Friend or Foe? No One Knows
In her newest thriller, THE LONG WEEKEND, bestselling author Gilly Macmillan takes readers deep into the forest of Northumbria, near the border between Scotland and England, with three women whose secrets will undo their lives.
It starts with a mysterious package delivered to Maggie and John Elliott, the owners of Dark Fell Barn, addressed to Jayne, Ruth, and Emily. The Elliotts are to place it on the kitchen table, with a letter leaned against it. Odd, thinks Maggie. Dangerous, thinks John.
It’s supposed to be a couple’s weekend, a quiet escape in the woods, but at the last minute, each of the three husbands postpones his trip. Only the three wives will travel to Dark Fell on Friday, with their husbands scheduled to join them on Saturday.
Jayne is former military, married to Mark—she struggles with PTSD from her role in military intelligence. Ruth is a doctor, married to Toby—she battles life with a six-month-old child and an addiction to alcohol. Emily is new to their group, Paul’s much younger new wife—she doesn’t fit in. The wives don’t understand why their husbands can’t join them until the following day; they are stranded at the Barn during a horrific thunderstorm.
Edie is the driving force of the friend circle; she and the husbands went to college together. But Edie and her daughter, Imogen, have trouble coping with her husband, Rob’s, death in a boating accident.
When Jayne, Ruth, and Emily arrive at Dark Fell, the first thing they see is the package on the table, with the letter in front. It’s a goodbye letter, signed with an “E” so they assume from Edie. She’s going away. And the last line: “By the time you read this, I’ll have killed one of your husbands.”
Without cell reception at the Barn, the women try to figure out a way to contact their husbands. Surely the letter is one of Edie’s inappropriate pranks? But what if it isn’t?
As the story continues, an unknown narrator informs readers they plan to make a new life with Imogen. The body in the trunk of their car is the first step to a new future. Can the women escape from the isolated woods to make sure their husbands are safe? As they work to unravel the mystery, they find their lives are more terrifyingly convoluted than they could have imagined.
Read the rest of my review and interview with Macmillan in The Big Thrill.
