“In a Dark, Dark Wood” - Ruth Ware

 

💍 This one popped up in my Libby queue just in time for Halloween. Ruth Ware is an undisputed goddess of the psychological thriller. The atmosphere is dark, dripping with suspense, with terror lurking behind every corner. I loved how Ware makes two timelines converge in this novel.

💍 Nora is a bit of a loner, with skeletons in her closet. But she seems to have crafted a stable life for herself. She has put a lot of distance between herself and her past, and the reader doesn’t know why. It makes it all the stranger when she is invited to a remote country home for a hen party for her former best friend, with whom she has had no contact. Even odder, Nora is specifically not invited to the actual wedding.

💍 From the very first email invitation received by Nora, I was on high alert. I was baffled as to why she accepted the invite. All signs pointed to “RSVP no” but I suppose simple, human curiosity got the best of Nora. Once Nora arrives at the house, the friend dynamic reminded me very much of “The Hunting Party”; there was the Queen bee and an obsessive friend, plus others who seemed only marginally interested in the proceedings. Things get off to a rocky start and then take a sharp turn when it becomes apparent that the house guests are not alone in the wood.

💍 This novel was for sure a page turner, but not because I was on edge about the killer’s identity. I felt pretty certain early on about the likely killer. I tore through this book to learn what the killer’s motive was, as well to discover the lynchpin to the relationship between the three central characters and what had driven them apart.