Book Review: One Night by Georgina Cross

Meghan was the gorgeous, popular eldest daughter of the Chisholm family, a carbon copy of her doting mother Maureen. When she drowned after a bonfire party during her senior year of high school, her family was devastated. Worse still was the fact that her death wasn’t accidental. Someone had hit her on the head and left her to die in the creek near the party. Her high school boyfriend, Cal Hereford, was convicted of manslaughter, though he swears that she was alive and unharmed when he left her there after an argument witnessed by more than one person.

Ten years later and he’s finally been released from prison, to Maureen’s endless rage. It isn’t fair, she believes, for the man who ended her daughter’s life to be able to continue with his own. Her now ex-husband, Paul, doesn’t share her opinions: his conviction that Cal isn’t guilty is only one of the issues that drove a wedge between them. Youngest daughter Sam does everything she can to keep their family on civil terms, even as middle daughter Alice has pretty much ghosted them all.

So it’s a shock when the entire family receives an invitation to a remote luxury home, perched on a cliffside over an Oregon beach. Included in the invitations are Paul’s new wife, Rebecca, and his best friend, Geoff. Sam is the only person who really seems keen to go, in her perennial role as peacemaker. Maureen only agrees because she’s convinced that Cal is the person gathering them together, and she very much wants to confront and excoriate him for what he’s done.

The weather when the guests arrive is suitably gloomy, becoming only more agitated as the night progresses. When Geoff staggers in last, with an unconscious Cal in his arms, it seems like the perfect opportunity for the still-vengeful members of the Chisholm family to gain justice for their dead girl. Maureen, especially, is tempted to do the young man harm as her heightened emotions take her to a dark and terrible place:

With the next blast of wind comes a moan, a mournful cry.

 

Her daughter.

 

She shuts her eyes. I hear you, sweet girl.

 

Another wail, and her heart surges. Meghan is here with them–she can feel it. Those are her daughter’s cries.

 

Meghan has joined them here, on this storm-battered cliff. They will not have to endure this night of their own.

 

With every shriek of the wind, her daughter screams. She screams for her.

 

Mom…make him pay for what he did.

 

She closes her eyes, her tears turning into something more intense. Her resolve. Meghan’s pleas will bolster her.

 

She takes a deep breath, recognizing that delicate pause in time before there’s no turning back.

Fortunately for Cal, not everyone gathered there has similarly murderous motives. Paul has long been his ally, though even he is puzzled by the invitation. Why bring them all together, in this place and on this night? The Chisholms and their extended family won’t get any answers from Cal while he’s unconscious though, and even fewer if he’s dead. But what if Cal wasn’t the one who gathered them here? Even more unthinkably, what if he wasn’t the person actually responsible for Meghan’s death?

The Chisholm family has always been good at keeping secrets: getting rid of Cal would only be another. As relative outsiders, Geoff and Rebecca try to keep the rest on an even keel, despite their own private misgivings regarding Cal’s culpability. Fortunately or otherwise, Rebecca has had years of practice in keeping a level head:

Their relationship has always been fraught, like rubber bands pulled taut and threatening to snap. No matter what she says or does, Maureen bristles at her, her teeth grinding down until Rebecca worries she will wear them to stubs.

 

What she does instead is give Maureen grace. When they see each other–which isn’t often, thankfully–Rebecca gives her the compassion she deserves. Maureen has been through hell and back–the whole family has–and she can’t imagine what she’s gone through and continues to go through, especially with the toll this weekend is taking on her.

As the secrets and lies the six guests have been hiding for over a decade finally worm their way to the surface, relationships and ethics are tested to the breaking point over the course of a night of wild weather and even more frenzied emotions. The pacing of this modern day manor house thriller is excellent as Georgina Cross masterfully switches between viewpoint characters, keeping the tension high even as the explosive twists bring each character into new and unflattering focus. The Chisholm family is a mess, and I very much hope that they each get their just desserts… though at least one of them will almost certainly get away with murder.