The Chateau

A very good book. Will keep you reading until dawn.

Catherine Cooper is PHENOMENAL!! At first I didn’t know if I wanted to continue as I found it boring and hard to get into but it started progressing quickly and I’m so glad I kept reading. Everytime I thought I was right about something the twists revealed what really happened. I love the foreshadowing also. The dialogue is great and relatable in more ways than one. I personally don’t like long chapters so this was a great book for me. I definitely recommend.

The author was good at developing the characters and drawing into the story, with some sympathy for eth main characters. However the plot gave me a sour feeling at the end. The main characters had been killed by two people who for dubious reasons held grudges against them, which had caused them to spend the entire period of the story adopting false roles in order to wreak their revenge.

Catherine Cooper has written another brilliant, utterly chilling thriller. The Chateau opens with an intriguing paragraph that made me want to know what was going on here. Someone is out for revenge. But who is this person? What has made them want to pursue this course of action?Catherine Cooper then takes us to France, where at a party, someone ends up dead. This makes for such a gripping opening. I had to know who this person was who was killed. Following on from this we meet Aura and Nick who have recently relocated to France from the UK with their two sons, Bay and Sorrel. They are doing up a chateau with a film crew present who are filming for a documentary. It is clear that they have come here to try and forget something which happened to them.As we get to know Aura and Nick Catherine Cooper takes us back in time. It is here that we get to see the events play out which led to them seeking a new life in France. There were some gripping scenes here as I wondered just what exactly had happened and I began to see events in the present in a new light. As Aura and Nick get to know the expat community out in France, I couldn’t believe some of the scenes I was reading, particularly when they attend their friend Thea’s party. Aura’s frustration comes through very clearly in her character here. It made me wonder how things were going to pan out for them in France.Catherine Cooper throws in a lot of red herrings which keeps your attention focused elsewhere and I thought she did this very well. There was a twist which came towards the end of the book which completely surprised me. I had no idea that this was the direction that Catherine was going to take. It made it all the more chilling and those last few lines in the final chapter gave me shivers.Psychological thriller fans, Catherine Cooper’s novels are a must read if you haven’t read them already. I was utterly gripped by The Chateau and I can’t wait to see what Catherine Cooper writes next.

As some others have said , this book is an embarrassment! I binned it rather than donated it to a charity shop ( I bought it second hand and it already had 50p on the inside page ) . A fairly original story sadly marred by characters I didn't give a damn about , a daft plot and how on earth the did the couple manage to buy a Chateau , albeit a run down one ?It didn't ring true as they courted publicity after what they had been through in the UK . Surreal ending too . Don't waste your time on this