Six friends are gathered together back on the island of Innis Mór, Ireland, to celebrate the life and tenth anniversary of the death of Cillian: Cara, his wife, Seamus, his brother, and Maura, Socha, Ferdia, and Daithì, to complete the group of the childhood best friends. Cara couldn’t make it to their first night home, she was on the mainland for work. She plans to join them as soon as she gets the ferry home from Galway. The following day, when Cara arrives home, she picks up Daithí and they head to the Flaherty house, Seamus and Cillian’s childhood home, where everyone is gathered except for Maura, who doesn’t show up. When Cara, the Island Garda Sergeant, is called away for a report of a body in the Serpent’s Lair, she is devastated to discover it is Maura, her best friend from the age of eight. A horrific snowstorm has engulfed the island, stopping ferries and planes from making the short trip to the mainland. The forecast is predicting three days of the brutal storm, so the group is trapped together, with no phone or Wi-Fi signal, and no power. No one knows who they can trust. One of them is dead, one of them is next, and all of them are hiding a secret.
“The Snowstorm” is a briskly-paced, tense, thrilling novel, and I was glued to it from the start to the reveal-filled ending. What begins as a reunion of childhood friends very quickly goes off the rails as the body of Maura is discovered and the remaining group is trapped together. The snow storm raging outside is the perfect metaphor for the storm raging in Cara, who has discovered disturbing secrets about each one of the friends she loves and thought she knew. I applaud the way Cara pieces each secret to the person it involves and reveals all. I thought the reveals and the twists to get to the conclusion were brilliantly done. Other than a few repetitious details, the story was enthralling, and it will engage all readers of the whodunit/mystery/thriller genre right to the very end, when all loose ends are neatly tied. I am eagerly looking forward to Ms. Walsh’s next work.
I’d like to thank NetGalley, Triona Walsh, and Bookouture for the ability to read and review this ARC.