4.5 stars This was a brilliant and gripping novel that was hard to put down , it definitely is a page turner. The whole novel only spans a few days and there is so much action, twists and turns that it will leave you breathless. The characters were very easy to like or dislike and in depth enough so you thought you know them but do we really? Who is actually hiding a secret? Well you will have to read these book to find out you won't be disappointed. The storyline was brilliant and so unique which I loved tremendously. Its a perfect winter read. I listened to the audiobook and loved the fact there was a full cast of narrators with their different accents it really brought this book to life adding a great sense of atmosphere and tension. It atmosphere of this book really left me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen next. I loved the cover of this book, it has so much atmosphere and mystery about it that just draws you in and makes you want to read it. I must say I really did love the ending of this book it was so unexpected and shocking that there has to be another book eek. Many thanks to the author and publishing team for bringing us this immensely gripping novel. I just can't wait to read the next instalment of this book.

I will admit that I was surprised when I opened this to find out that the cover had completely misled me about the setting. Lots of snow and I assumed we would be in a snowy landscape. Half right - there was snow but we were on a nature reserve with bird-watchers! Nothing wrong with bird-watchers, I have been one myself. The thing with bird-watchers is that you get a very varied collection of individuals and that is the case here. Lauren is a warden on the reserve and arranges for the little Nature Club to have access to the closed reserve on Boxing Day to watch the evening starling murmurations. So, 7 characters in the dusk in a closed nature reserve - the perfect ingredients for a claustrophobic thriller - and as one of the characters is deaf, that adds another level. This group are together for the bird-watching, they are not really friends even though the blurb describes them as such. They are of different ages from twenties to seventies and they all seem to have secrets which Alec, the annoying birding geek of the group, seems to have discovered. As someone who has in the past volunteered on a reserve, I can catergorically state that people like Alec exist on every reserve. Anyway - when one of the group ends up murdered, the remaining six all look at each other with suspicion. As dusk becomes darkness and snow starts to fall, the group split to try to return to the centre to get help. The story is told from each character's point of view - we hear their voice, their fears and their secrets. The game of cat and mouse is played with the reader as we have to decide who is a reliable narrator and who we can trust and who we need to fear. The finger of suspicion points first at one character and then at another and the threatening atmosphere within the woods where all is dark, where snow impedes vision is beautifully described. Did I guess who did it? Not in the beginning. As secrets were revealed, motives for murder changed and so the 'murderer' changed. The ending does have a twist and while I had guessed a part of it, I had not foreseen the whole of it. An enjoyable thriller from an author that I had not picked up before. Thank you Netgalley.

Great paced thriller. There were times when I was saying don't do that, don't do this and I actually felt cold when the snow came. Just goes to show people aren't what they seem.

3.5 stars rounded up as it finished strong... Seven people brought together by their love of nature. A boxing day hike arranged at the nature reserve behind closed doors. Winter weather set to close in. A recent incident just prior to events herein whereby one of the seven makes a threat... What could possible go wrong? Well this is rather claustrophobic and pretty tense all the way through. We follow our cast of, well, misfits as they start off, trail to the hides the other side of the reserve where they think is the best place to see the murmuration of the local starlings. Instead they start to split up, pair off. And then one of their number is shot. They are in a mobile black spot and the weather that was forecast for later start to come in, threatening their return. They then argue about the best way back to civilisation and split up further. The majority of the rest of the book then mostly focuses on the two groups trying to get back, all the time wary of who among them is a killer. And why ? The book is told by various of the characters in turn and it was mostly easy to follow who was talking. I do admit to not liking, well, any of them to be honest. The way that rather that going down the strength in numbers philosophy, they instead just pretty much squabbled their way along in a rather haphazard manner. Which I did find a bit tiring. I know I probably shouldn't really single it out but one of the characters was profoundly deaf and relied on cochlear implants which was both fascinating and interesting. All that said, though, when we really got down to the nitty gritty, when the whole started to really get unwound and the full picture become clearer, I was brought back to focus with a bang and the baddie, reason, and final twists and turns really did impress me. So, basically, a strong start, lost its way in the middle, and recovered very nicely at the end. It basically relied on what I guess you'd class as chapter cliffhangers to keep me hostage through that middle section. Not a big fan of that tactic.

This one for me was a little slow starting and then introduced the main 7 characters very quickly, I kept trying to remember who's who. Once I got past that, and the suspense built up, I was intrigued. The second half of the book unravels lots of secrets and I changed perceptions of them all quite quickly. Entertaining. And THAT ending. Wow.