The Birdcage by Eve Chase

Thank you to Gaby Young of Michael Joseph Books for a stunning proof copy of The Birdcage by Eve Chase. I enjoyed reading The Glass House by Eve in 2020 and you can read my review here https://mentoringmumof2bookreviews.home.blog/2020/12/10/the-glass-house-by-eve-chase/ The Birdcage is published today (13 October) in paperback. I’m resharing a mini review today.

Synopsis:

Some secrets need to be set free . . .

Twenty years after their last visit, half-sisters Lauren, Kat and Flora are summoned to Rock Point: the beautiful and windswept cliff house where they sat for their father’s most famous painting, Girls and Birdcage.

But what should be a joyous return is darkened by memories of the catastrophic events of a summer twenty years before.

Because when the sisters arrive, it is clear that someone is determined not to let the past lie.

Someone who is watching their every move.

Who remembers the girls in the painting, and what they did . . .

Set on the rugged Cornish coast, The Birdcage is a twisty, spellbinding novel with unforgettable characters who must piece together their family’s darkest secrets.

My thoughts:

I’m pleased to say that I loved this latest novel by Eve Chase. The book starts with a death of a swimmer, a few days after the three young women return to Rock Point to visit their father.

Each has a different mother and different lifestyles, but spent their summers with their dad and his parents in Cornwall. The summer of 1999 was going to be special, the first total eclipse visible in the UK since 1927. But something happened on eclipse day 1999, and we find out more in a series of flashbacks narrated by Flora, Lauren and Kat.

Flora is now a mum who is unhappy with her life, Kat is addicted to her work and Lauren is trying to recover from the recent death of her mum. How did what happened in 1999 change their lives? What news does their dad want to share now?

I loved how the tension built between the temporary residents of Rock Point as secrets were revealed and threatening notes arrived. An addictive, well written page turner I’m happy to recommend.