The Chateau: the twisty new thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Chalet

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.

After reading "The Chalet", I probably expected more from this book. Though compelling it unfortunately held no BIG reveals for me personally so my overall feeling of frustration with a bunch of unlikeable, idiotic characters morphed into disappointment.I don't actually mind a book with many unlikeable characters but the level of stupidity of both main characters Nick and Aura had me shaking my head time and again. I don't want to give away spoilers but I will say that there were a number of oddities in the story including but not limited to 1) If you move country and buy a property do you not do your due diligence in terms of laws of your 'new' country surrounding property ownership?, 2) If you move country under a dark cloud of suspicion and investigation, would you allow a film crew into your new home to film everything you're up to,3) If you're a teacher who has left your post under a highly controversial cloud with a student would you go out in your new country and happily do drugs openly at a dinner party, 4) If your father died, regardless of your relationship with him, would you invite strangers to go through his things? and last by no means least 5) after a spate of weird happenings in your home in which you have babies, would you allow a virtual stranger that has not been properly reference checked to look after them and talk you into committing a crime?Married couple, Aura and Nick, leave England and move to France with their two young sons, Bay and Sorrel. Their intention is to renovate a run-down chateau. The story is told in due timelines- before in England and now in France and the reader is taken on their journey from then to now. 4 Stars.

The story started okay but I felt that the characters, their relationships and motivations, were quite flat and the twists weren't my favourite.

Holy moly, The Chateau packed a bigger punch than I expected! I have Cooper’s debut crime thriller, The Chalet, on my TBR thanks to a number of very positive reviews from fellow bloggers. So when I saw the author’s latest book, The Chateau, was about to be published, I jumped at the chance to read it! And I’m so glad I did. The Chateau is a wonderfully tense and compelling book which I struggled to put down.Aura and Nick’s marriage is struggling. Following an incident in London, they’ve decided to start afresh and move to the French countryside with the aim of renovating a crumbling chateau and turning it into a chambre d’hôtes. It’s Aura’s dream come true and she’s keen to raise their two young sons in such an idyllic setting. But when one of their neighbours is murdered, uncomfortable questions need to be asked. The local ex-pat community is put under a spotlight and the newcomers don’t feel safe anymore. After all, they’ve got lots to hide from their new friends. Several devastating secrets which could change everything. But someone knows. And it’s time to make Aura and Nick pay…The Chateau is a deliciously dark read which I thoroughly enjoyed. With lots of well-drawn characters to loathe and lots of beautifully uncomfortable situations, it was an absolute delight to lose myself in! I never knew what was round the corner for Aura and Nick and was on the edge of my seat waiting for the next well-timed, dark revelation to be dropped.Aura and Nick aren’t the most likable of lead characters but oh boy, they’re very well-written, eliciting from me all of the emotions I hope the author wanted me to feel. Both characters made my blood boil for different reasons, both were horribly flawed and I absolutely delighted in disliking them! As the story progresses and as the reader discovers more about this couple, you can’t help but want them to fall from grace. Get their comeuppance and suffer, just a tiny bit. But what I’ve discovered from reading my first Catherine Cooper novel is that this author isn’t afraid to push the boundaries and take things a step further than some other writers would. And I loved that. I really, really loved that!Written in three parts, the reader gets to discover exactly what the ‘incident’ in London was and it’s a shocker. The build up to and the devastating aftereffects of one stupid mistake are covered in page-turning detail. My heart broke for one of the characters, and I despised another with all my being! I couldn’t stop reading, I had to know how things were going to end.Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. The Chateau is a hugely addictive and compulsive read which hooked me in. I couldn’t tear myself away from this one and I’ll be thinking about it for a while to come. I ADORED the ending. Perfection. I love it when an author is able to completely surprise me and Cooper did just that. The Chateau delivered in spades from start to finish. I revelled in my dislike of Aura and Nick, more so as the book progressed. A fantastically dark page-turner which I highly recommend.

Aura and Nick and their two young sons Bay and Sorrel relocate to a chateau in France to start a new life. Together, they hope to renovate the crumbling estate and rent out sections as a bed and breakfast forincome.To the casual observer, this seems like a dream come true. But under the surface, tensions simmer as Aura and Nick struggle to reconnect as a couple, still healing from the scandal that almost ended their marriage inthe UK.Although the expat community is welcoming, strange things begin happening at the chateau. Lights flicker on and off, loud, scary music awakens them at night, a dead rabbit surfaces in the bedroom, and Sorrel reports hearing strange voices during the night andsuffers from night terrors.When a neighbor is murdered at a Halloween party, Aura and Nick are forced to question whether the secret from their past is coming to haunt them once again.….Wow! This thriller was a wild ride. Crazy twists and turns kept me guessing until the shocking end.The problematic aspect of it is that it is a novel with no heroes. Everyone is so largely unlikeable that you feel a shocking lack of empathy for their plight. Probably notwhat the author intended.Still, it's a little spooky, inventive, and fun thriller that delivers some genuine shocks that will delight thriller lovers.

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

I could not wait for this book to come out! I won't give anything away, but another fantastic and suspenseful thriller! Run and buy this!

Rating: 3.8/5I was mightily impressed by Catherine Cooper's debut novel, "The Chalet", so there was never any doubt that I was going to read her next book too. In my review of her first novel I made the observation that it should appeal to keen readers of Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley and Cally Taylor. That is equally true of "The Chateau". At various points I sensed echoes of Cally Taylor's "Sleep", Ruth Ware's "Turn of the Key" and Lucy Foley's "The Guest List". However, even though you can discern some of the influences on her work, Catherine Cooper is still very much her own writer who has produced another captivating mystery.Married couple, Aura and Nick, have left England behind and invested in a new life in France with their two young sons. They have purchased a run-down chateau, for which they have ambitious plans, and they are broadly welcomed by the local expat community - but there are ongoing tensions beneath the surface.As in "The Chalet" the story operates across dual timelines: Initially around the time of the move to France, but then also to a point a few months earlier, when Aura & Nick were still in England. The author uses various protagonists to provide the narrative and again succeeds in giving each one a distinct and credible voice. As she showed in her first novel, Catherine Cooper is quite adept at incorporating some misdirection into the plot, but on this occasion I felt the final outcome was a bit over-engineered. It isn't awful by any means, but the quality of the build-up to that point deserved a more compelling alternative.Overall, I don't think this is as strong an offering as "The Chalet", but it is, nonetheless, a creditworthy follow-up to that impressive debut and a delight to read. There are times as a reader when you come across a writer whose style just resonates with you and, as a result, the reading process becomes effortlessly enjoyable. Based on her first two novels Catherine Cooper may well be falling into that category for me and I will certainly be coming back for book three.

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.

Certainly not boring. I read every word which I don't always do. If a book doesn't hold my attention I give up.