Bright and Deadly Things

Bright and Deadly Things is an atmospheric and well written locked room thriller by Lexie Elliott. Released 14th Feb 2023 by Penguin Random House on their Berkley imprint, it's 384 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is an engaging thriller with a strong (and never fully explored) paranormal element set in a remote and secluded chalet in the French Alps. A group of Oxford academics have gathered at the chalet, operated as a retreat by the university. Based on a factual retreat (blissfully free of malevolent grandfather clocks), it's a perfect setting for a creepy gothic locked room murder mystery thriller, and the author manages to get great mileage out of it. 

The author has a firm grasp of narrative tension and this is a prime example of mastery of setting and atmosphere. I was continually surprised and impressed by how darned *creepy* the book was without resorting to major jump scares, gore, or indeed anything explicit. The ensemble cast is an eclectic, disparate group, and the story is full of dread without anything specific happening in most of the first half of the book. 

There is one short and slightly explicit scene with sex in the book, but even that one is both integral to the plot and infused with a distinctly nightmarish quality, not titillating in the slightest.  The climax, denouement, and resolution are self contained in the story and were moderately satisfying. For fans of Ruth Ware and Valerie Keogh, this one will tick a lot of the same boxes. 

Four stars. Creepy and compelling.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.