In this tense, spellbinding thriller set over the course of a single day, a woman prepares for a party that goes dreadfully wrongâfor fans of Ashley Audrain and Lisa Jewell.
Nadine Walshâs summer garden party is in full swing. The neighbors all have cocktails, the catered food is exquisiteâeverythingâs going according to plan.
But Nadineâdevoted wife, loving mother, and doting daughterâfinds herself standing over a dead body in her basement while her guests clink glasses upstairs. What happened? How did it come to this?
Rewind to that morning, when Nadine is in her kitchen, making last-minute preparations before she welcomes more than a hundred guests to her home to celebrate her motherâs birthday. But her husband is of little help to her, her two grown children are consumed with their own concerns, and her motherâonly her mother knows that today isnât just a birthday party. It marks another anniversary as well.
Still, Nadine will focus just on tonight. Everyone deserves a celebration after the year theyâve had. A chance for fun. A chance to forget. But itâs hard to forget when Nadineâs head is swirling with secrets, haunting memories, and concerns about what might happen when her guests unite.