Random Things Tours - The Chalet

 

TITLE: The Chalet

AUTHOR: Catherine Cooper

PUBLISHER: HarperCollins Publishers UK

PUBLISHING DATE: November 12, 2020

FROM GOODREADS: 

Four friends. One luxury getaway. The perfect murder.  

French Alps, 1998 

 Two young men ski into a blizzard… but only one returns. 

20 years later 

Four people connected to the missing man find themselves in that same resort. Each has a secret. Two may have blood on their hands. One is a killer-in-waiting. 

Someone knows what really happened that day. 

And somebody will pay. 

MY THOUGHTS: When I first discovered The Chalet, I noticed it contained so many of my favorite elements.  A dual timeline, a snowed-in setting and secrets.  And man, did this book ever deliver!

Twenty years ago two brothers, who often didn't get along, took their girlfriends skiing.  However, only one of them returned. Now a group of people once again gather at the chalet for a vacation but this time a snowstorm is wrecking havoc and the only road has been blocked.  The four individuals also have ties to what happened twenty years ago and when a body is discovered in an avalanche, everyone is left to wonder how and if it ties in to the death so many years ago.

This book is a perfect winter read and I hope plenty of people find it beneath their Christmas trees because I can think of nothing better than diving into this on winter holiday.  Cooper sets a dark and foreboding atmosphere and I could almost feel the walls closing in on our characters.

Speaking of characters, I didn't really like them but man, they were fun to dislike!  They were all full of themselves but as the book progresses, they are fully fleshed out and the reader at least understands them all a tad better.  And finally the mystery. I've complained several times this year about books I loved which were ruined by the last sentence.  The Chalet is another one of those last sentence book but this time I loved it.  If you love Lucy Foley or basically what amounts to a close-circle mystery, then this is the book for you!  

RATING: 5 PAWS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: CATHERINE COOPER is a freelance journalist writing for many national newspapers and magazines, specializing in travel. Most recently she has written several ski pieces for the Guardian and is currently compiling a 50 best family holidays round up for the Telegraph. She also makes regular appearances as a talking head on daytime TV. She lives in France with her husband and two teenage children, and is a keen skier.