Published 12th November 2020 by Harper Collins.
From the cover of the book:
Four friends. One luxury getaway.
The perfect murder.
The perfect murder.
Two young men ski into a blizzard… but only one returns.
20 years later...
Four people connected to the missing man find themselves in that same resort. Each has a secret. Two may have blood on their hands. One is a killer-in-waiting.
Someone knows what really happened that day.
And somebody will pay...
********************************************
The Chalet is my favourite kind of thriller - one that grabs you by the throat and does not put you down until it has nearly wrung the life out of you!
As is fitting for a book that takes place in a ski resort, this review is going to be ripe with skiing analogies - so buckle up your ski boots dear reader, and make sure your salopettes are securely fastened.
Right from the off, you know you are going to be in for a quite a ride with this debut - no slow snowploughing on the nursery slopes here - as it starts with a bang and leads you on an off-piste adventure towards the delicious dark side of the crime genre that races across the finish line to a medal worthy ending.
But this is no straight down-hill run... in fact, we have more than a little of the slaloms about it with the twists and turns Catherine Cooper drops in along the way - some of which will have you tumbling into the powder with some force as the truth hits you like a well-aimed snowball.
Ok, a little rest from the snowy references for a while, but don't settle into the Apres-Ski just yet, because they will be back...
I love a thriller that is told from the different points of view of the characters, especially one that splits between the past and present, but this is not always easy for an author to get right, as all the pieces have to slip seamlessly into place with perfect timing to pull it off. Delightfully, Catherine Cooper gets this spot on here, as the threads of the story are cleverly contrived and her plotting is slick- she leads you beautifully in the wrong direction more than once before just enough of the truth is revealed to bring about those delicious lightbulb moments... and the twists are suburb and somewhat chilling (back to the snowy puns again, I am afraid)!
For a debut novel, this is accomplished stuff and I can't wait to see what Catherine Cooper comes up with next. If you like your thrillers twisty, as relentless as an avalanche and as breath taking as the Black Run side of the slopes then The Chalet should be next on your to be read list - you won't be sorry!
The Chalet is available to buy from your favourite book retailer now in paperback, ebook and audio formats, and from Bookshop.org HERE.
Thank you to Catherine Cooper and Harper Collins for gifting me a copy of this book in return for an honest review and to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
Most recently she has written several ski pieces for the Guardian and is currently compiling a 50 best family holidays round up for the Telegraph. She also makes regular appearances as a talking head on daytime TV.
She lives in France with her husband and two teenage children, and is a keen skier.
Thanks so much for the blog tour support x
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