They Did Bad Things
Ratings4
Average rating3.3
And Then There Were None meets The Last Time I Lied in this dark and twisty psychological thriller. In 1995, six university students moved into the house at 215 Caldwell Street. Months later, one of them was found dead on the sofa the morning after their end-of-year party. His death was ruled an accident by the police. The remaining five all knew it wasn’t, and though they went on with their lives, the truth of what happened to their sixth housemate couldn’t stay buried forever. Twenty years later, all five of them arrive—lured separately under various pretenses—at Wolfheather House, a crumbling, secluded mansion on the Scottish isle of Doon. Trapped inside with no way out and no signal to the outside world, the now forty-somethings fight each other—and the unknown mastermind behind their gathering—as they confront the role they played in their housemate’s death. They are given one choice: confess to their crimes or die. They Did Bad Things is a deviously clever psychological thriller about the banality of evil and the human capacity for committing horror.
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- too many characters & too much back and forth; I found so much of this incredibly difficult and confusing to follow
- so many plot holes?? how did the “villain” know everything they knew? who the killer was in 1995, full conversations between other people when they were not there.. etc etc. why did someone in the group originally kill in 1995 over something SO SMALL & INSIGNIFICANT? stealing answers to a test?? I also don't believe someone could assume someone's identity so well that 4 people that lived with them for over a year not realize..I get it was years earlier but still. nobody looks that similarly, not to mention voice/mannerisms/etc.
idk just super unbelievable & convoluted with plot holes galore. long fart noise
I'm on a roll with books this week! This was another entertaining read. Intriguing plot. Interesting characters. Well written. Well-constructed mystery that kept me guessing until the very end.
2/5
In 1995, a student is found dead in his university houseshare. 20 years later, the remaining housemates are invited to an isolated hotel under false premises, seemingly to force the killer to confess.
I was really intrigued by the premise of this book and its Agatha Christie/Clue vibes but I ended up disappointed as the story played out.
Things I liked:
- The plot! This is fundamentally a good story and I kept reading because I wanted to find out who killed Callum.
Things I disliked:
- The pacing was a bit ‘off' and the book felt like it oscillated between action and dull filler. When Callum's killer is finally revealed it was almost anti-climatic and glossed over.
- The characters, oh god the characters. There was potentially one likeable character in this entire book Spoilerand he dies within a few chapters. I'm sure the author didn't intend for her characters to be likeable, but they lacked depth and relatability and it made sticking with the book hard.
Overall: a promising thriller that fails to deliver.
Thanks to Netgalley and Skyhorse Publishing for providing this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
