Deeply dark, sharp, and chilling, this crime thriller balances on a cliff-edge of suspense before plummeting into the void. When loner Finn joins St Andrews University he is pulled into a group of friends with deadly secrets. Author C.F. Barrington writes with a smart pen, he has the ability to create moments of tight claustrophobia within the wider untamed story that forms. I was increasingly apprehensive as Finn descended into the confines of an unequal friendship. Finn narrates, and while shadows of his past still haunt him, I felt a connection and a level of trust with his tale. An unease settled and dwelled within my thoughts and this tension expanded to enclose the pages. The university grounds and surrounding countryside open into a vividly atmospheric sense of place. The shades of history loom large, the experimentation made me wince, and at times I almost wanted to read between my fingers, in readiness to hide from the approaching storm. The plot feels entirely authentic even as it twists and spins into the unknown. Moments of kindness, hope and light splinter the darkness, yet the overall feel is one of taut foreboding. Clever and different, When We Were Killers spins a beautifully compelling web in which to catch the reader.
The salt-scented quadrangles of St Andrews University greet misfit first-year student Finn Nethercott with indifference. It is a place where privilege counts, and those from the right backgrounds can get away with murder.
Finn is quickly seduced into a new circle of friends - four history scholars obsessed with the deepest roots of ancient Scotland - who sweep him away on wild adventures to forgotten castles and faerie lochs.
But he soon discovers the darker sides of his new friends: deadly rivalries, midnight rituals, and a desperate search for a long-lost hallucinogen. And as Finn sinks into a world where he can't always trust what he's seen each night, the group will learn just how deadly obsession can be…
A shocking fever-dream of a thriller perfect for fans M.L. Rio's If We Were Villains, Ashley Winstead's In My Dreams I Hold a Knife and Ellie Keel's The Four.
'I was blown away by this visceral roar of a novel: erudite, pacy and deeply moving. Think The Secret History on acid. Beautifully written and impossible to put down.' J.S. MONROE, author of Find Me and No Place to Hide
'When We Were Killers is a splintered gem of a book. Dark Academia at its seductive, shadowy best.' MATTHEW HARFFY
'A stylish and darkly evocative thriller that it had me racing through the pages to reach the brilliant and unsettling conclusion.' RUTH HOGAN
C.F. Barrington seems to be meandering north. Born in Southampton and raised in Hertfordshire, he moved to Cumbria in his thirties and then Fife in his forties. He worries that his life now mirrors his spaniel's: running like mad over hills in the mornings; eating biscuits at his desk most afternoons; then sleeping in front of the television (though not with his paws in the air). He is the author of the Pantheon thriller series which tells of a deadly game featuring a cast of characters fighting for their lives on the rooftops of Edinburgh. The first book, The Wolf Mile, was published in 2021.
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