The Birthday Girl by Sue Fortin

Dear Carys, Zoe and Andrea

Come and join me for my fortieth birthday adventure weekend, full of mysteries and surprises the like of which you can’t imagine.  

When Joanne’s friends reluctantly accept an invitation to her birthday party, it quickly becomes clear that there is more to this weekend than they are expecting.

One of them is hiding a secret.

And Joanne is planning to reveal it…

A weekend away in a cottage in the woods sounds like fun – until no one can hear your cries for help.

 

Publisher: Harper Impulse | Genre: Psychological Thriller/ Mystery  | Source: Publisher (?)| Rating: 4 Cups

Challenges Read For:  - 2019 Try Something New New-to-me Author

 

This arrived sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas and I ended up putting it in my maybe pile, as I hadn’t requested it. It came in a padded mailer from the UK with the customs form over the sender’s address, so I’m guessing it came from the publisher—there was nothing inside to say where it came from. I ended up forgetting about it until I was searching for something a bit different to read a few weeks ago.

 

I’m so glad I gave this book a try. It drew me in from the start and I ended up reading the majority of the book in one sitting. As this is one of those books where any little spoiler will ruin it, I’m not going to delve too deep into a review.

 

Here’s what’s going on. After a bit of a falling out, Joanne guilts her three friends into spending a weekend in a remote cabin for her birthday and she promises it will be filled mysteries and surprises they won’t forget. Carys, Zoe, and Andrea quickly discover that Joanne’s ‘games’ have a bit of bite to them and she’ll stop at nothing to expose their darkest secrets. Although before they realize it, Joanne’s lost control of her little ‘game’ and they discover there is a killer in their midst. Is it one them or an outsider? Will they last until help arrives?

 

All four women are harboring significant secrets that will potentially ruin them if they were to be exposed. Carys, Zoe, and Andrea believe that no one knows what they’re hiding but Joanne has figured them out and she determined that they pay for what she considers their ‘wrongdoings’. Joanne’s decided that she’s going to play judge, jury, and exposer during this weekend but didn’t expect that someone else also knows these secrets and is planning to use them for their own benefit.

 

While the four of them were friends, it was obvious from the start they didn’t trust each other. They were leery from the start so when things started to kick up, it was easy for them to turn on each other. Then the added stress of them being in the middle of nowhere only compounded things.

 

I thought I had the entire book figured out in the first few chapters and I couldn’t have been more wrong. Once I thought I had it nailed down, a twist popped up that had me changing my entire thought process. I enjoyed that I couldn’t figure this one out right out of the gate and I was guessing until the last few chapters.

 

My only problem with this one was that the dialogue, at times, felt a bit like lines from a soap opera. It was brief and random when it happened so I wasn’t being constantly bombarded with it but it threw me off a time of two.

 

If your like British thrillers, mysteries, or crime dramas you’ll want to pick up this book.

 

Overall, this one was a great read. I enjoyed the process of figuring out what was happening and who was pulling the strings. It kept me turning the pages until the very end. I look forward to reading more from this author. Also, this would make a killer movie.

 

Have you read Sue Fortin?

Are you a fan of Psychological Thrillers?