The Retreat is the best psychological thriller of 2019 written by British novelist Mark Edwards. Here, I wrote my review about this gripping thriller. First of all, you must know that the book has been released only last year, on May, 2018 and already has had tons of positive customer reviews on Amazon. I am also one of these customers, but I wrote and published my review on my book site, not on Amazon.
I bought the Kindle edition of The Retreat, only a month ago. Although The Retreat has a length of 356 pages, I read it in one breath. It is true that I read many books, but when I devour a book in a few days, only, it is because the story is compelling and masterly written. Page after page, chapter after chapter, I has been dragged in the scary world of Mark Edwards, a novelist who writes psychological thrillers in which dark things happen to ordinary people.
The Retreat seems a horror novel, but it is more than that. It is a mystery written with the style of Agatha Christie, where all of the characters are guilt, but none is never really guilt. The entire gloomy world of the Retreat turns around a cottage amid woods and the disappearance of a little girl, Lily. The Retreat is set in 2017, while the disappearance of the girl occurred two years earlier, in 2015. The house amid the woods in Wales is the ideal place where novelists write their horror stories. Mark Edwards’s writing is filled with the stunning contrast between our modern world, made of writing devices and the rural style of the house.
The pace is fast and the suspense grows over the entire story. The Retreat is the symbol of our most hidden fears and worries, it is the place of the lies and superstition, rather, the latter is the worst evil that dwells the house. The old fashioned house is perfectly spooky with the mysterious and secretive basement, where all of the characters hear strange and otherworldly voices. One of these is alike the one of a little girl. A ghost? A hallucination?
With a writing that suddenly turns into gripping words, The Retreat by Mark Edwards brings readers to a supernatural world, which admittedly is very natural and hard to believe. The village of the retreat for writers is filled with the secrets of people who never are who they tell to be. The beauty of this psychological thriller lies just in the ability to lure readers bit by bit, keep them stuck onto the flow of the tale.
In addition to my review, The Retreat also has a very gripping plot enriched with awesome twists.
Here is the synopsis. As said, the story turns around the disappearance of a little girl, Lily. She disappeared on the day of New Year, while she is walking along the shore of a river together with her parents, Julia and Michael. The latter, after seeing the plush toy of Lily floating on the surface of the river, throws into the waters to save the daughter and drowns tragically.
From that awful day, Julia remains alone in her rural house that she rents to novelists who seeking for inspiration to write their horror novels. One of them is Lucas Radcliffe, an emerging novelist who became famous for writing a horror story that has some similitude with the alleged death of Lily. Julia never accepted the death of the daughter. She blamed the local policemen which labeled the case as a tragic accident. Indeed, they conducted hastily investigations and gave up soon. And if the truth was another one? If Lily was alive, instead? Lucas tries helping Julia, hiring a private detective, Zara, who, unfortunately, gets murdered, like all of the people who try discover the truth.
Why those who investigate about the disappearance of Lily got murdered? Who is behind this tragedy? And the voices in the house? Who is haunting the retreat? As you can see, the questions are many and the ending of the story can be discovered only if you read up to the latest pages, where an impressive twist is waiting for you. If you are eager to discover the shocking ending of The Retreat, buy the book now on Amazon, and let me know your opinion about this bestselling thriller.
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Rosalba Mancuso is the journalist, born in Sicily, who founded three online magazines in English. On Advicebooks Book Reviews, Rosalba shows her great passion for books, helping readers and book lovers choose and buy the best books she read and reviewed. She also worked as a contributor for printed publications and online magazines and as a bilingual Italian-English writer. Here, Rosalba also offers room to authors and publishers who want to get their books reviewed through the voice of an avid reader like her. You must also know that this book review magazine lives thanks to your help. Rosalba, in fact, earns a small commission, with no cost for you, when you buy books through the affiliate links you find in her book reviews. This book review magazine is also funded by services of editorial reviews and book press releases.