My Starry Rating: 4/5 Stars
Reason for Rating: Suspenseful, beautiful location, and a complex murder mystery
What I Learned: I am starting to become a fan of mystery thrillers set in secluded/beautiful locations
Genres: Mystery Thriller, Women’s Fiction, Suspense, Adult Fiction
Publication Date: May 23, 2023 by Atria/Emily Bestler Books
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62919401-the-chateau
Synopsis
A dream girls trip to a luxurious French chateau devolves into a deadly nightmare of secrets and murder in this stylish, twisty thriller for fans of Lucy Foley, Ruth Ware, and Lisa Jewell.
Welcome to picturesque Provence, where the Lady of the Chateau, Séraphine Demargelasse, has opened its elegant doors to her granddaughter Darcy and three friends. Twenty years earlier, the four girlfriends studied abroad together in France and visited the old woman on the weekends, creating the group’s deep bond. But why this sudden invitation?
Amid winery tours, market visits, and fancy dinners overlooking olive groves and lavender fields, it becomes clear that each woman has a hidden reason for accepting the invitation. Then, after a wild evening’s celebration, Séraphine is found brutally murdered.
As the women search for answers to this shocking crime, fingers begin pointing and a sinister Instagram account pops up, exposing snapshots from the friends’ intimate moments at the chateau, while threatening to reveal more.
As they race to uncover who murdered Séraphine and is now stalking them, they learn the chateau houses many secrets…several worth killing for.
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Review
A girls trip to the South of France turns deadly in this suspenseful whodunnit by Jaclyn Goldis.
Darcy, Jade, Arabelle, and Vix are four long time friends who have been invited to stay at a chateau for a reunion trip. When a grisly murder occurs at the chateau with motives and clues hard to find, each woman must grapple with her past, secrets, and desires, testing their friendships and loyalties to each other. The dark past of the chateau begins to haunt the women who are each implicated far more than they realize. Who to trust when everyone is a suspect?
Told from the point of view of several characters, this story has plenty of red herrings, twists and turns, surprises, and oh-my-gosh moments that juxtaposes nicely with the bucolic Provence setting. Each character’s backstory and lives are on full display with each of them having their own alibis and motives which makes this murder mystery hard to solve. Themes involving revenge, justice, and survival are explored, which is balanced with the right amount of French luxury and culture. Feelings of guilt and regret are the common threads that link the four friends together and the cloistered setting of the chateau becomes the perfect location to commit a crime where there are endless places to hide…but nowhere to go.
I really enjoyed this story for its page turning quality and suspense. Everyone was a suspect and the psychological aspects of the story and characters created a creepy atmosphere, despite the gorgeous Provencal setting of the book. The author made me feel like I was a fly on one of the many stone walls in the chateau, observing each character whose descriptions and perspectives added to the suspiciousness of it all.
If you’re a fan of glamorous whodunnits and intelligent women’s fiction, you should definitely read The Chateau by Jaclyn Goldis.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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About the Author
Jaclyn Goldis is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and NYU Law. She practiced trust and estate law at a large Chicago law firm for seven years before leaving her job to travel the world and write novels. After culling her possessions into only what would fit in a backpack, she traveled for over a year until settling in Tel Aviv, where she can often be found writing from cafés near the beach. She loves to hear from readers. Please visit jaclyngoldis.com to learn more.
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