Author: Harriet Tyce
Narrator: George Weightman; Lucy Paterson; Samara MacLaren
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Publication Date: February 2023
Genre: Mystery / Suspense / Thriller
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN | Audible
Description: It's New Year's Eve, and the stage is set for a lavish party in one of Edinburgh's best postcodes. It's a moment for old friends to set the past to rights - and move on. And yet, the celebration fails to materialize.
Because someone at this party is going to die.
Midnight approaches and the countdown begins…and it seems one of the guests doesn't want a resolution.
They want revenge.
But there are many present at the party who might have reasons for seeking revenge, and just as many who have spent their lives trying to outrun it. So who is the killer, and who is the victim?
Perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn and Lucy Foley, It Ends at Midnight will haunt readers long after its stunning finale as it questions what we are willing to say – and believe – to ensure our own peace of mind.
My Thoughts: There is a lot to unpack with this story and when the characters are not likeable, it puts the reader in a precarious position of trying to decide whether anyone is redeemable or should the author just kill them all off. The characters I was prepared to not like turned out to be redeemable after all. This book is an excellent example of how lies can destroy everything around us and we are responsible for not blindly accepting what we are told as truth without verifying it for ourselves.
Sylvie and Tess have been friends since they were schoolgirls. Through Sylvie, Tess met her husband Marcus. Nearly twenty years after their wedding and many years of not speaking to each other, Sylvie and Tess reconnect where Sylvie learns that Tess may have a brain tumor and Marcus has left her. Tess also wants Sylvie’s assistance in putting the past right. There are secrets galore both of these women are keeping and Sylvie, especially, stands to lose everything if the past is revealed.
This story packs quite a punch as it begins with two people falling to their death at a New Year’s Eve party in Edinburgh. The reader knows almost immediately that it’s a man and a woman, but the identity is not revealed until the last twenty minutes of the story. This story requires a lot of patience on the part of the reader as there are many twists and turns, both past and present, leading up to these deaths.
I was able to figure out fairly quickly the intentions of one of the characters but I couldn’t figure out if Tess or Sylvie or both of them were lying and shouldn’t be trusted. I was not able to figure out who died until it was revealed and it left me not only surprised but sad at the waste of life and the damage that secrets can cause.
The plotting was tight and kept me engaged in the story. As more of the past was revealed, the actions of both Tess and Sylvie shocked me. There are some quite graphic and gruesome scenes so reader be warned, if you go with the audiobook format, you might be in for a shock. The narration was performed exceptionally well and illustrated the personalities and emotions of the characters flawlessly. This was my first Harriet Tyce book and I will be looking for more of her work.
My Final Verdict: Overall, I found this to be a fantastic story that gives the reader a very edgy and twisty plot, with characters that are multi-layered and not easy to relate to. Readers who don’t mind the absence of a happy ending will find this story riveting.
Thank you to the publisher, HighBridge Audio who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.
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