The Couple in the Lodge

by A.J. Wills

A couple cut off by the snow. A series of mysterious packages. And a prediction that one of them will die...Clara Flint’s life changed forever when her debut novel became an international bestseller. Now, under pressure to deliver a sequel, she's paralysed by writer’s block — and watching her marriage quietly unravel.

A few weeks away with her husband, Seb, at Harrowglen Lodge, deep in the Scottish Highlands, should reignite her creativity and save her relationship.

But cut off by deep snow and surrounded by brooding mountains, Clara glimpses a light burning in an attic room that should be empty, catches a shadow moving past the window, and hears whispered voices calling her name.

Then the envelopes appear.

Hidden around the lodge, each anonymous brown package contains a chapter of a chilling story that seems to anticipate disturbing events before they occur.

And as the boundary between fiction and reality begins to fracture, Clara becomes convinced she and Seb are being watched and manipulated — until the story reaches its darkest turn.

A brutal murder. Two bodies buried in the snow.

Is it a warning? A threat? Or a prediction?

The Couple in the Lodge is a psychological thriller with a breathtaking twist from the author of the No.1 Kindle bestseller, His Wife's Sister.

479 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication February 10, 2026

About the author

***Book bloggers join my ARC team and never miss getting your hands on a review copy of my latest books. You can sign up here: bit.ly/bloggersalert ***

AJ Wills writes standalone psychological thrillers with twisty plots.

He’s a former journalist who wrote in his spare time, before and after work for ten years, until he was finally able to fulfil his lifelong dream of becoming a fulltime author in May 2021.

He’s never looked back and now runs a small independent publishing company, Cherry Tree Publishing with his wife, AJ McDine, also a thriller writer.

He said: “I've always loved thrillers, but psychological thrillers hold a special interest for me because they're about the scary, insane, disturbing things that happen to ordinary people - and we can all relate to them on some level.”

He lives in Kent in the south east of England.

You can download AJ Wills’s psychological thriller, His Lost Wife, for free by visiting bit.ly/hislostwife

You can find out more about him on his website: ajwillsauthor.com, his Facebook page AuthorAJWills or on his Instagram account ajwills_author

Of course, you can always contact him directly at adrian@ajwillsauthor.com, where he loves to answer messages from genuine readers.

And don't forget to follow him on BookBub for his new releases: bit.ly/BookBubAJWills

Reviews

[sharon moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel was full of mystery, twists and turns. Engrossing. Clara an author and her husband rent a lodge for a month. This was so that Clara could get rid of her writers block but also spend time with Seb her husband, as they had grown apart and felt that this would help. They set out to Scotland, deep snow and the old lodge doesn’t feel great to them but they stick it out. Mysterious things start happening envelopes keep turning up, someone else’s story. This is about a couple Nelle and her husband. Clara decides to rewrite it in her own words. Things do not improve in her marriage as she’s writing all of the time. The envelopes keep turning up in various places. The story unfolds. Worth a read, lots of the story after what I have written but don’t want to spoil anything. 5 stars from me.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clara and Seb have gone away for a remote lodge so that Clara can push through her writers block to deliver her next novel and they can repair their breaking marriage. When a chapter of a manuscript turns up that inspires Clara it seems that real life is echoing the chills of the manuscript.
Told in three parts of then, now and the book in a book this all comes together with a proper wtf moment!
Thank you to Adrian for an arc in exchange for my honest review.

[Kenneth Lingenfelter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A get a way at a lodge in the mountains of Scotland. It was meant to be a writing retreat and reconnect their marriage. All is not what appears and the ending is not what I expected. A real page turning thriller that I could not put down.