Published By: Headline Review
Pages: 400
Released On: 15/01/2026
Kate stretches her legs and turns on the TV while James washes away the traces of their morning. She watches in horror at the unfolding news: the hotel they are staying in has been taken under siege.
She should be making her way home, working on appearing normal, getting ready to re-enter family life with her loving husband Vic and their two adored children. Instead, she is trapped somewhere she shouldn’t be, with a man she definitely doesn’t love.
How will she begin to tell Vic what she is doing here? If her body is found, will it give up the secret of what she’s been up to? She’s been so careful hiding the evidence of her affair: write nothing down, leave no trace. Will he begin to understand why?
For now, Kate can only hide, take a deep breath, and reflect on the series of choices she’s made that have brought her to this moment.
What will her marriage and her life look like, if she makes it out?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Headline Review for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
This was the first 2026 book I received and I was really intrigued, and so many people had been praising it that I was super excited to read it.
As a reviewer, you try and explain what you thought of a book, why it was good, but sometimes the best thin to say is “it’s very good”. I didn’t think it was perfect, but it was very good.
We have several time lines. The main present day one, the time where Vic and Kate first met, where James and Kate first met, and then various dates between then and present day. I did initially think the whole book was going to be set in the present day and I was impressed that Ellie was going to try and maintain a 400 page book in just one location with just two characters. Which is a tough ask, so I’m kind of glad she branched out a bit.
Now, this isn’t a comment on how well or bad the characters are written.. Their writing is very good. This is a comment on how I found the characters to be themselves, okay?
I didn’t particularly like Kate. She is conflicted and feeling bad but she brought it upon her self so I didn’t really feel positively towards her. I did like Vic, I felt for him, he was being lied to and the only thing he has wanted to do is love and support his family. James annoyed me. He felt entitled and overbearing and predatory, and I didn’t think him and Kate connected at all. Kate and Vic made sense together. Kate and James did not.
I did like how the characters were not morally black or white. They were ambiguous – particularly Kate – and I enjoyed that, I enjoyed thinking what I thought of them, and I tried not to judge them too harshly as you don’t know what you’d do in that situation, but that was easier said than done.
Ellie has given us such a clear sense of fear and claustrophobia that you would expect in such a situation.
I did expect a bit more of the actual siege. There’s a lot of background scenes, which is interesting and it’s all very good, but for a book about a siege, an attack, a hostage situation, I expected more of that. And for that reason, the middle dragged ever so slightly. But overall it is still very interesting and I enjoyed getting to know the characters.
It has a very open-ended ending. I quite like that in some books because it means the reader gets to finish it as they want. But for something like this where I really wanted to know the outcome, I didn’t like it. It leaves me in suspense but not in a good way. A thriller, in my opinion, should end with this happening or that happening. It shouldn’t be possibly this or potentially that or perhaps this or maybe that. I wanted to know if the goodies survived and if the baddies got their comeuppance. I really wish it had been neatly finished, but I know that’s very much a personal opinion.
It’s not a perfect book for me, but it’s still a very good one and one I would highly recommend. It is tense and feels very real. It’s informative, enjoyable, entertaining. I loved getting to know the characters over time…I just wanted a bit more. It’s a thriller so I wanted more thrill I suppose.
I believe this is Ellie’s debut and it is a very promising debut. Ellie clearly has a talent for creating very real characters and putting them in tense situations. A few bits needed tidying up to be a five star read for me but that’s really it. And I am really looking forward to seeing what she does next.
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