hoping for the tension to begin rising now to drive towards the climax of the novel.

We get to learn more about Andrew’s history and how nothing went right for him after the death of his parents, he spent almost a month completely catatonic until a therapy dog was brought in to help him. After this he was released to the care of his grandmother but she spent months being harassed by a development company who was trying to buy her house even going as far as to kill her cat and physically injure the woman. While in hospital his grandmother contracting an infection and died meaning Andrew ended up in a children’s home where he suffered greatly until he was adopted. He got on well with the couple whose son had died in Iraq and was swiftly chosen as their foster child when he confesses he is a vegetarian probably from the animals he saw in the crash but it seems he finally found his footing in life again. Meanwhile, back in the present a couple of the guest are out hunting on Christmas day when they find themselves surrounded by deer who quickly trample the couple and it seems we are gearing towards the climax now but I honestly have no idea what it could involve. As we learn more about the characters we see connections between them that weren’t there before and it suddenly makes a lot more sense why these guests are being targeted. When another guest died and 3 are now missing, things are becoming stranger and stranger with seemingly no explanation but I have a feeling there might be a shocking twist in the final section of the novel.

The final section of The Lodge really brings everything together and while there weren’t any huge twists towards the end of the novel, the ones that were there were amazingly well executed and really brought together all the creepy elements that have been scattered throughout the novel. Learning the truth behind the strange occurrences at The Lodge was brilliant and the ending which sets it up to happen all over again was brilliant. I will definitely be checking out more of Chris Coppel’s work in the future. Highly recommended!

I normally don't read very many horror books but the synopsis of The Lodge really drew me in. I thought it was very well written, I couldn't put it down! I loved the way the author drew me in and held my attention throughout. I thought there were some nice twists that I wasn't expecting. I'll definitely look for more books from Chris Coppel in the future.

I received an e-ARC of this novel from Net galley, all opinions remain my own. Thank you Net Galley!

I have been wanting to get more into thrillers lately, but find that I am quite picky and this is why I requested this. Overall, I found the atmosphere was very present but it was ultimately not for me.

I quite enjoyed the way this novel was written and as I previously mentioned, the atmosphere was very strong throughout the story.

This story was fairly gruesome, and I would not recommend it for the faint of heart. I absolutely loved the conclusion of why all these things were happening and how; I thought it was a very strong concept.

I did however see the twist coming fairly early. It did not disappoint me that I was right, but rather made me interested in why this had been the author's choice. That said, I have to mention again how gruesome the story was. The nature of the deaths incited a visceral sense of discomfort and disgust from me.

Reading this novel is how I realized that maybe horror wasn't for me. If you are a fan of horror and thrillers, I think you will quite like this one. Also, there is a clear moral to the story which is nice.

The Lodge, what can I say but yet another winner from this fresh talent of horror thriller writer Chris Coppel. Taking a genre and keeping it fresh and finding a new way to thrill, chill and keep the reader fully invested.

The Lodge starts out in the Scotland and may I add that I do not know much about the author but writing and able to capture his environment such as The States in Lucky and now Scotland in this book, he really knows how to capture his places. Excellent job. We start out with a new policeman on a snowy evening being called out over the accidental death of a hunting resort which all seems quite normal. This takes a drastic turn starting with his car journey to the Lodge and we are now in the capable hands of our author. We find ourselves in the depths of a Agatha Christie meets Patricia Highsmith animal shorts and we are all along for the ride.

The characters are strong and again Coppel has managed to mix dark humour with social commentary very well. He has an interesting way of drawing out the characters and when you have a large cast, it is very easy to have some get lost in the shuffle which Coppel avoids. Every character stamps their impression onto the readers subconscious long after their demise.

The plot is very intricately written using a whodunit, mystery, suspense, thriller and horror genres and mixing these to a very unique experience. Coppel has fun with his plots twists and turns but keeps everything in the realistic department with a supernatural bent. This means that he keeps everything real within the confines of his story and doesn’t pigeonhole plot devices to make it work. These are all done naturally.

This is another thrill ride and social commentary from Coppel who is fast becoming a true favourite of mine. I can’t wait to read what he comes out with next but I am going to be there devouring his next great work. Thought provoking, thrilling, horrific, darkly funny and downright entertaining. This is a well worthwhile binge read and one that never disappointments. Highly recommended.

Animals take revenge against their hunters in this short horror story set in the Scottish Highlands in the week between Christmas and New Year., Chris Coppel’s ‘The Lodge’ opens with a young officer (Andrew) receiving a phone call from a hunting Air B&B about a sudden death. Andrew drives up the mountain to the remote Inn with a snow storm starting and then is forced to stay with Helen, Leon and Elena, the Lodge Managers and wait out the snow. While investigating the choking death of Alan Hutchinson, he realizes all is not right in this bed & breakfast. As the bodies pile up and he still can't get back down the mountain, Andrew begins to fear for his own life.

Chris Coppel writes this book with the creepiness of 'Pet Sematary' blended with some dark humor and a lot of blood and gore. The characters are hilarious caricatures of the rich and wealthy who soon becoming the hunted. While a succinct Novella, this book is certainly a juicy page turner. The suspense, witty banter and great characters make this a superb read.

The Lodge is a wild thriller with fun kills and a bonkers villain. Coppel does an amazing job of crafting the narrative to create a slow burning suspense that leads to an eruptive climax. The story centers around a snowbound hunter’s lodge in the Highlands where a group of couples plan to enjoy Christmas. After the death of one of the patrons, a young constable, Andrew, braves the storm to investigate. Soon, he and the others are trapped as they realize they are now the hunted.

Readers will cheer for Andrew as his backstory weaves through the plot. At first, the background interruptions feel heavy handed, but as they continue to pepper the story and readers learn more about the characters, the tension and stakes are raised, and the interruptions are welcome. While most of the characters jumped off the page, one felt a bit too stiff and unrealistic. Elena, a vegan who works at the Lodge, came across a little silly at times as she repeatedly grabbed Andrew’s hand to show him around, even though they had just met, and also seemed a little too childlike in her attempts to flirt with him. However, the other guests and owners of the Lodge brought the story to life.

There are plenty of surprises in this quick paced read sure to win over horror and thriller enthusiasts. The book doesn’t take itself too seriously while dealing with serious themes of grief and anger. Readers will find themselves quickly sucked into the drama unfolding at the Lodge.

4 Stars!

“The hunters become the hunted” is what is promised on the cover of The Lodge by Chris Coppel along with the skull and antlers of a deer. Not knowing anything about the story or the author, this was enough to lure me into the novel so I decided that I just had to give it a read.



It is Christmas in the Scottish Highlands when a blizzard begins to set in and one of the guests at a hunting lodge suddenly dies at the dinner table. Andrew, a young constable, is called out to the remote lodge only to find himself stranded there as the blizzard takes hold and cuts the lodge off from the rest of the world. The lodge is festively decorated for the holiday with lights and ornaments adorning its hallways in stark contrast to the dead body in the dining room. The animal heads and various hunting trophies that are on display throughout also seem to bring an element of death to what should be a time of pure celebration that Andrew finds odd. Upon the surface, the death of the guest seems like an accident. Then things begin to get strange.



First the body goes missing. Then, if that is not strange enough, there are a couple events that almost make it seem like the hunting trophies may have a hideous second life of their own. Things seem to move around on their own and the guests seem to have what seem like frightening hallucinations except for the fact that they get scratched and bruised in the process. No one is sure what is happening in the lodge but it is clear that the humans are not welcome there and may not be allowed to leave. It almost seems as if Mother Nature is aiming for revenge on those who hunt her innocent children and these hunters are in her sights. It is time for the hunters to become the hunted, but who or what exactly is controlling the predators?



I would like to first say that The Lodge is just a lot of fun to read. I had never read anything by Chris Coppel before but I am sure that this will not be the last book I read by the author. I was drawn into the story fairly quickly and the action amped up quickly as the lodge got cut off from the outside world. The pacing was intense but never strayed from the central narrative and did not seem rushed at all. The reader is pulled along through the story but there was enough detail to flesh the story out so that it never felt rushed or incomplete. Coppel uses a deft hand with the pacing of the novel so that it was fast without become too fast. Details were streamlined but not still strong enough to keep the story feeling real. Sometimes a fast-paced horror novel can feel like watching a TV show: a fast entertainment method with little substance. The Lodge moved quickly without losing its intensity and kept me feeling invested in the story throughout. This was just a fast-paced and fun book to read overall.



If I want to be critical of the novel, I would point out that I thought the transitions back and forth between the past and present were a bit less than stellar. They did break up the story a little bit in the second half of the novel and I thought that they gave away the ending a little too soon but maybe that is just my critical mind at play. In fact, I think that some readers may find the slower-paced flashbacks as a sort of resting spot to take a breather before jumping back in. I did not find a critical error in this, but I did think that it broke up the flow a little and the story would have been better serviced to have more of these in the first half of the book with only the end of it toward the conclusion of the novel. I could quibble a bit with the explanation of what was happening as well because it just does not sit quite right with me, but that is more of a personal preference thing and I get it so I think it is good in the grand scheme of things. Overall, The Lodge is just a fun and quick read for the horror fan looking to kill a little bit of time. I really enjoyed the book overall and would recommend it to fans of horror similar to Dean Koontz’s old novels but with maybe just a bit more of an edge. I look forward to reading more from Coppel in the future.



I would like to thank Troubador Publishing/Matador and NetGalley for this review copy. The Lodge is available now.

Andrew Whiting is a brand new constable in tiny Kingussie, in the Highlands of Scotland. He is called to a lush and remote hunting lodge to investigate an accidental death during a blizzard on Christmas Eve. The lodge has recently opened and is hosting an extravagant, all-inclusive traditional Scottish holiday for a handful of privileged guests. Once Andrew arrives at the lodge, it quickly becomes clear that he won't be able to leave for at least a day or two due to the storm. The storm has also knocked out cell and land line service, so the isolation is complete. It might be nice to spend the holiday at the cozy lodge, until some events start to unfold that suggest there may be foul play involved in the case of the dead guest.

I liked this book. It was fun to read, and to follow the story as it unfolded. It was dark and it was fast pacedIt kept me guessing throughout the entire book and kept me turning the pages. There were some good scares, some really creepy imagery and some very solid gore. I really enjoyed the setting - a lush hunting lodge in the Highlands of Scotland on Christmas. Beautiful wilderness scenery, lots of leather and tartan plaids. And lots and lots of taxidermized animal trophies. I give the plot high points for creativity, and I really enjoyed the life that the author brought to the characters. There were some that I really loved, and some I really loved to hate. I liked jumping into each person's back story and learning how they come to be who they were at present. I was a little puzzled by the tone of the book - it was really very light and playful. Some of the dialogue read almost like a rom-com, and it was a bit jarring compared to the stark gore that was piling up as more guests were lost. I don't know if the mis-match was intended as a way to throw the reader off balance, but it struck me as odd and a little confusing. Overall, it was fun and creative and I think any horror lover would enjoy reading it. Thank you to Netgalley and Matador for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my opinion.

I honestly picked this story up because I love a good horror story set in an isolated area with bad weather keeping people at the mercy of whatever sinister force is against them.
This definitely isn’t your average story and I liked that it did have some surprises for the typical trope. However, I felt like the writing was a bit choppy in the beginning. It felt very odd and some of the dialogue came off very unnatural. The conversations between some of the characters came off very forced and strange, almost like they didn’t know how to actually talk to other people.
I also felt like some things didn’t make sense to the story, kinda like it was filler and not actually important to the story.
The story was a pretty fast read, but I do feel like it could have been even shorter and maybe eliminated some of the bits that weren’t too important to the story.
I did start enjoying it more about halfway through and I really liked the plot twist at the end. It was probably my favorite part of the story and redeemed it overall for me. I would be interested in reading more in the future from this author.

I liked this book and I didn't. It had some really great elements, some great tension building thriller moments. However, some parts of this book seem to drag and I feel a lot could have been cut out and it would have been more enjoyable.

What a gripping thriller.

This was a very disturbing but good read.

Thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish and could not get enough of.

This is a must read for anyone who enjoys a good thriller!!
Absolutely loved the characters, the plot, the tension -  impossible to put it down.
Certainly recommended!

The Lodge is a fast paced quick read with a really interesting original plot and one I very much enjoyed.
I found it creepy at times especially when reading it late at night.
The characters are easy to follow, although there are a few of them and at times I had to stop and think about who was who.
Overall this was a book I enjoyed and after a few chapters found myself whizzing through.

I love "when animals attack" eco-horror. It's one of those genres that I do tend to get a bit giddy about simply because I enjoy the concept of animals taking their revenge. The Lodge essentially follows that pattern. A guest at a hunting lodge in the remote Scottish Highlands experiences a harsh end, choking during dinner. Andrew, the constable sent to make sure there was no foul play at hand, then gets snowed in at the lodge with its owners and guests.

There's no wait to get into the action as the guest dies in the first few pages. It's not long after that the weird stuff starts happening and there is plenty of weird. Eco-horror either plays itself completely straight or on the campy side. The Lodge is a strange mix of the two. On one hand, you have a horde of intelligent rats dismantling the vehicles so there is no escape and on the other, you have some Evil Dead taxidermy waling on the wall. There's absolutely some great imagery here though.

The Lodge has a lot of flashback-style, character backstories, which honestly, didn't really further the book for me and distracted me from the here and now. Taking the reader out of the story to a backstory blocked the flow of the novel as the back stories didn't always feel like they were organic. While show vs. tell has always been a debated writing tool, the info dump chosen often here instead made them feel flat.

I grew up in a hunting family and my husband hunts. None of my family, even the most enthusiastic of hunters, were ever like the ridiculous caricatures of hunters that are in the book. There are probably hunters out there like this, but I've not met them. On top of that, the actions of the characters just didn't make sense. They all seemed to be stereotypical ideals of what they should be, even the vegans.

The Lodge seemed to have the perfect formula for a great read. There were multiple storylines that converged in the end, but there really weren't any surprises. It was intriguing enough to be a fast read but the plot seemed to get more convoluted as it went. I liked the idea but found the execution bland.

The devil is always in the details and The Lodge dishes them out like a nice steak dinner…ahem, perhaps the wrong pun. Life is a revolving door and Coppel manages to intermingle different plot lines that unravel when you least expect it. He is masterfully adept at weaving societal and conscientious topics that not only question your way of life but have you examining the lasting impact of said choices. If you’re a fan of the closed-door mystery with a large helping of horror, then you are going to want to pick this up immediately.

I don’t know what I was expecting when I picked up The Lodge, but my expectations were soon realized. The reader is immediately thrown onto a dark, cold and mysterious path. Get the hat and gloves out because the sinister narrative will seep into your very core. My blood began to run cold, as I imagined the wind biting at my exposed flesh as if I were transported to the highlands. The plot is so raw and gritty which translates into a fully immersive reading experience. A few words were all it took to be sitting in The Lodge fearing for my life.

Andrew is a fascinating character. He’s had a hellish life and his life experiences have catapulted him towards a career in the police force. A graduate in the police force hungers for action in the big cities but Andrew is content with the quiet, his first posting being in a rural station in Kingussie. He lost his parents when he was twelve in a horrific road traffic accident. They were hit by an animal carrier, the devastation and destruction wrought on his family is absolute.

The Lodge is bleeding in its authenticity. Past wrongs implicate and really come back to bite you on the ass. The animals are fighting back. Helen and Leon have organized an inclusive Christmas package at the newly refurbished Lodge. No expense spared and the guests are all hunters, expecting well, to hunt. Little did they expect to become the hunted. A gory tale of revenge and grief, the story developed a life of its own and grabbed me by the throat. It wasn’t just the death and bloodshed that had me hooked – it was the exploration of Andrews mind that gave it greater depth.

The Lodge reminded me of an Agatha Christie type of closed-door mystery and teamed with the horror and gore left me salivating. It ended up being a Tour-de-force, an imaginative blend of suspense and grit.