In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Someone’s getting married. Someone’s getting murdered.

In a dark, dark wood

Nora hasn’t seen Clare for ten years. Not since Nora walked out of school one day and never went back.

There was a dark, dark house

Until, out of the blue, an invitation to Clare’s hen do arrives. Is this a chance for Nora to finally put her past behind her?

And in the dark, dark house there was a dark, dark room

But something goes wrong. Very wrong.

And in the dark, dark room….

Some things can’t stay secret for ever.

Holy smokes this was a GREAT book!  After a bachelorette (Hen) party, Lenora wakes up in a hospital bed badly bruised and confused with a bandaged head and memory loss; and when she overhears a devastating police conversation outside her door, she begins to piece together the nightmare of a weekend that brought her there.

From the first chapter, my mind was already trying to strategically figure out the who, what, when, and why of this slow-to-be-revealed mystery. There are two parallel time frames only a few days apart from each other, and in my opinion they both contribute a grave amount of suspense. Something has happened, and snippets are revealed leisurely. As you read, you realize the author is not being cruel with this tactic, but the reader learns along with the main character what has come to pass and I was on the edge of my seat!