A gripping read with lots of twists and turns along the way.
Who can be trusted? `I changed my mind several times during the reading of this book. All of the characters are keeping something from the others and so all are suspect.
A book that keeps the reader fully engaged.

I have never read this author before & I honestly don’t know why. What a cracker of a psychological thriller. I was a bit dubious of the blurb as ‘remote setting, bodies turning up’ has been a bit of a theme lately, but I was so pleased that I chose to read it.

Jen has hired an exclusive Scottish island for her hen do. She does not know all her guests well; one is her fiancé’s sister, others her childhood friends & another someone she has only known for a few months. After a drunken night on cocktails, a murder is discovered & another woman taken. Someone is demanding that truths are told &, of course, the entire group have something to hide.

A very entertaining & taut thriller. Shocks aplenty & highly recommended.

The Power of the Blurb

What attracts me initially when selecting a book to read is the cover. This is quickly followed by the blurb. No matter how pretty or eye-catching the cover is, the blurb is what 'sells' a book to me.

When the book falls short of the expectation that the blurb seems to promise, this reader for one, feels cheated.

I read for pleasure primarily so when I'm reaching the halfway point and I'm struggling to connect with the characters and engage with the story, something is not quite right for me.

I will say that it did get better and turned out to be an ok read. For me though, the first half was a major stumbling block.

Wow. What a novel. Kept me hooked throughout. Really enjoyed the way that everyone’s secrets were revealed. Thanks for the opportunity to read

Oh I love a good island set Murder mystery with some friendship and blackmail thrown in.

Imagine being invited to a hen do, not just a den do but one in a private island with a rock star, her thrown over guitar player and assorted others who had wronged each other or others in the past.

This is a no holes barred thriller with good pace and interesting characters who become more real as the story progresses.

Good twists along the way and well worth a read.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am a big fan of this author - both his series featuring the wonderful Jack Parlabane, and his stand alones such as this one. And the Ambrose Parry ones he co-writes with his wife. But, although I did really enjoy this book, most of the time it didn't feel like a typical Brookmyre. There was scant Scottish vernacular, just the odd word or phrase to remind you of the setting and characters' backgrounds. It all felt a bit watered down compared to what he usually produces. Not that the story lacked anything, just didn't quite have his mark stamped as hard. So... if you have wavered before about this author, maybe it's time to try again...
So... Jen is getting wed. It's her second marriage, her first ended in the disappearance of her husband. But that hasn't stopped her from going big with the hen weekend. A luxury remote island has been booked. The helicopter not due to return for 72 hours. An eclectic group of friends invited. What could possibly go wrong...?
And so begins a twisty turny tale that, once it was set up - which did take a wee while - that had me on the edge of my seat throughout. Well, OK, I did guess something quite key very early on which meant that that reveal was a bit flat, but there was plenty more to surprise me. And, to be honest, I've been spectacularly wrong before so...
The characters were well described and all played their parts well. Spoilers prevent me from singling them out and giving examples so you'll have to just trust my word. Suffice to say I did change my mind about several of them along the way - as it should be in a book of this genre.
The plot was well crafted and executed and contained all the usual secrets, lies and duplicitous behaviour you'd expect and want. Yes the first quarter or so is concerned with character introductions, background and scene setting but it's necessary and worth it for what follows. Pacing follows the narrative well all the way through, ramping up to the final showdown and fallout. Which left me wholly satisfied, and a wee bit smug too.
All in all, although not what I would categorise as a typical Brookmyre, a thoroughly decent read nonetheless. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I thought the premise for this was really good, a locked room mystery on an island where everyone has secrets and where everyone will do anything to keep them that way.

It wasn’t Christopher Brookmyre’s usual style but it was still enjoyable.

I was really looking forward tocthis book after reading the premise but unfortunately the characters were not very likeable which made it very difficult to get interested in their stories.
Add in that it was a very slow burn, I found it a real struggle to get through.

One thing I really love to see in a novel is a writer taking a well-known situation, turning it inside out, and making it fresh again.

Which is just what Brookmyre does in The Cliff House. Seven women, are stranded on a Scottish island, with no communications - and a killer at large. You can see where this is coming from, and a better take on the And Then There Were None setup I've yet to read - an especially difficult task for an author, I think, in our modern world of mobiles, wifi and messaging. But Brookmyre makes that into a plus: all those secrets that might be vulnerable online, all the possibilities for deception and social engineering...

Add to that the extent that seven are all interesting, well developed and distinct characters. Lauren, the wealthy property-developer and owner of the venue for entrepreneur Jen's luxurious hen-do. Michelle, pop diva and once bandmate of resentful Helena. Beattie, sister of Jen's missing-presumed-dead ex, Jason. (Awkward...) Samira, sister of Jen's soon-to-be husband, Zaki. Kennedy, Jen's tennis coach and general woman of mystery. And Nicolette, whose place here is unclear. Brookmyre sets up secrets, resentments, long-smouldering grudges and hatreds which are implied, but not explained, in the early chapters, then lets rip with a catastrophe and a sudden, unanticipated, life-or-death struggle.

It's soon clear that everybody here has something they want to keep hidden, and that for most of them, that's not just from fear of exposure and ridicule: the stakes are higher than that - life, liberty, wealth and status, and regard - all those are on the line (and other, subtler factors such as the tug of guilt and threats to a carefully built and tended self-image, or to a long nurtured and indulged grudge). Not everyone is trying to work an angle, we are told, but the evidence presented rather disproves that and indeed some seem to have so many angles that they could easily have stepped from a Lovecraftian story.

With so much going on, it would be easy for the reader to be confused. However, Brookmyre's brilliant characterisation means that is never an issue. Also he uses to a clever trick of pairing everyone off for most of the book, so that the focus is on interactions between three pairs of women, allowing for a progressively deeper and more complex exploration of their fears and histories - and for some dicey moments - before everyone is brought together again as truths, and accusations, emerge.

There's also a really wicked vein of humour and many pithy observations of life - part of the backstory includes abusive and manipulative partners, couples who've simply fallen out of love with each other, obsession, and opportunism. Plus an experience common to many of the women of absence - whether that be a partner, a parent, or a child, and of the attempts made to overcome that (or ignore it). It makes for a book that's emotionally complex as well as a devilish crime mystery, indeed, a book that sparkles on every page, seizing the reader and carrying them along through the process of revealing red herrings, forcing everyone to fess up (will they do it before The Reaper does it for them, or just does for them?) and - which is the part I enjoyed most - creating little realignments, moments of realisation that, just perhaps, those long-held grudges and hatred might shift.

With the emphasis on "might". Everyone here is under intense pressure, backs to the wall, with no help or support. Old fears and guilts become powerful, and maybe it's best just to shut up and keep your head down? Or come out fighting? Or is there a better way to try and survive? In the end, at the heart of this story, is a very moral, very human dimension. Yes, it may all be a game of Prisoner's Dilemma writ large, but the complexities of relations between the seven make it hard for anyone to settle on a winning strategy. And there isn't time to ponder things...

Sheer absorbing writing, simply begging to be read.

This was the sort of book which sounds great but, the characters were not very likeable or that interesting. The book was very slow and just seemed to,plod,it’s way through . Nit as good as I hoped. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

I was quite keen to start the book as the blurb sounded quite intriguing. However as the story progressed I was a bit disappointed. The story line was getting a little too imaginative and even though it is fiction, there has to be a limit to how much I can extend my imagination. I did think that the story could have been amazing had it been kept a little simpler. Too many twists are not always a good thing.

thank you @netgalley and @littlebrowngroup for access to the eARC of this book. Cant believe i left it so long to read it!

this book had me shocked!

Okay so lets be real, and im going to be open and transparent with you all. The first 50% of this book, i was messaging Paige saying how bored I was and how it was dragging and asking her when it gets good. Im so glad she told me to keep going.

As with any mystery/thriller books, there are reveals, and the reveals in this book were perfection! Noone can tell me any different. I won’t hear it. I audibly gasped when the major reveal happened.

Characters were written well, and you can really feel how messy they are. Lies and deceits woven into their very fabric. Loved it.

Plot, as above, was a bit mis-timed for me.

“But Charlotte, why did you give it 5 stars then?”

Listen, any book which makes me gasp outloud because it was so shocking and surprising, HAS to get a 5 star review. Because i FELT it!

I haven’t read anything by this author before. I liked the whole behind it but I found it quite hard work at the beginning as there were so many characters introduced. It had a unique storyline and the ending was good

A group of women are all heading to a remote Scottish Island to celebrate the upcoming Wedding of one of them. Each of them have secrets unknown to the others.
When they get there, they are greeted by Lauren, the woman who owns the beautiful house they are staying in and are joined by another friend who has come from another island where she has been on a retreat.
This is the time that Jen has met her future sister-in-law, Samira, who is the recent mother of twins.
Several of the woman know each other from way back, but not are a friends. When something happens that could rip the group apart, they have to work together to try and survive or each fight for their own survival.
I really liked this tale and struggled to put it down.

I’ve been a huge fan of Chris Brookmyre ever since I read Boiling A Frog. He writes incredibly well; he is inventive, different and he always tells a compelling story. All these things are true of The Cliff House, with the exception being that this book follows a well-trodden path.
Yes, it’s the locked room mystery set on an island that is made impossible to leave.
The premise is a hen weekend. Seven women, each harbouring a secret, travel to the island of Clachan Geal for the celebration of Jen’s forthcoming nuptials. Jen has made it. She’s independently wealthy after building and then selling her own business. So she indulges herself and her friends by hiring a fabulous house on the island and a private chef to cater to them.
Jen is marrying Zaki Hussain, and he has persuaded her to invite his sister, Samira. Samira has had a tough time recently after having twins and she really needs a bit of pampering – and some time away from caring for two boisterous, demanding children.
Also present is Beattie, Jen’s former sister-in-law. Jen’s first husband, Jason was a policeman and he disappeared and is now presumed dead, in circumstances which left his reputation in tatters. Added to this party are Nicolette, a fashion consultant , (kudos here for expert fashion knowledge from Mr Brookmyre) Kennedy, who is Jen’s tennis coach and Helena. The final ‘hen’ is the famous and glamorous Michelle.

Michelle and Helena used to be in the same band, but Michelle grasped the opportunity to embark on a solo career and despite the fact that she and Helena had formed the band together as childhood friends, she left her behind without a second glance.
They haven’t seen each other since, but Jen hopes that this will be a chance for them to make up and be friends. Michelle is hurting just now. She’s been relentlessly trolled on social media culminating in the release of a sex tape which has deeply humiliated her, so her attendance at any social gathering is in doubt and Jen is relieved when she shows up on the island.
Completing those present is the house’s owner Lauren, a property developer and the chef who sounds like a Jason Mamoa clone.
Of course, each one of these women has secrets and of course they emerge slowly across the course of the book after a grisly murder and abduction by someone who calls themselves ‘The Reaper’. Now we are in the ‘race against time’ phase of the locked island mystery.
The women are forced to pair off and go looking for their abducted friend as all communications outside of the island have been cut off and there is no obvious means of transport to allow them to leave.
In such stressful circumstances, the women turn their suspicions on each other and their poisonous secrets slowly seep out. One of them, the Reaper says, is an imposter – not who she claims to be. The trouble is that each woman thinks that description applies to her.
Brookmyre’s novel follows a similar trajectory to a number of recent novels, (written mainly by women, though Ragnar Jonasson’s Outside is a notable exception) all of which owe their genesis to the original Agatha Christie concept.
The island could be anywhere; not much is made of the wild Atlantic coastline or the Scottish landscape to deepen and enrich the atmospherics. But in the end, the main issue for me is that, however clever you are about building in twists and turns, there are only so many suspects and it is all too easy to work out who the perpetrator must be.
Sometimes that doesn’t matter because you’re caught up in the characters’ lives and you care about their outcomes, but actually none of these women really rises above the secrets that they hold.
Verdict: I loved the playlist that the women use in the house and which beautifully points to the secrets that each holds. That was a great example of an innovative way of raising the tension. I enjoyed the revealing of each woman’s secrets. Overall though, I’m really not sure why Chris Brookmyre chose to write in this tradition. I don’t feel it rises above any others I have read in this genre and it lacks the creativity and darkness of many of his other books.

The Cliff House is a standalone novel from Christopher Brookmyre, a whole new setting and cast of characters from his previous crime writing . It’s set on a remote Scottish island where 6 women are gathering for Jen’s extravagant hen weekend . They all know Jen of course but are largely strangers to each other or have old grudges that have been festering away .

It’s going to be a big blow out weekend, spa treatments, fine dining with a private chef, the works. The group are enjoying their first night cocktails when they discover the chef has been murdered. In the midst of the panic, all of their phones ping simultaneously and a terrifying message to them all appears including a video of one of their group being held hostage.

It’s a masterclass in leaving clues and unanswered questions about all of the characters, as the story is told through different voices and perspectives. The characters are well written and their back stories were well plotted and written.

It feels like I have read a few ‘’murder island’ books recently but this is up there with the best in terms of tension and plot twists. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This was the first book I have read from this author and I'm not sure after this if I want to read any of his others.
When this book started I found it to be intriguing, atmospheric and it had a lot a tension. I was enjoying it and found the characters to be well defined and was never confused as to who was who (as I find that can happen when there are a lot of characters in a story)
But then things started to happen which ruined my enjoyment. Those things were reading about all the characters backstories. This really dragged the story for me and wiped out all the tension that had been well built from the start.
Then came reveal after reveal, each more ridiculous than the previous one and had me rolling my eyes as the story descended into an over the top, ridiculous story. It was all just too much and totally ruined the book for me. It felt like the author was throwing out absolutely everything he could think of into one story.

One hen weekend, seven secrets… but only one worth killing for

A triumphant release from Scotland’s favourite author, The Cliff House is Chris Brookmyre at his brilliant best.

As six friends embark on a hen weekend on a secluded island, their hope is a weekend of celebration and in some cases, a reunion of sorts. Early on, we learn that the bride-to-be is having some doubts, which she keeps to herself, but her past has taught her to be suspicious of her betrothed and this suspicion carries her through a personal journey of paranoia.

When one party member is abducted, the hens, along with their host, find themselves faced with a seemingly impossible demand from the kidnapper: one of them has a secret, and not revealing that secret could get them all killed.

But whose secret is putting them all in danger?

The women must either be completely honest with each other in order to survive and as each of them cautiously guard their secrets, they risk turning on each other. Consciously disobeying the kidnapper, they must trust each other as they try to find their missing friend, whilst they avoid revealing their darkest secrets. But trust is a fickle mistress when everyone has a past they regret.

Peril, danger, and heightened suspense are carefully threaded throughout The Cliff House, as Brookmyre expertly weaves past with the present with great fluidity to slowly eke out the characters’ weaknesses and histories.

Chris Brookmyre, for fans of his past work (back when we knew him as Christopher), is well adept and skilled at character development. His modis operandi, is dropping his reader in the middle of action straight out of the gate, and presenting characters with scant details to start. Then by giving each character a section or chapter to themselves, we begin to learn about them each; seemingly first hand.

Of course he doesn’t give the reader all the details in one go; but in drips and drabs we learn about each character until, finally by the end, we find we’ve come to know each character as well as they know themselves.

I have wondered while reading The Cliff House, whether Brookmyre created a character study on each player (or maybe reached back through previously unreleased character studies) and plonked a handful of them together into the cliff house to see what would happen. So well-developed are the characters, that the plot, like truth, is revealed.

Whether you’ve read from Chris Brookmyre’s past works, or if this is your first experience, he never disappoints with his snappy, snarky dialogue; as he takes us on an exciting and revealing journey into plot and character development. The finality of the last page is a relief at last when all is fully revealed, questions are answered and resolution lifting the suspense he has built throughout the novel. Like a welcome rain after days of drought, the novel at last releases us from its bewitching spell, leaving us wanting more: not necessarily more of the novel, but definitely more of Chris Brookmyre.

When you finally get your hands on The Cliff House make sure you strap in because you’re about to be dropped straight into the action with no end in sight until you turn the final page.

With special thanks to Little, Brown and Netgalley for the advanced copy of The Cliff House by Chris Brookmyre. This is my honest review

Very much enjoyed reading this book. It kept me guessing all the way through and I was always surprised how the direction changed continually. It was a lovely easy escapism read but probably a little too unreal to be possible. However, having said this it had a really great pace with intriguing characters all of whom had their own stories.

My first time with this author and it definitely won't be my last.

Twisty, turny. very satisfying ending.

Difficult o review without spoliers but highly recommend.