I LOVE Mark Edwards. I don't think I've actually reviewed any of his books properly before but I read through all of them about two summers ago. He is one of the few authors where I have consistently loved everything he's done and The Retreat is no different.
For starters, the setting of this book is amazing. I have actually been on a writer's retreat to Wales before and this book captured the creepy atmosphere brilliantly. I also love the basic idea. The main character is a horror writer (whose biggest book is clearly a homage to It) famous for writing about missing children. He accidentally chooses to stay at a place where the woman who runs the retreat had her child go missing. It provides the opportunity for a lot of great character interaction, as well as a solid reason for him to get invested in the mystery.
Before I get too gushy, this book isn't perfect. The story gets a little convoluted near the end, although I still found the ending satisfying. There's also a recurring thing that Mark Edwards does which is he describes female characters somewhat sexually, even when they're not meant to be love interests. It's very minor in this book but I still noticed it to a degree.
On the whole though, I would still very much recommend this book. It has an exciting story and I could not predict where it was going, which was so refreshing. Even if it got a little convoluted, each new hint to the solution was surprising to me and I could not put it down whilst reading it. There are a lot of genuinely creepy moments in here as well, or little atmospheric things which really strengthen the story. Ultimately this is another great book from Edwards and I highly suggest you pick it up.
Overall Rating:
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