The Six

Six friends, who have been friends since their schooldays, decide to have one last weekend of unencumbered celebration before marriages & children take over. Stuart, Michelle, Matt, Alexandra, Chris, & Nichola go to a 90s music festival but shortly after retiring on the Saturday evening, they are awakened by the shouts of one of their number. Rushing to the rescue, they find Stuart in the nearby woods being attacked by a man wielding a dangerous weapon, so without thinking the other five pile in, & the man ends up dead. Reactions are split but as a group, they decide to bury him & leave, but on the way back to their campsite, they come across another body. A young man has been killed & next to the body is a red candle - they realise that they must have killed a notorious serial killer 'Candle Man' thought to be responsible for a lot of disappearances over the years, leaving behind a red candle. For reasons they decide to move this second body, but along the way, it disappears & the group head home hoping that they have got away cleanly.Two of the three relationships of the group break up soon after with only Chris & Nichola staying together. A year later, it seems as if against all odds they have gotten away with things, when Matt is contacted by Stuart's sister to let him know that Stuart is dead. The remaining five friends get together at the funeral for the first time following that fateful weekend, & they wonder what happened. It soon becomes clear that Stuart had become obsessed about the events of the previous year & ended up taking his own life, & the friends are again split between those who want to go to the police & those who don't. It isn't until after the funeral when Matt visits Stuart's place with Stuart's sister that he notices that there is a red candle on the table. Did Stuart take his own life or is the Candle Killer still alive? Are they all in danger?The book started off a bit slow tbh & I almost DNF'd it, but decided to carry on. I'm glad I did as this was a fairly good read. It's more a psychological thriller than a gory read, although some parts of it drag a little for a thriller. The reader sees it all mainly through the eyes of Matt, who has drifted into ennui following what happened, but all six of the friends have been affected in one way or another. Matt's relationship with Alexandra, which had been on the verge of engagement, crumbled & it looks like there's little hope of reconciliation. The narrative is mainly from the present but with some chapters from an unnamed character which are set in the past of the friend group, & the ending was quite good with an extra twist in the epilogue. The problem is it's only 'fairly good', for me it's missing that something that would have pushed the rating up higher. Reading it, I didn't feel the sense of urgency I expected in a group possibly being targeted by a killer - I think Matt's sense of inertia was catching whilst reading this. 3.5 stars

Matt is a happy, well-adjusted guy in love with his live-in girlfriend Alexander and who is lucky enough to have four mates who have been with him through thick and thin, mostly since childhood. To mark a new phase in their life as they prepare to settle down, the six friends decide to go for one last blast and spend the weekend camping at an 80’s music festival. As the weekend draws to a close, the friends return to their tents, looking forward to going home and sleeping in their own beds. But the weekend’s excitement hasn’t ended for them. As they spend their last night under canvas, events take a turn that none of them could have predicted, events that shake the bedrock of their friendship and change Matt’s life forever.This is an unusual book. At first it appears to be more of a psychological thriller, with Matt’s first-person narrative expressing his confusion and fear at what has happened. And this impression continues when we see the deterioration of his mental health and possible paranoia. Later, it morphs into more of a murder mystery as Matt tries to unpick what happened that fateful night and make sense of events that have happened since.For me the second half was a much pacier, more enjoyable read, I almost gave up during the beginning, which continued to reiterate Matt’s emotional response to what had happened (for too long, I thought).In the end, I was glad I didn’t stop reading though, as once the focus changed, things started to get interesting. I was a little disappointed at the ending though, as I thought it was a little predictable (for a reason I can't share, without giving the game away).Overall, I liked the style of writing and thought the interaction between the characters was especially well portrayed.

It’s been a long time coming but I’ve finally written my review of Luca Veste’s THE SIX – and what a read it was!Set in Liverpool, the reader is taken on a journey of friendship, relationships, secrets, fear, consequences, blame, change, growing up, mistrust, the truth and finally justice…WOW! WOW! WOW! Luca Veste delivers a short, sharp and oh-so-shocking opening that had me hooked! But then…OMG…I can’t say… how the heck do you come back from that?! There’s a real psychological edge to this crime thriller – a build up of suspense with a dual timeline and some red herrings thrown in to keep us amateur detectives on our toes! With a good pace, great sense of place and a tight and somewhat unreliable narrative at times, this story is very much character driven.The story is told mainly from Matt’s POV and we get a good picture of the five friends both in the present time and how their past formed their future friendship/relationships. I liked that we get to learn about each person through reflections of their history together to the point where we start to see where everything changed – cracks develop and then OMG…like I said at the start – where do you go from there! The one thing that connected them all together forever…ultimately split them all apart.Would I recommend this read? In a heartbeat, I would! A spine-tingling page-turner that will get right under your skin. It was dark, edgy and will keep you turning the pages well into the night! I definitely recommend you grab a copy of THE SIX – can’t wait to see what the author has coming next from that twisted brain! 4.5 ⭐️‘S