We meet our main character Isla as she’s photographing some rich people on a yacht. She sounds like a good photographer, but then she has a seizure and falls into the water. Her mom is scared and so is she. Isla is also looking for a little bit of adventure though. She feels trapped in Sydney and wants to branch out. She randomly finds an ad for a month-long assignment in the Scottish Highlands photographing a renowned architect and his family and estate.
Once Isla gets there though, things are a little weird. The architect’s assistant, who hired Isla is super friendly and welcoming. The family is not. The other main character is the surroundings of the house and the town in Scotland. There are all encompassing mists, suck your shoes off bogs, and endless woodlands. The cottage she’s staying at is part of a quad of properties whose families date back hundreds of years.
There’s also the mystery of the family’s little girl who was abducted and murdered two years prior. Nobody knows who did it, and Isla starts snooping around. She finds out more than she thinks she can handle and is almost murdered a few times. Isla learns some dark secrets about the family she’s staying with and also her own past. This was a real page turner. I think I stayed up until about one in the morning to finish it when I was close to the end.