Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Wild Girls by Phoebe Morgan

The Wild Girls by Phoebe Morgan (Morrow, 2022) is Morgan’s fourth thriller. Her fifth book is scheduled for release in 2023. Grace, Felicity, Alice, and Hannah formed a tight bond during their school days and it persisted as they undertook careers. Until one devastating evening when their friendship shattered. Felicity, the ringleader, moved to New York and the three remaining in London went their separate ways until two years later they each receive an invitation to celebrate Felicity’s birthday in Botswana. Despite various commitments, they each decide to go. After a long flight they are met by a chauffeur who takes them to Deception Valley Lodges, an exotic resort near the Limpopo River, when the action really begins.

The story is told in the voices of the four friends, with a long flashback to the pivotal incident that shattered their alliance. This rotating POV and shifting timeline is the current style and I have become resigned to it, but it results in a choppy read. The considerable foreshadowing and oblique references to incidents in the group’s collective history does create and sustain a high level of suspense.

Readers familiar with Christie’s And Then There Were None (1939) will recognize the inspiration for the basic plot, but Morgan incorporates several original elements including a close look at friendships among women and the way they tend to assume roles within a cohesive group. Morgan says in the acknowledgements that the book was written during the 2020 COVID shutdown and she could not travel to Botswana for onsite research. This lack of firsthand experience with the setting shows, as the colorful African landscape tends to fade out. There’s a lost opportunity here to establish a striking backdrop for a chilling story similar to The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian (2022). Not that this book isn’t unsettling, it most definitely is, but the proximity of the Kalahari Desert and a major waterway could have been used to greater felonious advantage.

For fans of psychological thrillers.

 

·         Publisher: ‎ William Morrow Paperbacks (April 26, 2022)

·         Language: ‎ English

·         Paperback: ‎ 320 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎ 0063144832

·         ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0063144835

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2023

 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley (Morrow, 2019) is an updated form of the classic country house mystery at Christmas. Every year a group of friends who bonded while they attended Oxford spend New Year’s Eve together. This outing, the tenth holiday they’ve spent together, was planned by Emma, the most recent addition to the group via her relationship with Mark. Emma found a beautiful lodge in an isolated part of Scotland, so remote there is no wireless signal. The group takes a train north, and some cracks in the long-running friendships become visible during the trip. Miranda and Julien, the golden couple, are plainly having problems; Katie, the only singleton left, is distracted; Giles and Samira brought their new baby and are engrossed in her, not their friends.

The setting is exquisite: mountains, waterfalls, forests, wildlife. It sounds like a lovely vacation place in the summer, not so much in the winter. In addition, the possibility of a serial killer in the neighborhood pops up every two or three chapters, adding a level of anxiety to the country noises the city dwellers aren’t used to. In the time-honored fashion of country house mysteries, two days after the group arrives, a record-setting snowfall cuts them off from the rest of the world, and one of their group disappears after a long night of drinking.

The lodge handyman discovers the body. The site manager agrees the injuries visible means the death can’t be accidental and calls the police to report what is obviously a homicide. The weather prevents the police from rushing to the lodge as well as keeping anyone from leaving it, heightening the worry of the group.

The story is told from the perspective of the lodge manager, the handyman, and four of the group of friends. It is a little curious that we don’t find out what the others are thinking. In addition to the frequent changes in point of view, the timeline moves from the beginning of the trip to the discovery of the body and back again, often in chapters of only two or three pages. It is a highly effective way to build suspense but I found it disorienting. The first part of the book is mostly predictable, adding to the intensity of the surprises in the last chapters.

·         Hardcover: 336 pages

·         Publisher: William Morrow (February 12, 2019)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 006286890X

·         ISBN-13: 978-0062868909

Aubrey Hamilton ©2019

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Man Who Wouldn't Die by A.B. Jewell

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Man Who Wouldn't Die by A.B. Jewell