This domestic thriller follows married couple Adam and Amelia on a weekend away in the Scottish wilderness. Adam has face blindness and can't recognize friends, family, or his own wife. His wife writes letters on every anniversary that she never lets Adam read. These letters detail the last 10 years together and we can see the way the cracks start to show up in their relationship. Adam and Amelia both know this weekend will either make or break their marriage but what they don't know is they aren't alone. In their snowy vacation retreat, secrets will be revealed and this will be an anniversary they'll never forget.
TW/CW: pregnancy, miscarriage, infidelity, infertility
This was a nice mix of a domestic and isolation thriller. Domestic thrillers aren't usually my go-to sub-genre but I absolutely love a good isolation thriller. I thought Feeney took the best parts of those sub-genres and really meshed them together well into a very engaging read. I really loved how the isolation elements increased the tension in the domestic elements and the domestic dynamic gave an added layer to the isolation plot points. There was a really good balance between the external and internal tension/conflict right from the beginning and I really enjoyed how the scales would tip one way or the other as the story progressed.
I really enjoyed the multi-POV in this story. I really prefer domestic thrillers to be multi-POV and in this we get the added element of dual timeline with the multiple letters. I did find the letter format to be a little convenient because they didn't come across as actual letters, but more so a way for Feeney to give a bit of an info-dump. However, the reveals in these letters were really interesting so I didn't mind that they were a little contrived. It did feel like we were in Amelia's POV the most and I would have liked more from Adam but Amelia was the more emotional one in the relationship so her chapters were more dramatic in that way. I did think that getting Adam's view on how Amelia was acting would have been interesting and I think if we maybe saw more of them having an argument but seeing both sides would have been a great way to show their relationship.
I was a little worried initially about how Adam's face blindness would come into play in the story. A disorder of that magnitude could really act like a catch all for some less than well-thought out plot points. And while it is true that the events in the book wouldn't have happened the same if Adam could distinguish faces, it wasn't as played up as I had initially feared it would be. There were multiple points where the plot hinged on Adam not recognizing someone important and it was interesting to see how that was addressed. I think that it forced Feeney to describe the relationship between Adam and Amelia a little differently than we see in most domestic thrillers because Adam was more attuned to Amelia's body language and tone of voice. It really upped the relationship reality for me because I think when you're in a long term relationship, those are the little things that you do pick up on (even if only subconsciously).
The twists and reveals in this were excellent. I listened to the audiobook so I wasn't paying as close attention as I would if I was physically reading the book but from what I've seen from other reviews, physical readers were also surprised. I wasn't sure if I was missing clues to the truth while I was driving but I found the twists to be really well hidden but not in a frustrating manner. They were the kind of twists that make you turn back to certain sections and re-read them only to find out that you were making certain assumptions and logic jumps that lead you to rationale A but then we get more reveals and turns out we were way off course. This is the most surprised I'd been while reading a thriller in a long time and I wish I could have this feeling with more of the books I read.
Overall, this was a really great thriller and I highly recommend it. I've read one other Alice Feeney book and I would be very interested in reading more of her back list as well as any future books.
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