I'll admit it. I definitely picked up this book because of its cover. Something about the large, creepy house on the front just screamed gothic thriller. And That Last Weekend does have a touch of the gothic to it although it really has much more in common with the Christopher Pike thrillers I read as a teenager. Dark secrets, betrayal and violence among friends make a crazy plot cocktail, and that's exactly what readers get in this book.
The ensemble cast of this novel made me think immediately of a group of friends from one of Pike's novels, now ten years older and all grown up, with the dark events of their past at least a little bit behind them. In this case, a group of female college friends used to have reunions once a year at the beautiful Chateau du Cygne Noir. Then one weekend, things went horribly wrong, resulting in one of the group, Evangeline, falling off a balcony - or was she pushed?
Ten years after this horrible event, the remaining four friends have gone their separate ways. Scattering to different parts of the country, each has taken her own path in life. And then one day Laurel Muir receives an invitation to a girls' weekend at the Chateau. One by one, the remaining women in the group do as well. Perhaps because each has loose ends needing to be tied up, the women decide to revisit the scene of the tragedy.
Once at the Chateau, things immediately take a turn for the creepy as Laurel and her friends discover that they will be the only guests that weekend. The longtime managers of the property give off some rather weird vibes from time to time as well, and so the guests (and the reader) settle in for a long weekend of eeriness and suspicion.
As the story unfolds, we get to know Laurel and her college friends, Ellie, Geneva and Dawn, better. The reader also gets more of a window into the character of the fallen Evangeline and the more one learns about her, the less appealing she becomes. It's cleverly done, though. As Evangeline starts to look more and more troubled, each of the guests appears to have had reason to push her. It's hard not to be suspicious of everyone in this book, and we do see the characters starting to be more on their guard with one another as well.
Of course, as is the way of things in these types of novels, the past doesn't stay buried. Old secrets have ways of coming back into characters' lives and without spoiling the plot, I'll just say that this is very much on display here. Much of this book is quietly effective and a bit disturbing. However, the author makes the mistake of adding in a modern-day mystery that isn't entirely tied to the events of ten years past and the result feels a little overdone.
Even with the tacked on modern-day misdeeds, this story of past secrets and psychological tension makes for thrilling reading. I didn't love That Last Weekend, but I did rather like it. While not a romance, I know we have a number of mystery readers in this community and if you enjoyed Christopher Pike novels as a teen, you will likely lap this one up as an adult.
Buy Now: A/BN/iB/K
Sensuality: N/A
Publication Date: 09/2017
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