Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for this ARC.

It's the Christmas school holidays and Sara has been invited to a week in a posh villa in Oman, the Middle East, by Guy and Margot Forrest, her daughter Liv's boyfriend Flynn's rich parents. They used to live in Oman and have rented a villa in their old neighbourhood. On the first evening, former neighbour Celine, a lively teacher, attaches herself to the group and is soon part of it, to Margot's chagrin who is sure that she and Guy are having an affair.

One day they are all going camping in the desert and when they wake up, Celine is dead. The adults agree to bury her and concoct an alibi story, and while it at first seems to have been successful, paranoia soon sets in and everyone suspects one of the others to have strangled Celine.

The story is told in first person POV by Sara and third person POV by Margot. The writing style was fine and I read it quickly, but maybe because there was barely any plot or tension. The culprit was revealed early on and while there were minor twists, they didn't feel interesting. As far as mysteries go, this was pretty predictable.

Apart from the teenagers, everyone was morally ambiguous and unlikeable. Guy held up several red flags and as for Sara and Margot, they both really revealed how far they would go for their children and themselves, and it was mental. There was so much deceit! Unfortunately, the pace felt slow and much less tense than it should have been. Everyone was just out for themselves and I didn't really care about them.

I liked the descriptions of Oman, with souks and deserts and exotic food, and the ending felt acceptable, even though it was morally grey. Read if you like stories with secrets, deceits and family dramas.

This was my first book by this author, but the premise really caught my attention. I immediately clicked with the writing style, so I knew within a few chapters that I would really enjoy this one.

I'm a sucker for destination thrillers, and the descriptions of Oman were fantastic, I was fully immersed in the story and almost felt like I was there myself. The second half of the book takes place back in England, and I was concerned that the pacing would flag at this point, but I needn't have worried, the story continued to hold my attention, especially the last 20% or so which I couldn't read fast enough! The ending was brilliant.

The characters were multi-faceted and felt like real people. The dialogue felt natural, which is a really hard thing to get right but can really make or break a book for me.

Overall I would 100% recommend this book, and I will definitely be reading more by the author.

I had high hopes for this novel, having enjoyed work from this author previously. I was not disappointed - this is a great story, twisty, gripping and nicely exotic - given the sunny Middle Eastern location.

The plot is based on Sarah, trying to rebuild her relationship with 17year old daughter, Liv, by joining a holiday with Liv, her boyfriend and his parents. The destination is Oman, where boyfriend and parents Margo and Guy previously lived. On the holiday they are frequently joined by Celine, an ex-pat they befriended when residing there previously.

All is going fairly well until they camp in the dessert and thereafter things get seriously messy!!

This is a great read, lots of plot twists and a very worthy ending! Highly recommended.

My thanks to NetGalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an advance copy.

Sara and her daughter, Olivia, have been invited to go on a holiday with her boyfriend, Flynn and his parents.

This is only the start of the problems as each member of the family have issues and secrets.

How these secrets unearth eventually show family tensions, and quite soon someone ends up dead.

This is a twisty and addictive read, I'm not sure I cared for any of the characters except for Olivia who is caught up in the grown ups devious behaviour.

The plot is good and the story unfolds beautifully. This is a good holiday read and I enjoyed my reading time

I love this author, so I was very excited to get an ARC of this book. As always, it's really good! I loved the setting and the awkward and tense atmosphere between the characters, and the mistrust that grows between them all. It was addictive in that way, I always wanted to carry on reading. At times characters acted in a way that didn't feel entirely natural, but it had to be that way to keep the secret and twists, which is fair enough! This would be a great vacation read!

So this had great promise, Sara and her daughter, Olivia, go on a holiday to the Middle East with her boyfriend, Flynn and his parents. There’s family tensions, possible cheating, abusive relationships and of course, someone ends up dead. It’s a good book but clunky so what should be a thriller with twists and turns, it’s a tad obvious and I’m not sure I cared.
Sara and other characters have secrets, a few have a murky history and yet none of it was presented in a way you thought it surprising or twisty.
An enjoyable read but I’m confused if I liked it.
Full of promise, but doesn’t quite do what it should.

When Sara gets invited on holiday with her daughter's boyfriends family, she is a little nervous, not knowing his family well but Sara will do anything to make her daughter happy. Things seem to go well, they all make time for each other and they have a good laugh. But when tragedy strikes, is this family really who they say they are. And then things start to unravel and Sara wishes she never came on this holiday. This was such a good thriller read, quick paced, dark in places and full of suspense. I guessed half way what the ending would be but it was still good, there are a few twists along the way and it had me on the edge of my seat on anticipation for the ending. It was so good and I really enjoyed it. I will be looking out for Annabel's books in the future.

This book was hard to follow due to a formatting issue. Pages were out of order or half of the page would be repeated. Quite annoying but I got the jist of it.

Sara and her daughter go on a vacation to the Middle East with her boyfriend and his parents. While staying overnight in the desert, someone ends up dead. They hightail it back home. Tension and tempers rise as the body is found. Who will turn on each other? It was a good book, just the formatting issues made it annoying to try to read.