The Sinister Gathering by Diane Ezzard (Sophie Brown #3) ★★★☆☆
Genre: Contemporary, Lite-mystery
Published: 2018
Pages: 243
Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources for organising the blog tour. All opinions are my own.
Sophie attends a well-being retreat hoping to find herself, instead she finds a dead body.
Coming to the Scottish Highlands, she hopes to escape life and get in touch with her inner self. She wants to free herself from the anxieties that have gripped her for years.
Peace and harmony are advertised but what she discovers is anything but.
She is around women with other ideas. As she gets to know the strange bunch staying at Glenloch Hall, fights and arguments become the norm.
She should never have entered that fateful property.
She was looking for peace but found death.
Review
While this is pitched as a mystery, I should call out that in leans more towards a general contemporary for the majority of the book. It would therefore be perfect to people who love both mysteries and lighter stories, or if you’re looking to step into either genre.
Rather than the death, the focus is really on the relationships and conflicts between the varied set of women. It explores those who click, and those who don’t. What happens when some take a disliking to others.
When we get to the mystery later on in the novel, we get solutions fairly quickly. So again, great if you’re new to the genre and aren’t looking for a drawn out mystery.
This was done in an interesting and fairly natural way. It felt realistic and not forced to get a story.
Overall a solid contemporary with a hint of mystery.
The Sinister Gathering is available now (Amazon UK | Amazon US)
About the Author
Manchester born Diane Ezzard writes emotionally charged psychological thrillers and mysteries about everyday people in seemingly ordinary circumstances until something goes badly wrong in their lives.
Before taking early retirement to concentrate on her writing, she worked as a HR manager, a counsellor, owned a cafe and managed a charity.
She now lives and writes in South East London close to her daughter and grandchildren.
Website: dezzardwriter.com | Facebook: dezzardwriter | Twitter: @diane_ezzard
Be sure to check out the other bloggers on the tour
This Is My Bookshelf 
Thank you for featuring me on the recent blog tour for my book “The Sinister Gathering.”. I appreciate you taking the time out to review my novel.
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It was a pleasure!
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