Published By: Viper
Pages: 400
Released On: 15/02/2024
Everyone brings their secrets to the island…
On the beautiful and windswept island of Tresco, two worlds live side by side. The wealthy visitors come by helicopter to stay at their lavish time-share properties. The estate staff travel by boat, and work all hours to keep them happy, to keep the money flowing in.
But while the blue skies and savage waves make the island seem a wild paradise, under the surface the inhabitants are concealing more than they dare reveal. The truths about their marriages, their love affairs, and what they do in the darkness while their neighbours are sleeping.
As black clouds come rolling in and a storm hits the island, truths and rumours begin to tumble out, wreaking terrible damage. In the midst of the tempest, two women are attacked and one goes missing. The secrets of this fragile community can no longer be hidden if it hopes to survive. The islanders must finally reveal what they did in the storm, no matter the cost.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Viper for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I love the description that Tina has written for the location, the image she has created in my mind is just gorgeous. You can practically see the island, feel it, and it sounds idyllic – well, at first anyway. Islands around the UK always intrigue me, islands off of Cornwall or Scotland; they promise so much relaxation and beauty, but always contain a hidden darkness.
She has this talent to create a sense of atmosphere. Whether it be a good atmosphere or a bad atmosphere, she excels. You know something is on the cusp of happening, and you’re on edge, willing it to happen but wanting it to stop.
It’s very deceptive. It starts as quite a normal, everyday, piece of literary fiction. A bit of romance, a bit of drama, the odd humorous scene, but then it becomes this rush, this thriller, both literally and psychological.
I will say that, at least at first, there was a few too many characters for me to fully keep on top of. That might just be a personal thing as I have a rubbish memory and often forget who I’m reading (maybe I need a notebook by my side when I read?), but I will admit that they are all needed to help move the story along.
I’ve said before that I prefer character development over plot, and whilst this has some fabulously written characters, this felt more plot heavy than anything else, and I surprisingly enjoyed that. Some characters are delightful, and others are seriously horrid’ there’s a great spectrum and she’s written all of them really well.
It does flit through time, from the present to a few months before, to the previous year. There are scenes “before the storm” and “after the storm”. It took a little bit of time to get to grips with it but it was still enjoyable. I preferred the shorter chapters (usually the ones surrounding the storm) as they were snappy and really added to this sense of tension. It is hard to say whether it is a linear story or not. It does appear to be so, with the odd flashback, but now I’ve finished it I’m not sure, I was never 100% sure which time I was in, which was interesting. It seemed to be a linear narrative, at the same time as flitting back and forth, which sounds confusing but go with it.
I would say I enjoyed it more the further I got in. Not that it started bad, but I felt it really picked up in the second half and the ending was the perfect end, putting a real spanner in the works.
It’s slow. And I don’t mean that as a negative. It is a slow burner, teasing you with bits, wearing you down, ensuring you’re fully invested in the characters and situation before hitting you hard, which for me is the best kind of psychological thriller.
Tina has this ability to sew terror into everything. There’s clearly something going on and clearly people are hiding things. But she’s not been as obvious as that. Everything – the location, the dialogue, the actions – is underpinned by this sense of unease that really gets under your skin.
This was my first of Tina’s books and whilst there may have been a couple of things that niggled at me due to my personal reading preferences, it is a great read; it’s interesting, entertaining, atmospheric, eerie, inviting, with great characters (some good, some bad), a real sense of place, and she has a real grasp of the emotions felt by the reader.
I was thinking about how it stacks up against other thrillers I’ve read, but I decided not to compare them. This has its own feel about it, that it would have been an insult to compare one with another. But if you’re a thriller fan, especially a psychological thriller fan, then definitely add this to your 2024 list. One thing that makes a good book for me is one that sticks with you. Even after I hadd finished this I kept thinking I needed to go back to it.
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