I’ll admit I totally judged a book by its cover with this one – a spooky hotel with a maze in front of it? Yeah, I’m in! I hadn’t read any books by Louise Mumford before but I’d definitely read more.
This book is set around a deserted hotel perched high on the cliffs in Wales. It hasn’t the cheeriest past and so attracts 4 young students who have a morbid interest in the history of the place. The 4 young people head to the hotel to film a kind of ‘Blair Witch Project’ movie, but one vanishes on camera. Ten years later, the cult and conspiracy theories around the film are still growing – and the three ‘survivors’ are tempted back to the hotel by a film crew determined to discover the truth.
I liked the dual timeline of the story – the present day story focuses mainly on the only girl of the group, Bex, who is living a reclusive life in the wake of the tragic events ten years before. It was interesting to follow her as she revisits the hotel and meets her former friends again – there’s a constant feeling of suspense as she (and the reader) try to work out what happened and who is keeping secrets. The other timeline is the first visit to the hotel 10 years before which also has some really sinister moments. The cutting between the two narratives worked well and kept me on the edge of my seat. Reader, I flew through this book!
A lot of the characters seemed quite unsympathetic, although I think a lot of this is Mumford exploring those whose lives have been shaped by trauma – especially those whose story is in the public domain to be pored over and dissected by strangers every day. I did eventually warm to Bex, although she is spiky, but could never figure out who in the whole cast I should be trusting.
The plotting is clever, although I did kind of guess some of the solution – I don’t think there’s a way anyone could guess it all though, which is good. The back-story of the hotel and its inhabitants added an extra layer of creepiness which I loved too.
I’d recommend this to lovers of psychological thrillers with interesting settings and a closed circle of suspects. It’s well written, enjoyable and clever – I’d definitely suggest it would appeal to fans of Catherine Ryan Howard and Ruth Ware.
Thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.
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Header photo by Sigmund on Unsplash
