“A skull looks up at Jennie from the trench, but it’s not the chalk-white bone and grimacing teeth that send her reeling. It’s the heart-shaped gold pendant, its delicate chain snapped in two. The necklace Hannah never took off. It can’t be Hannah. But it is.

When Jennie Whitmore arrives at her school reunion, she immediately regrets her decision. Why would she choose to surround herself with people who were never nice to her? Who still aren’t, even now she’s a police officer? The only person who truly looked out for her all those years ago was charming, beautiful Hannah. Until the day she disappeared.

Jennie is ready to finally put White Cross Academy behind her, the old school building demolished the morning after the party. But with the demolition comes a call: a teenage girl’s remains have been found on the grounds.

The instant drop in Jennie’s gut tells her that the remains might be Hannah’s, but when she’s called in to examine them, the truth becomes undeniable. Hannah didn’t run away and abandon Jennie thirty years ago; in fact, she never left White Cross at all.

Suddenly, Jennie has a murder to solve. The murder of her best friend. But can she do so before her colleagues discover just how closely connected she is to the victim? Before a mystery stalker makes good on his threats to silence her for good?

The Reunion is a gripping mystery perfect for fans of THE SANATORIUM, Lucy Foley, and Ruth Kelly.”

Hello and welcome to damppebbles. Today I am delighted to share my review of The Reunion by M.J. Arlidge & Steph Broadribb. The Reunion was published by Orion Books on 5th September 2024 and is available in paperback, audio and digital formats. I chose to read a free eARC of The Reunion but that has in no way influenced my review. My grateful thanks to Tracy at Compulsive Readers for inviting me to join the blog tour and to the publisher for sending me a digital copy of the book.

M.J. Arlidge and Steph Broadribb are two authors whose books I love. So when I discovered they were due to co-author a standalone crime novel together, I jumped at the chance to read it.

The Reunion is set around a thirty year old mystery. What happened to Hannah Jennings on the night she was due to meet with best friend Jennie Whitmore? The plan was to run away together to London. But Hannah never showed. Not knowing what changed Hannah’s mind has moulded and shaped Jennie’s life since. Desperate to see her friend again she reluctantly agrees to attend a school reunion in the hope Hannah will be there. But she’s not. Seeing the small group she and Hannah used to hang around with stirs up other emotions and before long Jennie is swept up in memories of days gone by and a heavy dose of nostalgia. But by the next day, Jennie is regretting her decision to let go and live a little, particularly with a stonking hangover making itself known at every opportunity. However, duty calls as a Detective Inspector with the Major Crime Unit — straight to the basement of White Cross Academy, the school Jennie and her friends attended. Looking down into the shallow grave at the bones, Jennie is certain of one thing. She knows the reason Hannah didn’t meet her at the bus stop that night was nothing to do with Hannah changing her mind. She’s certain because the bones buried beneath pipework in the school basement are Hannah’s. Hannah never left White Cross Academy…

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. The Reunion is a well-written tale which pulls the reader into the story and keeps them there. I was intrigued to find out what had happened to Hannah and I found Jennie to be fascinating lead character. I felt for her on one hand, the more she discovered about her friends and their relationships, the more it became clear that Jennie’s memories weren’t quite as rosy as she had painted them to be. I also couldn’t help but suspect Jennie. Those slightly clouded, fuzzy memories, could there be more to them? I certainly wasn’t ready to believe that Jennie was completely innocent! There are quite a few characters in this book but it was easy to keep tabs on who everyone was and what their relationship/role was. As well as the small friendship group, there is also a team of detectives pulling the clues together. And despite being a standalone, the authors did a great job of giving the more secondary characters a voice and a personality. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed The Reunion. I thought the plot was strong, I thought the cast of characters all played their parts well and I liked how the tension built as I approached the denouement. An interesting lead character who manages to keep her connection to the victim under wraps for a surprising amount of time (and then convincingly persuades her DCI to keep her on the case!) really added to my overall enjoyment of the novel. One for the crime fans, that’s for sure. Add it to your reading list. You won’t regret it. Recommended.

I chose to read and review a free eARC of The Reunion. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

The Reunion by M.J. Arlidge & Steph Broadribb was published in the UK by Orion Books on 5th September 2024 and is available in paperback, audio and digital formats (please note, the following links are affiliate links which means I receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you): | amazon.co.uk | Waterstones | bookshop.org | Goodreads | damppebbles bookshop.org shop | damppebbles amazon.co.uk shop | damppebbles amazon.com shop |

M.J. Arlidge has worked in television for the last 15 years, specialising in high end drama production. Arlidge has produced a number of prime-time crime serials for ITV In the last five years, and is currently working on a major adaptation of The Last of the Mohicans for the BBC.

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Steph Broadribb was born in Birmingham and grew up in Buckinghamshire. A prolific reader, she adored crime fiction from the moment she first read Sherlock Holmes as a child. She’s worked in the UK and the US, has an MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) and trained as a bounty hunter in California. Along with her other novels in the Retired Detectives Club series–Death in the Sunshine and Death at Paradise Palms–she has also written the Lori Anderson bounty hunter series and the Starke/Bell psychological police procedural books (writing as Stephanie Marland).

Her books have been shortlisted for the eDunnit eBook of the Year Award, the ITW Best First Novel Award, the Dead Good Reader Awards for Fearless Female Character and Most Exceptional Debut, and longlisted for the Guardian ‘Not The Booker’ Prize. Along with other crime fiction authors, she provides coaching for new crime writers via http://www.crimefictioncoach.com.

You can find out more about Steph at http://www.stephbroadribb.com, and get in touch via Instagram (@CrimeThrillerGirl) and Twitter (@crimethrillgirl).