Three friends decide to get away for the weekend. When they arrive at their isolated retreat, they are shocked to discover that someone has left them a note. It reads: "By the time you read this, I'll have killed one of your husbands." The note is apparently from Edie, a mutual friend whose husband recently died. (These are not spoilers. The author tells us all this right up front.) Is it some bizarre hoax? A joke in very poor taste? Or is an old friend really plotting murder? The new thriller from the author of The Nanny (2019) is a real corker. It's fascinating to watch the three friends' relationships crumble as they try to figure out whose husband is being targeted and why. The husbands were supposed to be coming along for the weekend, but each of them cancelled for what seemed at the time like good reasons. Now the women wonder: Was one of the men lying? What does Edie know? Who is she trying to hurt? Guaranteed to keep readers on the edges of their seats.

Tough former soldier Jayne, diffident newlywed Emily, and Ruth, ambitious doctor and overwhelmed new mom, travel together for some down time at Dark Fell Barn in a remote corner of the British Isles, regretting only that recently widowed friend Edie can't join them. When they arrive, they find a note saying that one of their husbands will be murdered, and without phone or cell service they don't know what to do. Echoes of the Academy Award-winning film A Letter to Three Wives (1949); with a 100,000-copy first printing.

Ruth, Jayne, and Emily, the protagonists of this well-crafted thriller from bestseller MacMillan (To Tell You the Truth), arrive one Friday at Dark Fell Barn, a guesthouse in the north of England, without their husbands, tight-knit school friends who were delayed at the last minute. Not joining the group is another friend, recently widowed Edie, who leaves a note at the barn informing the three women she has killed one of their husbands. With no cell service and a powerful storm trapping them, the three vacillate between panic and assuring themselves it's a mean prank from the manipulative Edie while hiding secrets of their own: physician Ruth has slid into alcoholism since giving birth, former military intelligence analyst Jayne has PTSD, and much younger Emily grapples with her traumatic childhood. Ruth's disappearance early the next morning and one of their husband's showing up alone raises more questions. The revelation of the real killer's identity, after many red herrings, sets up a suspenseful, prolonged but never bloated race to safety. Macmillan effectively shifts perspectives in this twisty, complicated puzzle. Readers will enjoy putting together all the pieces. Agent: Helen Heller, Helen Heller Agency. (Mar.)