If you’re interested in reading my academic work about detective and crime fiction (free PDFs available), check it out here. Or take a look at my short story collection featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now!
See also
These lists capture other detective/crime stories and characters that I thought of as I was reading this piece. I won’t explain why, to avoid spoilers, but they’re associations and not ‘if you liked this, then you’ll love…’ recommendations!
Review
This is an enjoyable light read that I would glad recommend to someone looking for that sort of thing. It knows its niche and offers something rather uncomplicated.
The location is chosen to offer some glamour and excitement; something a little aspirational turns to horror. The characters are well sketched out to distinguish them from one another, but their “women’s woes” are fairly stereotypical: the depressed new mother; the cash-strapped teacher wishing she were free of a controlling partner; the timid one struggling with past trauma; the boy-mad party girl. It reminds me of the Point Horror series (which I loved!) by having some fairly clear themes and sticking to them rather simplistically.
The twist about the perpetrator is not really particularly a twist; there is not really any other outcome possible, except for minor details. The twist about how the horror might continue is implausible at best. (Because, you know, there would be plenty of readily available evidence against the story that’s spun. E.g. flight manifests are a thing.)
Much of the flashback section is entirely unnecessary. The happenings on “that night two years ago” when “it all fell apart” are foreshadowed and telegraphed so vividly that we cannot really need it, except perhaps Hannah’s secret (which is entirely inconsequential but I suppose required for the conceit). This would have been a much more interesting piece of writing if Morgan had been brave enough to tell a short story/novella and skip out that middle quarter, or else leant into it, given us more, and structured it in a different way. As it is, the story hits all the expected structural and thematic points in a somewhat dull way.
Take a look at my short story collection featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now!
Dominique Gracia 
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