Book Review | ARC Review | The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

I received an ARC from St. Martin’s Press. This book will be releasing in January of 2023 and I think it’s worth putting on a TBR list if you like twisty mystery stories that have dual timelines. 

Emily, a cozy mystery series author, is trying to pull her life back together after her husband leaves her as she was experiencing a mysterious illness. Her famous, self help guru best friend invites her to a villa in Italy for the summer to focus on their writing and reignite their friendship. It turns out that the villa they are staying in was the site of a brutal murder of a rockstar in the 70s. The book jumps timelines between timelines of present day and the events leading up to the murder in the past. Mari is the star of that timeline.  She is a 19 year old aspiring writer that ran away from her family to he with her rockstar boyfriend. They end up at the villa with her sister, her boyfriend and a famous rockstar – all trying to find inspiration for their art. But one of them will end up dead..

This is my favorite book by this author so far! It had just enough twists and red herrings that I thought I was going to predict all the twists… but I didn’t! I think this is a 5 star for me because it was a really quick read and I enjoyed thinking I had it figured out in the end, but she got me with a little extra twist. 

Trigger warning: infant loss.