Rating: 3 out of 5.

This was a slow-burn mystery that occurs over the course of a day-long sweet sixteen birthday party for Sophie, with flashbacks involving almost the entire cast of characters. The mansion high on the hill towering over the town has always been the source of curiosity. The main characters are:

DANI: Sophie’s new stepmother who’s been plagued by self-doubt ever since the birth of her own baby girl

ÓRLAITH: the superstitious Irish nanny who senses a looming danger in this cavernous house

MIKAYLA: the birthday girl’s best friend who is not nearly as meek as the popular kids assume

KIM: the cunning ex-wife who has a grudge she can’t let go of . . .

The party is a drunken, sloppy affair where secrets and suspicions flow as fast as the drinks. No one is spared the hurt, guilt, and embarrassment of other’s actions. It doesn’t help that Dani’s husband thinks she’s going crazy and Dani isn’t sure he’s not wrong. The house is another creepy character in the story and if I was Dani, I would have moved out long ago.

The book moves a bit slow for me and the constant hints and foreshadowing got a bit too much. I didn’t start getting any kind of real idea what the book was even about until well over half-way through, which was annoying. But, that’s just a me thing. I get restless easily and like much more action in my books. Others may enjoy the way the author dripped, dripped, dripped the story to the reader, letting them speculate what was going to happen and to whom.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Press. All opinions are my own.