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Welcome to The Starlings... sun, sea and neighbours to die for.
Security, a sparkling sea view and the best kind of neighbours - The Starlings gated community has it all. Here, doors are left open, children run free, and at the heart of it all is the entrepreneurial Gold Family, who first dreamed up this aspirational vision of 'Dorset's Safest Community'. To the outside world the popular family appears glitteringly blessed... until an idyllic party takes a dark turn and one of their number is found slumped at the foot of the clocktower. Who knows what really happened? And what answers are harboured within the old building, the former Highcap Mother and Baby Home?'
A mesmerising, character-rich thriller with a long-buried secret vibrating at its core: this is Isabel Ashdown at her heart-stopping best, for readers who enjoyed Big Little Lies, Dr Foster or Little Fires Everywhere.
Isabel Ashdown is an author whose books I always enjoy and her latest novel, Homecoming, is no exception. The format of the book creates unbelievable suspense with a short, disturbing present day prologue before the story takes the reader back to one year ago.
The Gold Family are very well named; they seem to have the Midas touch. Katrin, her husband Bill and brother-in-law Hugo are property developers who have renovated an old workhouse that later became a mother and baby home. The Starlings is named after the birds that nest in the clocktower, but its previous incarnation as Highcap House still has secrets held within its walls...and it looks like someone will kill to keep them buried.
I'm not going to mention any more about the story as it could spoil it for other readers. Needless to say, with so many secrets I was suspicious of all the characters and thought I had guessed all of the secrets but I was completely wrong. I love being wrong about a book as it means it has been written so skilfully that it misdirects me completely, which is exactly what Isabel Ashdown does so very cleverly in Homecoming.
Hauntingly atmospheric, Homecoming has a simultaneously idyllic and sinister setting as past and present events collide and secrets that span decades are about to be revealed. I read Homecoming with a constant feeling of unease and I loved every minute of it.
I received an ARC to read and review for the blog tour; this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
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