Book Review – It Ends At Midnight

Title: It Ends At Midnight

Author: Harriet Tyce

Genre: Mystery & Thriller

Goodreads Rating: 3.63

My Rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Source: Paperback

Synopsis:

It’s New Year’s Eve and the stage is set for a lavish party in one of Edinburgh’s best postcodes. It’s a moment for old friends to set the past to rights – and move on.

The night sky is alive with fireworks and the champagne is flowing. But the celebration fails to materialize.

Because someone at this party is going to die tonight.

Midnight approaches and the countdown begins – but it seems one of the guests doesn’t want a resolution.

They want revenge.

My Review:

This was the Bert’s Book Club pick for December and I decided to begin reading this on New Years Eve, as that is when the book initially takes place.

Firstly I found this to be a quick read. It was a page turner that had me wanting to know more, before I knew it I had reached the final pages. It’s a story that you can easily absorb in a couple of sittings and a good binge read for the thriller fans out there. The story starts with a murder and as a reader you have no idea who the victim or victims are. From there we are introduced to our narrator Sylvie and the story starts to unravel.

I didn’t find any of the characters particularly likeable. Sylvie seemed to be quite pathetic throughout and it often had me questioning how someone of such weak character could find their way into her profession. Tess was just as bad and I had my doubts about her from the beginning, we also had controlling Gareth who liked to dominate Sylvie.

I did enjoy the parts of the story where we were taken back to the crime scene and got to see it from different POV. The little breadcrumb of clues gave just enough to keep me enticed as a reader. The main story seemed to explore the complex friendship between Sylvie and Tess, to begin with you are wondering how they are linked with the murder first mentioned. This life long friendship seems to have been through the mill and it was the adolescent parts of Sylvie and Tess’s story that I liked. I felt the author had captured the dark side of female friendships and the need to fit in very well.

Unfortunately I did guess the big twist which was a little disappointing and I did feel the ending was a little rushed. The time had been spent to lay down the ground work of these characters and then it felt the final three chapters packed so much at the end. It was an enjoyable read but not a knock out on this occasion.

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