03 | April | 2021 | Brainfluff

From time to time, I like to leaven my diet of SFF reads with a murder mystery. However, I don’t like anything too grim or gory, so when I read the blurb for this one, it really caught my attention. Especially as I also have a really soft spot for the beautiful county of Cornwall.

BLURB: Thirteen guests. One killer. No escape.

On an island on the coast of Cornwall, cut off from the mainland by the tides for most of the day, thirteen old friends meet at Tregowan Castle for a weekend of revelry. By the next evening only twelve are still alive. Amongst them is a killer – but who? As a storm traps them on the island and past betrayals and grievances are revealed, nerves fray and friendships begin to fracture.

But with no escape and no way of calling for help it’s only a matter of time before the killer strikes again. And when everyone is keeping secrets, anybody could be the next victim…

REVIEW: This one is told from the viewpoint of most of the adults who end up at the fateful Halloween party. It is a classic locked-room mystery, where everyone is trapped in the castle on a small island (think of a fictionalised version of St Michael’s Mount) that is only easily accessible when the tide is low and the weather is fine. Which isn’t the case right now, as (wouldn’t you know it?) there is a massive storm raging, add to the general sense of panic and unease.

Castle does a really good job of giving us an insight into the disparate group of people, who were firm friends back when they were at university together. But a lot happened when they were younger and a lot more reckless – things that have had long-term consequences. And their glamorous and mega-rich hostess has managed to winkle most of the secrets out of each of them, over the years. And during this Halloween party – which is a classier version of the fateful bash she’d thrown at university and changed everything – she is determined to ‘clear the air’ by revealing the secrets that she believes are slowly poisoning their lives and ruining their relationships. Or maybe, she just enjoys the sense of power she gets when throwing everyone’s lives into turmoil… As ever, when you read a multiple viewpoint book, you take your pick of the versions offered up to you.

Writing multiple viewpoints, so that everyone pings off the page sounding and feeling quite different, is a tall order and it takes experience and skill to successfully pull it off. Evidently Castle possesses plenty of both, because I got to the stage where I only had to read the opening sentence to know whose head I was in. The constant ongoing stream of revelations that added yet another plot twist and dimension to the unfolding drama was well handled and I found myself reading far later into the night than I should have done to discover whodunit.

The denouement was also very skilfully handled – I’m not a fan of getting through a book where the tension is constantly being ratcheted up, only to have the whole thing suddenly descend into ridiculous unbelievability right at the end. And I’ve read more than my fair share of such nonsense, so I was delighted that the Castle absolutely nailed the ending, before I worked out whodunit, or why.

Highly recommended for fans of character-led, locked-room murder mysteries with plenty of tension and pace. While I obtained an arc of The Invitation from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10