Miranda Rijks, The Lodge, Inkubator Books, 2023.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

I have found Miranda Rijks’ novels, while not amongst my favourites, a good leisure read. The ultimate beach read in many ways. However, The Lodge really does not fulfill this basic requirement that I have for the books that I like read, like well enough and then move on. The narrative moves between Anna and Nancy, with Anna providing the main story line and background to the events at the safari lodge. Nancy is the owner of the lodge, and is first seen through Anna’s eyes, before making her own first-person contribution. The women tell the story, with Joel and Clayton, Anna’s present and past fiancés, seen through Anna’s eyes through the main part of the narrative. The past and present are well woven, with Anna’s statements at times conflicting with the men’s behaviour. However, Anna is the sympathetic character, and it is her interpretation of events that holds sway.

Joel is offered the opportunity to be interviewed for a veterinary job at the safari lodge in South Africa. His work with large animals at his surgery in the south of England has led to his being head hunted for the post. Anna is reluctant about the offer – her job and preferred location remain in England. However, she is persuaded to join Joel in this adventure – the lure of a holiday is too much. Early in the trip we become aware of Anna’s fear of flying, and then Joel’s duplicity in involving her in a small airplane flight to their destination. Upon their arrival Anna realises that Clayton is part of the group at the safari lodge. Has the manipulative Clayton engineered this meeting?

Anna’s character is difficult to like, she is easily swayed, ignores the ‘red flags’ in her relationship with Clayton, and similarly appears unaware of the questions that she should ask (and so should the writer) about Joel’s behaviour. His enthusiasm of the proposed job overrides Anna’s reluctance, his secrecy about the small aircraft arrangement is manipulative and his sympathy with her distress about Clayton is limited. I was surprised that Anna’s experience with Clayton, although his behaviour was far worse, had no impact on her understanding of her own preparedness to ignore her needs.

However, the real problems are in the resolution of the narrative. I found this over wordy and unrealistic. Somewhere there was the possibility that this novel could have maintained the pace of the early chapters which, despite my reservations kept me interested. Unfortunately on this occasion Rijks did not meet the challenge that she has managed well in her previous work.

Anna was engaged to Clayton, and knew that she was being controlled, and practically forced to marry him. She escapes to France and later hears that Clayton died in Australia, and she returns home.
She meets Joel and realises that he is the love of her life. He is a vet and has a job offer in South Africa on a game farm.
She travels with him, and to her horror, sees Clayton at the same lodge.
She has no idea what is in store for her. The idyllic setting is fast becoming a nightmare.

Oh wow! Miranda Rijks has done it again! Written an absolute page turner with so much suspense and hair raising moments!
And a huge plus is that the setting is my home country, South Africa, and reading our particular vernacular is wonderful. I will never stop calling a 'barbecue' by the South African name, which is 'braai', and never be able to refer to a sjambok as a whip.....
I know the words sound weird, but to me personally - it is home!
I love that Anna is a strong woman that knows what she does not want in a relationship and has the guts to walk away. I love that she does what she knows she has to do in order to survive, even though she is disgusted... I don't want to give away too much of the story, but I admire her courage and strength.
Fantastic book, and well worth reading.
The author could have had pages and pages of descriptive text about the landscape and the animals, but she didn't, I like that too. The book concentrates on the plot.


Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! What a crazy twisted tale! Great book! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one! This book had a bit of everything! It had suspense, intrigue, murder, mystery, some really crazy deranged characters, that I loved lol and so many crazy twists and turns! The storyline was so very interesting and had me glued to my Kindle! I highly recommend reading this book as it was well worth reading! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!