The Retreat
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3.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
In this "gorgeously written and atmospheric thriller" (Robyn Harding), one woman must face her darkest fears when her visit to a beautiful but remote mountain retreat takes a deadly turn.
*A CrimeReads Best Psychological Thriller of 2021*
Maeve Martin arrives at the High Water Center for the Arts, a gorgeous lodge nestled deep in the Rocky Mountains, determined to do one thing: begin her own dance company. A retired performer and mother of two, time is running out for her to find her feet again after the collapse of her disastrous—and violent—marriage. And at first, there's a thrill to being on her own for the first time in years. Isolated in the snowy beauty of the retreat, Maeve can forget the ghost of her past for an hour, for a day.
But when an avalanche strikes, Maeve finds herself trapped with six other guests. They’ve lost all power, phone service, heat, and the road back to town. At first, there’s a sense of camaraderie—the fire is warm, the freezer well-stocked. But as the days pass and the storm rages on outside, tensions start to run high. Help is coming, so they just have to hold on, right?
Then the first guest meets an unspeakable death. Followed by another. Soon Maeve must admit how little she knows about these strangers . . . and how useless a locked door is if the darkness is already inside.
“Magnificently absorbing and haunting . . . With a dabble each of Hitchcock thriller, cozy mystery, and domestic noir, The Retreat offers a terrifyingly fun read.” —Amy Stuart, author of Still Water
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Being snowbound in the Rockies with a group of strangers is pretty unnerving, particularly when one of them might be a killer. Former dancer and domestic-abuse survivor Maeve Martin is holed up at a mountain inn working on pieces for her dance company. But when a snowstorm traps Maeve and the other guests in the picturesque lodge, people start turning up dead. Elisabeth de Mariaffi gives the classic locked-room mystery a fresh makeover with a strong female lead and plenty of smart, modern touches. (Nobody has to go searching for a flashlight in the age of cell phones!) You can feel the lodge go from cozy to claustrophobic as the guests fend off dangerous wildlife and the unforgiving elements—in addition to the murderer hiding among them. As secrets come out and suspicion grows, you’ll be gripping your device, desperate to know who’ll turn up guilty and who’ll wind up dead. With its chilling and isolated atmosphere, The Retreat is a wonderfully creepy mystery.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Maeve Martin, the heroine of this uneven thriller from de Mariaffi (The Devil You Know), was a modern dancer before having two children with her abusive husband. Now widowed, she leaves the children with her mother and books two weeks at the High Water Center for the Arts, an isolated lodge in the Rocky Mountains, where she'll have uninterrupted time to focus on the dance company she hopes to start. Instead of finding peace, though, Maeve is thrown into a maelstrom after an avalanche cuts off the center's power and communications. Later, filmmaker Anna Barthelmy is found dead in the snow, and Maeve doesn't believe the death was accidental. Maeve gambles that staying behind with the center's director rather than joining the others on the 10-mile trek to the nearest town is her best bet, but danger looms either way. The center's lack of emergency preparation, among other elements, strain credulity, but the final chapters offer genuine suspense. Readers will feel rewarded in the end.
Customer Reviews
The Retreat
Really disliked all the characters, especially Maeve, and am still wondering what the book was about. A dancer’s life in The Shining or a spin on And Then There Were None with Maeve attempting to explain all the dead bodies. Maybe start with the reader? An Artist’s Descent Into Madness in a Snowbound Retreat with a Damaged Dancer?