Gilly Macmillan’s newest book, “The Manor House” was previously published in the UK as “The Fall,” but this is a more apt title. This is, essentially, a real estate thriller. Most of the narrators are all pretty much defined by their place of residence.
The Manor House: a centuries old medieval monstrosity with Sasha and Olly, and, 5 years earlier, Anna
The Glass Barn: a new “smart” house, with Nicole (who it disobeys) and the mysteriously deceased Tom
The Coach House: a home for the housekeeper, occupied by Kitty, who has been there longer than the two other couples and who knows all the secret passages and priestholes in the Manor House

The story begins with Nicole’s discovery of Tom’s body in the pool; she sprints to the Manor House for help. As the various narrators fill in what’s occurring after Tom’s death and what occurred 5 years ago, it’s obvious that no one is really supporting Nicole, including Tom’s best friend, Patrick, who suddenly shows up and plops down in the Glass Barn. I wasn’t sure where the narrative was going, but I was sure there were characters that I disliked, although it took an overarching feeling of dread and some twists to confirm that I wasn’t unfairly suspicious. The buildup of the tension was masterful and I just couldn’t put the book down. The author definitely has another terrific thriller to be proud of. 5 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Sasha has “pellucid” green eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Sasha has a weird habit of popping fuschia flowers as if they are little balloons.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Nicole and her husband Tom have it all: a new, beautiful smart home, a £10 million lottery win, and a loving marriage. It’s all picture perfect, that is, until the morning Nicole comes home and finds Tom floating face down in their swimming pool. Taking refuge with their neighbors, Nicole begins to process her grief, only to find out that the police believe Tom’s death wasn’t an accident. And when an old friend shows up and her neighbors start acting weirdly, Nicole doesn’t know who to trust when her only true friend is now dead.

This book is told from multiple POVs, including Tom’s leading up to his death and readings from a diary that was written five years before the events of the novel.

The plot to this book really revolves around a small group of people so it’s not so much about who did it, but how it all fits together- and wow is it a heck of a story. I could not figure out all of the pieces until the end; in fact there’s still a few things that the author has left to the imagination. But the main questions are all answered, which is the important thing.

There’s some really good twists in this one that I absolutely did not see coming. I mean, I think of myself as book savvy, but these were able to take me completely off guard. No more than that will be said, but expect the unexpected with this one, and that’s really a good thing here. It’s all very smoothly worked into the storyline and it all makes sense. I loved it.

The epilogue/ending was also great. Read this one until the very end, folks. It’s worth it!

Here’s another great thriller for fall that will twist the brain and give you a good chill. Oh, and will make you rethink building a house with a wall of windows.

Thoroughly enjoyed The Manor House. Thank you to Killer Crime Club, NetGalley and Harper Collins Canada for this ARC. It starts as a simple murder mystery and quickly turns into a terrifying thriller that keeps you engaged until the very end. You think you know, but there are so many twists and turns, you lose your way. Enjoy the ride!

Thank you NetGalley, William Morrow, and Gilly Macmillan for the advanced copy of The Manor House in exchange for my honest review.

I unfortunately decided to DNF this one at 25%. I wasn't connected to the story, I was incredibly confused by the amount of characters, and I just wasn't invested enough to continue.

I will not review this on any other retail site but NetGalley.

🔪 THRILLER TUESDAY REVIEW 🔪 featuring “The Manor House” by Gilly Macmillan!

BOOK REVIEW: 🖤🖤🖤🖤/5

Nicole and Tom Booth won the lottery and have built their dream home, Glass Barn. This ultra modern mansion is completely made of glass and has the most state of the art technology installed. One day Nicole comes home from a local market to find her beloved floating in the pool. She rushes to her closest neighbours at The Manor and urges them to help her! Olly and Sasha rush to Glass Barn urgent to help Tom, but unfortunately it’s too late ☠️! Nicole receives comfort from The Manor’s housekeeper Kitty … who also understands what it feels like to lose someONE and someTHING you love.

Strangely enough, Glass Barn’s high tech security system did not record what happened to Tom or if an intruder was on site. The only neighbours within miles reside in these two estates. You never really know what secrets hide within its walls 🤫!!!

Thank you kindly to @gillymacmillan @williammorrowbooks @harpercollinsca @netgalley for my advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review! This book releases on November 7, 2023!

Thank you to Net Galley and William Morrow for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I want to start off by saying that this book gripped me from the beginning. I found the mystery to be intriguing and I immediately was invested. The short, easy to consume chapters made it seem that the book was a lot shorter than it was. The writing was decent, the dialogue was alright. The plot was interesting. My favorite parts were the chapters from the cop's point of view. Usually in murder mysteries those are my least favorite parts because cops are typically written as stiff characters, but in this one I liked them a lot.

Where you lose me is the last half of the story. I don't believe a lot of what happened would happen. And not in a cute "drop your idea of reality and its enjoyable" type of way, but in a .... "This makes no sense, why would this character do this" type of way. The motivations were not entirely clear. Characters totally changed their personalities midway through the book. Without giving too much away, one of the main characters goes from completely manipulated and changing her identity to a woman seeking revenge with no explanation of how she got there. There were a few other instances like that where I was just like...HUH?!

Also, just a small thing, but this book is written from SEVEN points of view. That is WAY too many points of view in my opinion. I didn't feel that it was necessary to have that many. It can get confusing on who is who, and I don't think it added to the story in any positive way.

I liked Macmillan's writing style but I wish that a few things were different in the story. It was overall still enjoyable, and I wouldn't mind reading another book of hers in the future.

Thank you for the ARC!!
This book was amazing! There was a lot happening with the POV moving around from character to character. It was intriguing getting into the thoughts of each character and understanding the whole picture while observing the others piece information together. I enjoyed this a lot a stayed intrigued until the end. The conclusion was both satisfying, but did not tie everything up in a neat little bow- it left thoughtfulness on the authors end and the readers.
Lastly the writing style was very well done. Macmillan did an impressive job switching through characters and describing a perfect amount of details. I would recommend!

"From the New York Times bestselling author of The Nanny and What She Knew comes the terrifying story of what can happen after all your dreams come true.

Be careful what you wish for...

Childhood sweethearts Nicole and Tom are a normal, loving couple - until a massive lottery win changes their lives overnight.

Soon they've moved into a custom-built state-of-the-art Glass Barn on the stunning grounds of Lancaut Manor in Gloucestershire. They have fancy cars, expensive hobbies, and an exclusive lifestyle they never could have imagined.

But this dream world quickly turns into a nightmare when Tom is found dead in the swimming pool. Was Tom's death a tragic accident, or was it something worse?

Nicole is devastated. Tom was her rock. And their beautiful barn - with all its smart features that never seem to work for her - is beginning to feel very lonely. But she's not entirely by herself out there in the country. There's a nice young couple who live in the Manor itself along with their middle-aged housekeeper who has the Coach House. And an old friend of Tom's from school has turned up to help her get through her grief.

But big money can bring big problems and big threats. And is Nicole's life in danger as well?

Nicole's beginning to feel like a little fish in a big glass bowl.

Surrounded by piranhas."

And that right there is the problem with winning the lottery.

The Manor House by Gilly Macmillan is a phenomenal, intense tale that keeps you anxiously turning the pages to the very end.
Macmillan has crafted a twisty and twisted book that is part psychological thriller and part murder mystery. The use of different points of view throughout results in a multi-faceted and fascinating read. What seems like a simple 'who done it' murder mystery with many suspects, some of whom are not who or as innocent as they seem, devolves into multiple crimes committed with mind boggling menace.
The ending is particularly satisfying, and the entire book will stick with you long after you've turned the last page.
I am thrilled to have received an ARC of #TheManorHouse from #NetGalley.

Thank you to NetGalley, the Publishers, and Gilly MacMillan for an ARC of The Manor House. I wasn’t sure about the book in the beginning - trying to figure out where it was going and then BAM I’m hooked. Quick read and absolutely grips your attention. The twists aren’t too much of twists, but I thoroughly enjoyed how you are hooked and the ease to feel like you’ve only been reading for 5 minutes and you’re halfway through lol! I also enjoyed how everything came together. I will definitely be reading more of Gilly’s books in the future!

The story of the events leading up to and after the death of Tom are told from the perspectives of all of the major players. An interesting concept which gives the reader more insight into each of these characters.

Tom and Nicole were the lucky winners of a lottery, which allowed them to build a dream home in an area frequented by Nicole as a child. But the win came with consequences, such as a loss of friends, requests for money, isolation, and Tom’s death by accident or misadventure.

Nothing is as it seems; not even the nearby Manor House, or its inhabitants, Ollie, Sasha, and their housekeeper Kitty. As the detectives investigating the death start to unravel the mystery before them, they find themselves becoming distracted by the complications of more secrets and mysteries.

A bit slow to start, the story picks up quite nicely, and leads the reader on a quest to solve the cause of Tom’s death, and to understand the hidden agendas and strange relationships between characters.

A solid 3 1/2 stars.

This book was interesting. It went back and forth between characters every chapter and is one of those books if you stop paying attention for a second you are lost. I think it was a bit drawn out. It was pretty long. Overall If you like thrillers give it a shot.

At the heart of this thriller/ whodunnit is the basic question of trust. Who can you trust? Friends? Family? The police? Your own judgment? And also does the sudden appearance of great wealth change one’s life for the better?
Tom and Nicole are your average everyday young British couple until one day they are (un) fortunate enough to win an enormous sum of money in the lottery. They build an incredibly upscale glass house. We all know about people in glass houses, and the trajectory of their lives is forever changed.
One day, when a Nicole arrives home, she finds Tom floating in the pool. Is he dead? If so what happened? And off she runs, without investigating, to her neighbors in the manor house next door.
The author sets a spooky scene as events unfold slowly at first and then in a frenzy of unexpected events and disclosures as the police are baffled yet undaunted in investigating every plausible suspect.

The chapters are told by various well defined. characters. Secrets abound. A book is being written within the story line which confused me a bit. And to some degree I was lost at the beginning. Then it all came together. And I guessed and guessed what was going on but remained clueless until the end.

Four stalwart stars for a mysterious, ominous and intriguing plot with characters that captured my interest. But for a slow beginning and chapters of a book within a book which at times left me feeling disjointed, this would have been five stars.

Many thanks to NetGalley and publisher Harper Collins for providing me with an advance reader’s copy of The Manor House in exchange for an honest review. Look for publication on a November 7, 2023.

The Manor House was an engaging thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat. There were small small surprises throughout the book with an ending that made me laugh out loud. I've read a couple other books by MacMillan and have another on my shelf by this author. They've all been goo stories so far and I'll probably end up reading all her books. I do think some parts were a bit drawn out but also you could argue, it was good for development. Far fetched? I don't know...I can see stuff like this happening in society. Humans are animal after all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’ve been wanting to read this author and my excitement grew when I was approved for an advance reader copy from NetGalley. It is an intricately plotted British mystery with a lovely couple living their wildest dreams after winning the lottery. Nicole and Tom are madly in love and the windfall allows them to build a modern mansion in a rather isolated peninsula. Tom constructed it with every technological gizmo imaginable, most of which Nicole can’t even operate. Their only neighbors are Sasha and Ollie who also live in a secluded area in a large historical aging Manor House. It is full of secrets and hidden places. Sasha and Ollie have built a life of deception on misdirection, appearances and ruses. They aren’t satisfied with what they’ve attained when Tom and Nicole have more - racy new cars, a pool and even a sauna/gym room. Nicole’s world is shaken when Tom dies in the pool. His best friend, a penniless leech, soon swoops in to console her. The neighbors have a reserved woman who lives on the property and acts as a housekeeper. She’s quite downtrodden and full of her own past secrets. Anna is a fiftyish grieving widow. She has no self confidence, is easily persuaded and has become isolated from former friends and acquaintances. Some of the nicest, kindest people have a devious dark side you’d never expect. As questions arise over Tom’s accident in the pool a Detective has lots of questions and an unlikely insider cryptically leaving clues. Every time I thought I had the villain figured out new information would blow up my theories. So many twists! So many hidden surprises! The ending blew me away! Totally did not see it coming. I have a new author to add to my favorites list.
“The Manor House” by Gilly Macmillan, HarperCollins Publishers is scheduled for publication Nov. 7, 2023. These are all my own honest personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily without compensation

Really enjoyed this one. I love thrillers with multiple points of view. And I adore thrillers where the house is as much of a character as the people. And there are two unique houses in this one!

This was a DNF for me, I just could not get into it. I picked it up multiple times to give it a go and it just wasn't for me. It was slow going in the beginning. The cover is what pulled me in. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for this ARC. I do still plan to read other books by this author, unfortunately this just wasn't it!

This was an interesting read. I normally love multi POV's but the very beginning of the book it was alittle confusing to keep track of all the characters. If that happens while your reading this defintely stick with it is so worth the reward. I loved the plot twist , didnt see any of them coming . So much fun reading about women behaving badly !!!!!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy of this book. I really enjoyed the author’s previous book, The Nanny, and had high hopes for this based on the description. Ultimately, for me, this wound up being just okay. I cared enough to keep turning the pages so it did move quickly but I thought this suffered from too many points of view and also some consistency in the plotting. Some questions in this book are well tied up while others, including some of the motivations of the characters are never really explained. There are also a few plot points that strain belief - including the housekeeper.

Wow - this has to be my favorite Gilly Macmillan book. Once again, she has offered an atmospheric, plot twisting, and edge of your seat story. I loved all the different elements and how the back stories intertwined.

I thought all the characters were likable and not at the same time, it got me switching sides left and right and it’s been awhile since a book had me so engaged.

Id definitely recommend this read!