Description

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

And never brought to mind?

Millie Partridge desperately needs a party. So, when her (handsome and charming) ex-colleague Nick invites her to a Hebridean Island for New Year’s Eve, she books her ticket North.

But things go wrong the moment the ferry drops her off. The stately home is more down at heel than Downton Abbey. Nick hasn’t arrived yet. And the other revellers? Politely, they aren’t exactly who she would have pictured Nick would be friends with.

Worse still, an old acquaintance from Millie’s past has been invited, too. Penny Maybury. Millie and Nick’s old colleague. Somebody Millie would rather have forgotten about. Somebody, in fact, that Millie has been trying very hard to forget.

Waking up on New Year’s Eve, Penny is missing. A tragic accident? Or something more sinister? With a storm washing in from the Atlantic, nobody will be able reach the group before they find out.

One thing is for sure – they’re going to see in the new year with a bang.

Tense, moody and claustrophobic, Auld Acquaintance is the unputdownable debut by Sofia Slater.

Publisher Review

'With razor-sharp wit, a whip-smart plot and an eerily unsettling island location - this is pretty much the perfect modern murder mystery. A proper page turner' - Ellery Lloyd, bestselling author of The Club 'A tense, moody and terrifically atmospheric book, with a vice-like grip' - SJ Watson 'Creepy and claustrophobic, [Auld Acquaintance] never loses its spell and reveals that Slater is an interesting new talent' - Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail 'Strong writing and characterisation elevate this "tense, moody and claustrophobic" debut thriller' - The Bookseller 'The house party from hell has become something of a cliche in contemporary crime fiction, but Sofia Slater brings a welcome freshness to the theme in this charmingly written first novel' - Natasha Cooper, Literary Review 'Highly effective ... takes the theme of a party on an isolated island and does particularly well with it ... A strongly atmospheric book, with echoes of the conventions of the past, back beyond Christie ... Very well constructed, set, peopled and written' - Jeremy Black, The Critic 'An intriguing first novel ... Slater's plot depends on a very human impulse, believing in something that's too good to be true' - Joan Smith, The Times 'A dark yarn about a house party that goes very wrong ... everyone's in for a terrifying time' - Orna Mulcahy, The Gloss