We Search the Island for Grace: A beautifully written classic gothic crime novel of family, secrets and loss

by Bonnie Burke-Patel

They gather at Saints' Climb, the only house on an island off the Somerset coast. Eight men with nowhere else to be at Christmas. Father and son George and Xavier Starvely; James, a taciturn archaeologist uneasy with the living; Victor, a French widower; Rick, the groundskeeper; and Chris and Nathan, the two men who want to make a documentary about this place and its extraordinary collection of medieval art. And the housekeeper Marianne, who seems to find peace in serving. Erected around the stone labyrinth built into the floor by monks, Saints' Climb is a house heavy with loneliness.

Xavier Starvely is a successful academic with a real life elsewhere. Yet he is wracked with guilt over the fragmentary memories of a childhood tragedy, and when his guests arrive on the island for Christmas, the deaths begin afresh.

A labyrinth is different from a maze. There are no false turns or dead there is only one winding path, which, followed faithfully, will always lead to the centre. What will each find at the centre of the labyrinth? And can it save them?

Kindle Edition

Expected publication July 30, 2026

About the author

Born and raised in South Gloucestershire, Bonnie Burke-Patel studied History at Oxford. After working for half a decade in politics and policy, she changed careers and became a preschool teacher, before beginning to write full time. She lives with her husband, son, and needy cat in south east London, and is working on her next crime novel about fairy tales, desire, and the seaside.

Reviews

[Kayte Rae · Rating 5 out of 5]

It can be both. We can be both. So much of life is nuance. We all contain multitudes. This is the lesson at the centre of the labyrinth.

Bonnie Burke- Patel has without question done it again. Think Knives Out, think Clue but make it gothic crime novel. If you have ever had the inclination fireside or in bed at night just before sleep takes you to say to someone "please, tell me story ..." That is the feeling her writing always evokes in me. Please, tell me a story. It is a little mystery, a little modern fairy tale, and a little metaphor underneath it all. I genuinely believe I could restart it again just now and take even more away from it.

I am beyond honored to have had the chance to savor an ARC of this book and I cannot wait for others to get a chance to read it. I simply will never tire of Burke-Patel's work. Came for the story , but walked away learning a little more about myself; and with pieces of my world view broadened and reaffirmed.

I hope everyone who reads it finds a bit of grace within its pages - and bestows it upon others and perhaps even more importantly upon themselves.