Pirate Patty Reviews

An embattled actress turns to podcasting when she becomes entangled in a dark conspiracy at a spiritual retreat in this absorbing mystery about fame, violence, and our morbid fascination with murder—from the acclaimed author of Dead Letters.

Olivia Reed is an actress. With some success. Enough that the paparazzi follow her every move and are more than happy to splash all of her erratic behavior all over the tabloids. After hitting rock bottom, her friend and manager, Jess, gets her into a retreat. The House of Light. Not a rehab, a retreat. Only it’s not.

Everyone is odd and Liv can see something is off. Getting close to Ava, a local woman who is trying to find who killed her twin sister. If that ever happened. She pushes Liv to use her celebrity to do a podcast to find out what happened to other women there and why everyone is afraid to speak about it.

We also have the disappearance of Liv’s mother when she was a teen. And the father, who is a real piece of work.

I really struggled with this one. Mainly because the characters were so shallow and unfinished I thought. I could have cared less if any of them had up and died. Liv is clueless and just self-absorbed, Jess is controlling and suspicious, the dad is a cliched character of a Brit.

I couldn’t find one redeeming character here. And there were so many questions left in the end.

NetGalley/April 19th, 2022 by Ballantine Books