I'm obligated to give this book 5 stars because I stayed up all night to finish it. I really enjoyed the pacing of the story, it had great momentum and built up to an exciting conclusion. I loved the setting- a haunting yet beautiful Irish island, complete with a castle and tragic past. I also thought the characters were great and really enjoyed seeing through their eyes (especially Hannah and Aoife).

I really appreciated Foley's decision to make the identity of both the murderer and the victim part of the mystery. Knowing that a body was discovered but not knowing who's it was created a lot of great tension as the events leading up to the murder were revealed.

I did have some mixed feelings on the way that all of the storylines tied together so neatly- I may have preferred it if at least one of the potential motives ended up being a red herring.

Spoiler

Will was guilty of everything the reader could’ve suspected and more.

At the same time, the fact that so many characters had motives made the last few chapters so exciting. Piecing together the connections within that last section of the book was so satisfying. Foley obviously put so much care into foreshadowing, and it paid off. Ultimately, I am more than happy to sacrifice some realism in exchange for a good story.

I think a good mystery allows the reader to piece some elements together on their own while still maintaining some surprises to be revealed at the end. I was able to predict some of the twists fairly early on

Spoiler

(Alice’s suicide, Olivia’s relationship with Will, Will and Johnno’s guilt in a game of survival go wrong)

. Other elements really hit me by surprise

Spoiler

, especially Aoife's connection to Will

. But once everything was revealed, I felt like I should have known it all along!

Some more thoughts on the ending:

Spoiler

I can't go without saying I wanted Will to die SO badly, I almost cheered when they found his body. Even though the true killer wasn't caught, the ending felt like justice.

This was a really fun read and I would absolutely recommend it to fans of the mystery/thriller genre!