Bright and Deadly Things by Lexie Elliott #bookreview #thriller #suspense
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Title: Bright and Deadly Things
Author: Lexie Elliott
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: February 14, 2023
Page Count: 380
My rating: 2 1/2 stars
About the book:
A remote back-to-basics mountaintop retreat in the French Alps turns deadly as an Oxford fellow finds herself in the crosshairs of her late husband’s dangerous secrets.
The Chalet des Anglais should be the ideal locale for recently-widowed Oxford don Emily to begin cutting through the fog of her grief. With no electricity, running water, or access by car, the rustic chalet nestled at the foot of the verdant, snow-topped Alps should afford Emily both time and space to heal. Joining her will be a collection of friends from the university, as well as other fellows, graduates, and undergraduates.
Something feels off, though—heightening Emily’s existing grief-induced anxiety. Before even making it to the airport, she’s unnerved by a break-in at her home. Once at the chalet, tension amongst the guests is palpable. Her friends and colleagues are behaving oddly, and competition for a newly opened position has introduced a streak of meanness into the otherwise relaxing getaway. As hostilities grow, Emily begins to wonder if the chalet’s dark history has cast a shadow over the retreat. In the salon, a curious grandfather clock looms, the only piece of furniture to survive a deadly blaze a century ago. As its discordant bell begins to invade everyone’s dreams, someone very real has been searching through Emily’s things and attempting to hack into her computer.
When a student disappears, Emily realizes that she’d better separate friend from foe, and real from imagined—or the next disappearance may be her own.
Bright and Deadly Things by Lexie Elliott is a slow burn thriller novel. The story in Bright and Deadly Things is sort of a locked room mystery or in this case a remote and atmospheric mountaintop retreat in the French Alps mystery.
Emily Rivers is a recent widow who has been invited to the Chalet des Anglais, a remote retreat in the French Alps. The trip doesn’t begin well for Emily with dealing with an intruder making her arrival to the retreat delayed. Once arriving though Emily quickly finds the tension among the guests and needs to determine who is actually a friend.
For this reviews I must do a play on the title of Bright and Deadly Things by Lexie Elliott with telling my bright side to the story and what for me became deadly as a reader. The bright spot of the story that kept me going was the setting that swept me into the eeriness and kept the pages turning. The deadly side that lowered my rating would be the pacing of this one, it was simply too slow moving for my taste with the pacing even feeling a bit off with some extremely slow times. Those that do enjoy a slow burn should feel much differently so I’d suggest giving this one a try!
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
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About the author:
Lexie Elliott has been writing for as long as she can remember, but she began to focus on it more seriously after she lost her banking job in 2009 due to the Global Financial Crisis. After some success in short story competitions, she began planning a novel. With two kids and a (new) job, it took some time for that novel to move from her head to the page, but the result was The French Girl, which was published by Berkley in February 2018 – available on Amazon now! This was followed by The Missing Years in 2019 and How To Kill Your Best Friend in 2021. She is now working on her fourth novel.
When she’s not writing, Lexie can be found running, swimming or cycling whilst thinking about writing. In 2007 she swam the English Channel solo. She won’t be doing that again. In 2015 she ran 100km, raising money for Alzheimer Scotland. She won’t be doing that again either. But the odd triathlon or marathon isn’t out of the question.
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