Description
It was supposed to be the perfect getaway: Kate and her three best friends, spending a week with their families in a luxurious villa in the south of France. Through the decades they’ve stayed closer than ever, and seven days of drinking crisp French wine and laying out under the dazzling Mediterranean sun is the perfect celebration of their friendship. But soon after arriving, Kate discovers an incriminating text on her husband’s cell phone.
A text revealing that he’s having an affair.
And that the other woman is one of her best friends.
But which one?
Trapped in paradise with no one to trust, Kate is determined to find out who has put her marriage—and a lifelong friendship—in jeopardy. But as she closes in on the truth, she realizes that the stakes are higher than she ever imagined. Everyone on the trip has secrets…and someone may be prepared to kill to keep theirs hidden.
Details
- Title: The Vacation
- Author: T. M. Logan Twitter / Facebook / Author Website
- Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
- Publication Date: July 21, 2020
- Page Count: 384
- Book Excerpt
My Thoughts
I was excited to take this journey with four former college girls who are meeting for their 40th birthday. Typically, it’s just the four of them when they get together. But this being a special year, they are bringing their families with them to a beautiful villa in the south of France.
Though Kate, one of the college friends, narrates most of the story, it occasionally jumps to one of the other guest’s viewpoints. And there’s even a somewhat confusing few chapters toward the last that go back several months in time. These chapters are rather vague and I even wonder at their importance.
The red herrings abound. I kept wondering when something awful was going to happen and who the bad “guy” was going to be. The red herrings are easy to create since everyone appears to have secrets and even be unstable.
I didn’t feel particularly close to the characters since they all were unlikeable to various degrees. Even Kate, who worked with the police as a crime analyst, had no backbone. When she discovered a questionable text on her husband’s phone she never addressed it with him. She just whined and sniveled around jumping from one conclusion to another. It’s not until the very last of the book that she began acting like a grownup.
But the story kept me reading, even though at times it felt repetitive. Plus the point seemed only to make the reader aware of everyone’s flaws, including the children. But then, of course, that was to keep the red herrings jumping. Trust me, I was about ready to grab a net and snatch one of those stinkin’ fish! I needed some character to make a difference and jumpstart the story.
Yet. I kept reading. L.M. Logan had me hooked. What was going to happen?
When things did start to happen They happened fast. Logan must have used a spreadsheet, thumbtacks, and string, to tie everything together. But don’t misunderstand me. It all tied together nicely. There was just a lot of tying!
This book is for you . . .
. . . if you’d like to go on vacation with old college friends and ponder over unique personalities.
Or you could open this book on your own visit to the beach and be glad you didn’t go on The Vacation with Kate and friends.
What Concerned Me
It was a story that felt more about red herrings and guessing than developing characters. And really it was all buildup until the last 30-40 pages.
What I Liked
Though it is still a little off-the-wall crazy, all the threads do weave together in the end.
I received a copy of the book from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Rating
About the Author
Born in Berkshire to an English father and a German mother, T.M. LOGAN studied at Queen Mary and Cardiff universities before becoming a national newspaper journalist. Logan lives in Nottinghamshire and is the author of Lies, 29 Seconds, and The Vacation.
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