Synopsis

Two years ago, Fran’s sister Jenna disappeared on a wellness retreat in Gozo that went terribly wrong.

Tom Wade, the now infamous man behind Soul Shrink Retreats, has just been released from prison after serving his sentence for the deaths of two people. But he has never let on what happened to the third suspected victim: Jenna.

Determined to find out the truth, Fran books herself onto his upcoming retreat – the first since his release – and finds herself face to face with the man who might hold the key to her sister’s disappearance. The only question is, will she escape the retreat alive? Or does someone out there want Jenna’s secrets to stay hidden?

Review

I don’t usually listen to audiobooks, preferring to indulge in a book. However, they are a great way to consume literature while doing housework!

This book has multiple viewpoints set ‘then’ and ‘now’ to understand the parallel stories of the different retreats and characters. This works quite well, although knowing that characters changed their names made me quite suspicious of everyone as I tried to figure out who knew more than they were letting on.

It’s well-written (despite a few questionable facts about London and a few confused names) and characters are believable and relatable (although far from likeable). They develop nicely throughout the story and it’s difficult to work out who is genuine and who is not, making it hard to figure out who is guilty and of what. Other reviewers have commented on their lack of interest in Kate’s story; while I see their point, her perspective was necessary to ensure there were plenty of shady characters for readers to suspect.

More importantly, the ending isn’t obvious. Readers will probably come up with multiple theories but actually I was quite surprised with how it all played out. Yet there are also some side plots which are equally as interesting and throw in some red herrings to make you question what you thought you knew about what happened. Suicide? Murder? Tragic accident? Who knows…

The audiobook is engaging, with good use of accents to distinguish characters and a nice flow. However, I did struggle to focus on the story at times and it took me much longer to finish than if I’d read the book.

I was given an advanced copy of the audiobook by NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

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