Review: The Retreat By Sherri Smith

Four women. Four secrets. A weekend that will change them forever...if they survive. Katie Manning was a beloved child star until her mid-teens when her manager attacked and permanently scarred her face, effectively ending her career and sending her on a path of all-too-familiar post-Hollywood self-destruction. Now twenty-seven, Katie wants a better answer to those clickbait "Where Are They Now?" articles that float around online. An answer she hopes to find when her brother's too-good-to-be-true fiancé invites her to a wellness retreat upstate. Together with Katie's two best friends--one struggling with crippling debt and family obligations, one running away from a failed job and relationship--Katie will try to find the inner peace promised at the tranquil retreat. But finding oneself just might drudge up more memories than Katie is prepared to deal with. Each woman has come to the retreat for different reasons. Each has her secrets to hide. And at the end of this weekend, only one will be left standing.

A masterful mystery, full of intrigue and red herrings which kept my mind buzzing with possible perpetrators throughout. All of the characters had major flaws which indicated they could have been the murderer depicted at the beginning of the book and I constantly swayed from one to the other as I endeavored to “soooolve the case” before it was revealed who-done-it! My only criticism is that the ending felt rushed but it didn’t affect my enjoyment.