By Lauren Bell
I have been a long-time fan of Gilly MacMillan and have read all her titles, so needless to say, The Long Weekend was a highly anticipated book for me (reading it felt like coming home). MacMillan’s latest novel fits true to her style—a psychological thriller set against the background of England and told in alternating perspectives.
Three couples are staying at the isolated Dark Fell Barn for a weekend getaway. Each couple is at a different stage in their relationship (one newly married, another new parents, and the other hovering around divorce), and no one is eager for the weekend, but they have begrudgingly come out of an unspoken obligation to keep the group together in honour of their recently deceased friend Rob, the so-called “glue” of the group. While the men of the group are lifelong friends, their wives are merely there by association, and the realization of how little they actually know each other further sours the atmosphere. Within this context the hook of the novel is set: upon their arrival they receive a note warning them that one of their husbands will be killed before they return home. From then on, it’s a guessing game of who left the note and which husband will be targeted.
As I mentioned previously, the plot is told in alternating perspectives, mostly in third person, but there is also a second narrator—the perpetrator of the crime. When you’re reading, you are never fully certain of the narrator’s identity—process of elimination from the subtle hints MacMillan drops cancels out the obvious choices. This is where I believe that MacMillan’s skill as a thriller writer stands out, as she keeps the audience guessing throughout the novel.
What I also like about MacMillan’s work is that she creates “real” people in her characters, and snapshots of everyday lives in her novels. I appreciate their originality and relatability, and the fact that she stays away from classic mystery tropes (e.g., no femme fatales or conflicted detectives). I found her ending to be fitting as well, as it ties up all loose ends. However, my main critique for The Long Weekend is that the plot’s timeline is the span of a weekend, yet the book itself is roughly 300 pages, meaning MacMillan does a lot to build suspense in the novel, but at times this can drag.
I quite enjoyed reading The Long Weekend and would recommend it to fans of the genre, especially those who have previously read MacMillan’s work.