Book reviews - Locked 'room' style novels - Part 1

All of these books have a locked room feeling due to the isolation of their location/setting, or way in which the murder comes about:

*Spoilers are kept to a minimum!

The Guest List – Lucy Foley

This book was great! It has a beautiful use of a remote island - I could really picture the setting.

It does jump forward and backwards in regard to time/structure, and the death occurs very early on. It works though, you just have to remember what and when! Backstory in this is shown effectively and it all felt necessary and well interwoven, rather than info dumps. If anything, I wanted to know about the past of each character…it felt crucial to what was happening when in the present!

Despite the timeframe being restricted in terms of current action (it occurs in just a couple of days) I was hooked and read this book in just over a day.

 

Sleep - C.L.Taylor

A remote island, like the above book. There’s a VERY clever twist and it’s well written. Typical me, there's a funny tale to accompany the first glance of this book that I will put on my blog on a Tuesday post. Put it this way...I was glad to find and read this book! :)

 

Pretty Guilty Women – Gina LaManna

Four women confess to the same crime and it has a ‘locked room’ feeling like the previous books mentioned due to being set at a holiday resort as there are limited characters, therefore restricting the chance for it to be anyone else/plus no other locations. I could NOT put this down!

 

An Unwanted Guest – Shari Lapena

This is WELL worth a read and it’s very similar to And Then There Were None and Lapena admits to being influenced by Christie.

I felt at times that it was slow (waiting for things to happen…especially in a couple of specific places) and wanted to read through these quickly! However, in a way, it added to the claustrophobia of the characters being isolated and stuck…plus sitting there suspecting each other…so I was arguing with myself that these particular sections were actually quite effective!

 

The Holiday – T.M.Logan

I did get a bit frustrated waiting for the death, and there are a lot of  perspectives used so you have to remember who is who/their story etc. However, with patience, it builds well with lots of potential/possibility for who will actually die, and why. This element I liked a lot! 

Also, this is another excellent use of location in terms of it feeling ‘locked’ and there's some wonderful imagery. I decided not to view the C5 adaptation when it aired as I knew the book and sometimes when I have read (and enjoyed), the show will not work for me!