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Go to My Grave    by Catriona McPherson Amazon.com order for
Go to My Grave
by Catriona McPherson
Order:  USA  Can
Minotaur, 2018 (2018)
Hardcover, CD, e-Book
* * *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

Donna Weaver and her mother have partnered in restoring an old bed and breakfast inn, The Breakers, in Galloway, by the sea. Its first guests are a family party of eight cousins, celebrating a tenth wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, Donna's mum must attend Scotland's biggest wedding fair, and so is unavailable to help with the inn's opening.

It turns out that this family grouping is a highly dysfunctional one, their relationships frayed by a shared secret - of a tragic event that happened at the same place twenty-five years before. Rightly, someone blames the guests for what happened, and is doing something about it. Flashbacks gradually fill readers in on what happened before.

The novel's prologue mentions a new secret as the outcome of this family gathering, the narrator telling us 'I'll keep this secret and go to my grave.' Readers share Donna's anticipation of, and preparation for, the event - and The Breakers certainly sounds like an enticing destination (absent the family party, that is).

As the guests arrive and realize where they are, tensions between them grow and escalate - they seem an entitled, rather unpleasant bunch, especially Sasha, whose wedding anniversary it is. Odd incidents don't help matters - a hamper that no-one claims sending; something strange blocking a chimney; a doctored picture; and more.

We do find out what's behind it all, and it's quite a shocker - for Donna as well as for readers.

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