Book #18 read in 2025

Five university friends, Aline, Sienna, Rob, Michael, and Brandon, reunite after they start getting cryptic messages about a secret from the past. Aline gathers them all because she believes one of them is responsible for the messages and wants to figure out who it is. 

In this story, there are alternating POVs. Darryl, a neighbor of the group during their university days, narrates the past. His chapters are disturbing, as they are intended to be. They are supposed to give us a glimpse of the group of friends through his eyes, but in the process, we don't really learn anything about them as young adults. This means that they are still virtually strangers to us when we meet them as adults. 

I may have read one too many locked-room types of thrillers, and this one was just not well done to me. I didn't really like the characters; I couldn't keep track of who was married, who had relationships in the past, and which kids belonged to which couple. I didn't care enough to figure it out. Finding out who sent the messages was an interesting surprise, but the actual ending was eye-rollingly ridiculous. I think I need to take a break from this trope for a while.

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This novel was published on January 28, 2025.