In a Dark, Dark Wood
by Ruth Ware
Another writer finds
herself in deep trouble in a rural area!
Leonora, a writer living a solitary existence in London, accepts an
invitation to a hen party (what we would call a bachelorette weekend) deep in
the English countryside. Lee, or Nora,
she went by both names at different points in her life, isn’t quite sure why
she went. True, her best friend was also
attending, but she hasn’t talked to the bride-to-be, Clare, her former best
friend from school, in ten years. The
party place is pretty odd. It is a glass
house in the middle of the woods. As one
of the guests comments it is like they are on the stage performing for an
audience that they cannot see. The
attendees are an odd mix and things get tense until the unspeakable
happens. Someone ends up dead. Was it an accident as it first appears? Or was this weekend carefully plotted by a
murderer in their midst?
If you enjoy
psychological thrillers you have to read this one. From page one the reader wonders, as the main
character does as well, why she even attended this shindig. And as details of the wedding emerge
(including the major fact that she isn’t invited to the ceremony) and the back story
of why Nora and Clare haven’t spoken in a decade, you get even more frustrated
with Nora – why is she there? But at the
same time, curiosity did kill the cat, and like Nora we want to know why she
was invited. Even though you keep
yelling at her to leave, it is understandable why she stays. Peer pressure is a dangerous thing. So is temporary amnesia as Nora begins to
discover.
So who is dead? Who is killer? Why did they do it? These are all questions that you start the
novel with and don’t know the answers to for quite some time. Thriller readers will definitely enjoy this
book – would suggest it for those who loved Girl on a Train.
