“You are cordially invited to the Beechwood Castle for a night you’ll never forget…

Six people find a thick cream envelope on their doorstep. Inside is an invitation to spend 24 hours in a crumbling manor house and be in with the chance to win a portion of one million dollars. The catch: Beechwood Castle was the site of one of the most horrific murders in modern history.

The smell of blood, decay and death still hangs heavy in the air.
Six people walk into the house. One of them is an imposter, all of them are traitors, which of them will survive the night?”

Hello and welcome to damppebbles. You may have noticed that I’ve been missing in action over the last few months. I’ve been in the midst of a rather long and quite tedious reading and reviewing slump, which was unfortunately coupled with double shoulder surgery. I plan to return to the blog properly in the New Year but until then, I will be sharing the odd meme, along with some of my favourite reads over the past year or so.

With that in mind, I am delighted to be sharing my review of The Traitors with you again today. The Traitors was published by One More Chapter on Thursday 1st February 2024 and is available in paperback, audio and digital formats. I chose to read a free eARC of The Traitors but that has in no way influenced my review.

Beechwood Castle in Rock Hill, Southern Indiana was the scene of a tragic event thirty years ago when a group of school friends were viciously attacked and killed by an axe-wielding maniac. The property stood empty for years, until there was news of a new investor. An investor who, to evoke interest and intrigue in the crumbling manor house, announces publicly that six people will be invited to spend the night in the house. If they make it through to morning and don’t run away screaming in terror, they will win a share of one million dollars. Six invitations are delivered to six unsuspecting individuals. Will they be brave enough to walk through the gates of the notorious manor house and more importantly, will they still be alive in the morning to walk out again…

Oh my gosh, I loved The Traitors! I am having the best reading year so far as I have loved everything I’ve picked up in 2024, this one included. I devoured this book in under 24 hours which is normally unheard of for me. Although I will say it is only 270 pages long so for faster readers than I, this will be a very quick read indeed. Six seemingly random people are invited to spend the night in the ultimate haunted house, where a killer with an axe viciously ended the lives of a small group of kids. All but one, that is. Lolly Andrews – now a mother of a teen herself – managed to escape the killer’s clutches that night and escaped. Is it a coincidence that she has received an invitation to spend the night and be in with a chance to win a share of one million dollars? After all, the killer was never caught and there have since been many whispers about the part Lolly played that fateful night. The reader gets to meet each of the six characters in their own dedicated chapters before they arrive at the manor house. These chapters give a good insight into what the characters are about and what motivates them. They’re all well-written, fully formed and interesting. Some may be a little more fully formed than others but I feel that’s normal with such a large cast.

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. The Traitors was enormous fun to read and highly entertaining from start to finish. Even the slower, more sedate moments had my rapt, undivided attention. One night in a creepy, gothic mansion with a terrible history for $166,667 doesn’t sound too challenging, right? Wrong! The ‘contestants’ are immediately put on the back foot when they arrive as they’re welcomed by a host who knows as much, or perhaps even less than they do. Assuming their invite was for a televised event, they’re thrown by the set-up, the lack of cameras or microphones. But as the night progresses and as the body count rises, their predicament slowly dawns on them. I was gripped and completely engrossed in Lynch’s storytelling. As well as being a crime fiction fan I also love horror fiction, in particular books about slashers, so The Traitors was everything I hoped it would be and so much more. Particularly with its different take on the final girl trope. There’s mystery, there’s tension and lots of lovely suspense. I thoroughly enjoyed every second of this story and I look forward to more from this author soon. Incidentally, I was also listening to another of this author’s books (under the name Carissa Ann Lynch) on audio whilst reading The Traitors. I only realised after I had finished both! (The audiobook was great as well, btw) All in all, a superb locked room mystery with menacing, creepy, axe-murderer tendrils threaded throughout. Shocks, grisly murders and surprises galore. Loved it! Couldn’t put it down, didn’t want to put it down. Love, love, loved it! Highly recommended.

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

The Traitors by C.A. Lynch was published in the UK by One More Chapter on 1st February 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 |

Carissa Ann Lynch is the USA Today bestselling author of the Flocksdale Files trilogy, Horror High series, Searching for Sullivan, 13, 13: Deja Vu, Grayson’s Ridge, Shattered Time, Things Only the Darkness Knows, Shades and Shadows, and This Is Not About Love. She resides in Floyds Knobs, Indiana with her husband, children, and collection of books. Besides her family, her greatest love in life is books. Reading them, writing them, holding them, smelling them…well, you get the idea. She’s always loved to read and never considered herself a “writer” until a few years ago when she couldn’t find a book to read and decided to try writing her own story. With a background in psychology, she’s always been a little obsessed with the darker areas of the mind and social problems.