Four friends. One luxury getaway. The perfect murder. ‘Pure adrenaline’ ERIN KELLY ‘I was gripped from start to finish’ CASS GREEN French Alps, 1998 Two young men ski into a blizzard… but only one returns. 20 years later Four people connected to the missing man find themselves in that same resort. Each has a secret. Two may have blood on their hands. One is a killer-in-waiting. Someone knows … hands. One is a killer-in-waiting.
Someone knows what really happened that day.
And somebody will pay.
An exciting new debut for anyone who loves Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley, and C.L. Taylor
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3.5 Stars
“Vengeance is a monster of appetite, forever bloodthirsty and never filled.”
—Richelle E. Goodrich
In the winter of 1998, two brothers take a ski holiday in the French Alps. But during that trip, only one returns…
Fast forward to another winter, this one 20 years later at the same ski resort, but this time the group on holiday will be judged by their past…and one will be found guilty…
The Chalet is an enjoyable locked room mystery full of a cast of characters so unlikeable you will be cheering for the villain of this tale to take their revenge! Told from dual story lines and multiple points of view, the author twists and turns so many times you will be dizzy trying to keep up. If you are a lover of these types of mysteries, you will most likely guess the killer before the end. Overall, a quick entertaining read I’d recommend to fans of this genre.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book that I received via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. **
1998
Will and Adam are brothers who are spending some time at a chalet in France with their girl friends. There has always been some animosity between the brothers but Will is doing his best to put up with Adam and help his girl friend learn to ski. One day, Adam and Will are skiing in bad weather when Will goes missing and was not found.
2020
Ria and her husband, Hugo, are spending some time at the same chalet in France with a prospective client, his wife, and their baby. Millie is the chalet girl who comes with the chalet. She does the cooking and helps care for the place.
One day, a body is discovered that they think is the missing Will. Adam must return to France to identify the remains.
This story ekes out little clues here and there and it goes along. I felt that it was too long and should have been more informative than it was. There is a lot of angst between many of the characters until we finally get to the point of the story. I enjoyed the mental pictures of the resort but it all reinforced to me personally that skiing is just not my thing. I’ll sit by the sit and sip a cup of hot chocolate.
Copy provided by Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I love finding debut books and being able to share the fantastic book with other readers, unfortunately The Chalet by Catherine Cooper is not as awesome as some of the big name reviewers are promoting it to be.
This 400 page book could have easily been edited down to 300 pages. I read to learn new things, and since I don’t know a lot about skiing I was excited to pick up some new information. While I did learn a couple of things, there were a lot more that could have been explained a bit more for the reader. I’m not saying I want it to be an instruction manual on skiing, but there are ways that some of the terms could have been added into the story.
I also think The Chalet could have been edited down because I found myself skimming… a lot, especially the sections where the two ski instructors were trying to figure out what to do about their lost clients.
For a brief moment, and I do mean brief, I thought the book was going in a different direction, but about 20 pages later I knew exactly where it was headed. And all the super twists that are mentioned in the advertising are not that surprising if you read any other thrillers or suspense books. Since I want to keep this review spoiler free, in case you decide to read The Chalet, I won’t go into more detail about the parts that a reader could see coming from a mile away.
I really do not enjoy being so negative to a new author, but The Chalet needed more editing… which is not Cooper’s fault. Because of this I would be willing to read another book she puts out, but really hope she is able to make it twisty.
I noticed this one before it was published, but didn’t get a chance to read it. The cover and description grabbed my attention, so I snatched up the the audiobook when I saw it was available. I had a small road trip planned, and thought it would be a fabulous way to pass the time.
It was filled with annoyingly unlikable characters. Unfortunately, they weren’t the type that you love to hate, so I grew tiresome of their antics early on.
The story itself was well-written, but I didn’t care for it as much as I thought I would. Because I think my lack of enjoyment was due to the characters and not the story itself, I’ll give the author another try. Her upcoming thriller “The Chateau” has already made my radar!!
My Rating: 3 Stars
Published: November 12th 2020 by HarperCollins Publishers UK
Pages: 390
Weaving in and out are several twists that are interesting!
The book started slowly with characters that were not kind or interesting. I almost put it down. It got better as I continued to read and the mystery came to light. It is not a book I would recommend to someone unless there was not much else to read. NL
An interesting fun mystery.
Great character development
An interesting plot overall.
Only so-so.
Difficult to follow. Too many flash backs!
Even when you think you know who everybody is, you’ll get another surprise!