Book Review: The Holiday by T.M Logan

 Book Review : The Holiday By T.M Logan

The holiday is one of those books I’ve heard almost nothing but universal praise for and despite a few negative reviews here and there it seemed like something that was worth a go.

As ever I’ve copied the plot below to save you googling it , 

Seven days. Three families. One killer. It was supposed to be the perfect holiday, dreamed up by Kate as the ideal way to turn 40: four best friends and their husbands and children in a luxurious villa under the blazing sunshine of Provence. But there is trouble in paradise. Kate suspects that her husband is having an affair, and that the other woman is one of her best friends. One of these women is willing to sacrifice years of friendship and destroy her family. But which one? As Kate closes in on the truth in the stifling Mediterranean heat, she realises too late that the stakes are far higher than she ever imagined. Because someone in the villa is prepared to kill to keep their secret hidden. 

If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know where this review is going because I’m afraid The Holiday is a little bit of a disappointment, none of the characters are particularly likeable and I found that I didn’t really give a shit about any of them after 100 pages or so. 

So you’re probably wondering why I carried on with it. It's simple really, despite not caring much about the main characters I couldn’t help wondering what happens to them , or when the book would finally cut to the bloody chase and bump someone off. 

The chapters are short and snappy and end on cliffhangers which means you have to keep reading, I found myself carrying on to see if anything interesting happens, but like the first season of the sopranos there’s several chapters where bugger all happens . 

I like a slow burn thriller, but the holiday takes that concept to the extreme, the paperback version I read came in at 430 pages or so. In my opinion it’s a 370ish page story. 

 The thing that bugged me the most however is the fact that all the action comes in at once about 70 pages from the end making it the only book I’ve ever read to suffer from turbo lag.

Overall the holiday is one of the most frustrating books I’ve read in a long time, it’s well written for sure but it feels like it could be 50 pages shorter and it wouldn’t suffer. The characters are nearly all wankers apart from the kids , who get themselves into enough trouble to stop the whole thing getting bogged down over who shagged who, my guess on that one was completely wrong by the way. It’s not immediately obvious. 

Don’t let me put you off the holiday though, it’s a decent beach read , who knows? Maybe it’d be better if I was actually on holiday when I read it . 

 The holiday hasn’t put me of T.M Logan either . I’ve got his other books in paperback already so his stuff will be making an appearance in here at some point.

Verdict : Good