S. F. Prescott

Steady-paced and immersive.

Georgina Cross is the author of ONE NIGHT and NANNY NEEDED with Bantam, Penguin Random House, and THE STEPDAUGHTER, THE MISSING WOMAN, and THE NIECE with Bookouture, Hachette Publishing. All works are psychological suspense/thriller. Georgina has been writing since she was a child. After graduating from Louisiana State University, she enjoyed a career in marketing & communications and founded Susie’s Wish non-profit which sends patients with life threatening illnesses to the beach. She spends time with her husband and their combined family of four sons watching scary movies and basketball tournaments and is thrilled to be a full-time author.

Published August 1st, 2023.

When I read the premise of this book I knew I had to read it immediately. A secluded location, stormy weather, and a family seeking answers for a murdered loved one—all invited by an anonymous host. I was pulled in and kept hanging all the way to the end as this dysfunctional family dynamic played out. In spite of a lot happening, it took a while before the story got going. The pace definitely increased at the 80% mark. Once the past timeline was introduced it flowed, and I understood the characters and their personalities/motivations better. The writing was filled with tension and I enjoyed bouncing between different POVs, each one with secrets of their own. The reveals were dark with lots of twists right up until the last page. I enjoyed the final scene when the killer was revealed and it was truly shocking to me. The setting itself felt ominous as the storm raged throughout, creating such an eerie backdrop to the story.

For readers who enjoy locked room mysteries, domestic suspense, and dark themes.

Synopsis:

The anonymous letters arrive in the mail, one by one: To find out what really happened to Meg, meet at this location. Don’t tell anyone you’re coming. In one night, you’ll find out everything you need to know.

Ten years after her murder, the letters tell Meghan’s family exactly when and where to meet: a cliffside home on the Oregon coast. But on the night they’re promised answers, the convicted killer—her high school boyfriend, Cal, who spent only ten years in prison for murder—is found unconscious in his car after it slammed into a tree near the house where the family is sitting and waiting. Is he really the one who invited them to gather?

As a storm rampages along the Pacific Northwest, the power cuts off and leaves the family with no chance of returning to the main road and finding help. So they drag Cal back to the house for the remainder of the night. How easy it would be to let him die and claim it was an accident. Or do they help him instead? As the hours tick by, it becomes an excruciating choice. Half of the family wants to kill him. The other half wants him to regain consciousness so he can tell them what he knows.

But if Cal wakes up, he might reveal that someone in the family knows more than they’re letting on. And if that’s the case, who is the real killer? And are they already in the house?