The story starts off with a bang with a woman who wakes up - bound, gagged and coming out of a drug haze - in the middle of a bonfire. Then we jump back in time, leading up to the bonfire night with readers not finding out who is about to be burned alive or why this happened until the final pages.
It's filled with lots of secrets, blackmail, dysfunction and twists that are slowly revealed and questionable behaviour by the three women - Margot, Anna and Liv - whose POVs readers are privy to throughout the story, giving it a strong Desperate Housewives domestic thriller vibe. Where the story lost me is the plot device where the souls of the murdered people speak to the murderer. It was confusing because it's not explained to the reader what the heck is going on and was simply an odd plot choice.
This book was fun in the fact that you're rubbernecking and watching these people's lives implode, but there was too much going on and the implausibility of the plot and contrived twists made this a frustrating read for me. I expected to love this book, but I will give this fan favourite suspense author another try at some point.
My Rating: 3 stars
Author: John Marrs
Genre: Suspense
Type and Source: Trade Paperback, public library
Pages: 385
Publisher: Thomas and Mercer
First Published: March 4, 2025
Read: Dec 23-28, 2025
Book Description from GoodReads: Three women. Three smouldering secrets. Who will make it out alive?
It’s 5 November, and a woman awakens to a nightmare. Bound and gagged, she lies trapped in the heart of a towering bonfire. As the smoke thickens, panic sets in – she’s moments away from being engulfed in flames. How did it come to this?
Rewind eleven months: Margot, a faded TV star, and her long-suffering friend Anna watch as glamorous Liv and her flawless family move into their street. The three women soon fabricate the perfect pretence of friendship, but each harbours her own deadly secret – and newcomer Liv senses something is terribly wrong beneath the polished exteriors.
As cracks widen in the veneer of perfection and lies escalate out of control, tension ignites. Bonfire Night is approaching and someone is set to burn…But who will it be?
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