A thank you to Netgalley for sharing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'll preface this by saying that this was an accidental ARC request (had it confused with another book) and I recently finished reading T.J. Newman's Falling, I wasn't really in the mood for another airplane disaster book. That said, nothing really wowed me nor any of the characters stick out - and there sure were a lot of them. A little convoluted for such a short book, but it's by no means terrible and makes for decent beach read.

This was an interesting thriller. Five years ago there was a plane crash where only eight people survived. Those eight have got together on the anniversary and one of them is murdered! We follow various characters and here about their lives before the crash and after and see how it affected them. They all seem to have secrets and things they want to keep hidden so suspicion falls on quite a few people. Later another survivor is murdered and the stakes get even higher! I was suspicious of all the people in this novel and while I thought I had it all worked out there would be another clue and I would be back to the drawing board, which I really liked. I enjoyed reading this one but it’s not a book that will stay with me, it’s a fun holiday read and I would recommend it for that.

I have loved Sheila’s Eastbourne series which features journalist Dee Doran, I was hoping that this would be another instalment, but alas no! That disappointment was only with me briefly, as I was soon invested in the lives – and deaths – of The Lucky Eight.
Our new detective is Rachel Lewis; formerly partnered with Ed, Dee Doran’s love interest, she is determined to make an impression with her first case as lead investigator. The action begins immediately, and Rachel’s character develops along with the story. Whilst we do learn more about Rachel’s private life, the book remains focused on the story, and the rest remains in the background. This is not a criticism as the character development is excellent.
This is a true ensemble piece which, to me, felt like a nod to Agatha Christie’s style of writing. Lots of suspects with motive, but alibis which remove opportunity. I certainly felt like I was part of the investigating team, following each lead and discarding the red herrings. Rachel, and her partner Ade, kept digging for the truth and the story had me guessing right to the end.
The relationships of the survivors felt almost incestuous, with new couples being formed in the aftermath of the accident. Most remarkable was Clodagh and Adam. Despite knowing each other from college days, entering into a relationship with the husband of a dead sister seems wrong on many levels. As identities are revealed, we soon learn that they are not the only unlikely couple.
The Lucky Eight gives the reader a glimpse at the lives of modern celebrities. It shows us how image is more important, to some, than truth. How easy it is to manipulate the truth to reflect a certain perception and bolster popularity.
I’m ready to hear about Rachel’s next case and hope she’ll be back soon.

Loved it!
Honestly thought I'd worked it out a few times but the twists and shocks kept coming right up to the last pages.
Highly recommend

Would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting read this book

The lucky eight, the survivors of a terrible plane crash but one has just turned up dead and those lucky remaining survivors are all suspects

As the story continues we find out how their lives have progressed since the plane crash, but could one of them be a murderer

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this one

The plane crashed 5 years ago and there have been 8 lucky survivors. Well, not any more.. one is dead. And then we start to discover why.. but it is a long way, .. and wrong leads... ​I wasn’t sure of who the killer was but in the end my prediction was correct.

The story is written in two perspectives. On is detective Rachel Lewis and one is one of the luckies survivors Clodagh Kinsella.

Clodagh lost her memory and do not remember what happend before the crash. She is in realtionship with her dead sister husband Adam. And has contacts with most of survivors. One is missing for some time. After the crash Adam write a succesful book in memoriam of his dead wife. They are having reunions and some meetings for the families of lost people. And like I said on the fifth anniversary a murder is commited and noone knows why or there are many suspects. I do not want to revel too much. But it is an easy read anyway. All personages are connected somehow and have secrets.

It was quite interesting read but maybe I missed more dynamics in writing.

Special thanks to Netgalley and the publishers Canelo Crime for an ARC.

A solid four star read. Great premise. Well written. Good characters. Page turner. Plenty of suspense to keep me guessing Would definitely read her next novel. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.

I liked the premise and was excited to read this book. Unfortunately, the promise didn’t live up to the expectation. This book wasn’t for me, I’m afraid. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this book.

This is a page turner - you're trying to work out what happened and how it all happened. It's a great book - not always edge of your seat, but intriguing, reading with a real curiosity in understanding it all Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Clodagh Kinsella is one of eight survivors who survived a plane crash five years ago. She also lost her sister, Vivienne in the crash. Clodagh goes on to find romance with her dead sister's husband, Adam. It is at a five year reunion that one of the survivors is murdered. DI Rachel Lewis quickly realises that someone is targeting the so called lucky eight when another survivor is murdered. A fun and gripping read that keeps you engaged as each of the survivors seem to have their own secrets.

I love books that throw a small group of survivors into turmoil. After all when everybody knows you and you know nobody the stakes seem that much higher with nowhere to run.

Readers will fall into two camps with this book.

The first camp, those who don't mind having the plot reveal revealed in the beginning of the story.

The second camp are those who definitely mind to the point of ruining the book for them.

I fall into the second camp.
Literally, at the end of one of the first couple of chapters we as the readers are told the plot reveal. I remember thinking to myself, "I seriously hope this is a misdirect and that this isn't actually the reveal." What is the point of a mystery if the mystery is already revealed to the reader and we are just waiting for the characters to catch up.

Also I felt this story was a bit too long.

So all in all, this was okay but not for me.

Amazing story with twist and turns that grip you in, i really love this authors style of writing. The character development was really nice to read along too. So very well written, kept me engrossed and have the feeling which i love like i'm sitting on the edge of my seat. I would highly recommend, great work. I am writing my honest review and this book will be added to my now favourite books, so very well done and i can't wait to see what the author brings out next.

Highly recommend thank you 5*

Rating: 2.0/5

Having read the accompanying marketing blurb, I was looking forward to reading this very much. It sounded as if it could be a modern take on the tried and trusted "And Then There Were None" formula that can work so well in the crime thriller genre. Sadly, this is nothing of the sort. In spite of the promising premise it is ultimately very ordinary and has too many shortcomings to make it anything more than "just another murder mystery".

Although the narrative is only told from two perspectives (that of Clodagh and DI Rachel Lewis) there is a pretty large cast of characters for readers to try to keep track of: From Clodagh's side there are the eponymous "Luck Eight" survivors of the plane crash, plus their extended circle of significant others. Then from Rachel's sections there is the team investigating the crime. I like to think that I am pretty adept at retaining a fair amount of pertinent detail, but I found this a struggle. It doesn't make for enjoyable reading when you constantly have to either check back to remind yourself who somebody is and the nature of their relationship to another character, or else make copious notes along the way, so that you don't forget.

Other readers may feel differently, but I wasn't comfortable with the author's style either. The dialogue was particularly poor and often quite stilted. There are a number of sections that are needlessly verbose and suggest that they are being used as nothing more than padding to increase the word count. Although the story takes place in a modern setting, and there are nods to diversity and the woke generation, stylistically this is not just clumsily melodramatic at times, but also reminiscent of a form of mystery writing that was more common some decades ago.

Overall, a passable way to spend some time, but certainly nothing special.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

Secrets, relationship issues, and murder- essentially the whole premises of the book.

Everyone's reviews keep talking about how in the suspense genre plane crashes have become the thing for this summer but I picked up this book and only had the show "Manifest" to compare it to.

The story is told in two perspectives: Rachel Lewis, the lead detective on the now murder case of one of the Lucky Eight, and Clodagh Kinsella, one of the Lucky Eight who survived on the terrific plane crash five years prior. The story is mainly told through Clodagh's perspective and it's fascinating on how she functions years after the accident having lost her sister and memory loss. She's an easy character to sympathize with and all other characters in the books actually had a role and their own personality.

Nick gets murdered as it is the five year reunion of those who survived the plane crash, all the victims are now suspects. At first I was a bit confused as to why they kept trying to tie the plane accident to Nick's murder even though everyone was there. Throughout the book, more details are revealed and I really thought I knew who it was. Apparently not and I was shocked when I found out about it. I think the whole reason why essentially everything happened was good and I love when characters are more connected than you think so I did like that about this book.

I was feeling 'eh' about the book until about 30% when I truly felt things getting started. The ending seemed to wrap everything up nicely but the one thing I am not so sure about it why it was mentioned so many times as to why the plane crashed. If that last chapter was supposed to satisfy me, it did not prove a suitable explanation for me. I haven't read many suspense/murder mystery books but I did enjoy this read.

There seems to be a real theme this year of flight related plots - as someone who is scared of flying I normally wouldn't read them (especially on my holidays) but as the furthest I'm going this year is 'our gate' I thought I'd give them a whirl.

This book centres more about what happened to the 'lucky eight' who survived a plane crash five years ago than the actual crash and immediate aftermath like some of the books on a similar topic.

There is quite a big cast the 'lucky eight' and the people relevant to those characters so it took me a while to work out who was who especially as there's a lot of criss-crossing in relationships.

I enjoyed this read.

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book, this is my honest opinion.

I had to finish this one to know what happened but the characters were not my favorite. I had a hard time keeping track as non of their personal stories really stood out to me and I didn’t really love any of them. Overall though the mystery was interesting and I enjoyed it.

The book starts of with eight survivor's of a plane crash meeting up for the fifth anniversary when one of the survivors finds another dead on the beach. It soon becomes clear that someone murdered him but who was it? One of the survivors or someone who had accompanied them to the anniversary get together?

For me when this book started I was annoyed by one of the main characters and how she was now living with her dead sisters husband, several of the other characters lacked personality and it did have one to many affairs in order to twist the plot. However I was engaged with the fast pace writing and wanting to know what happened next, so over all it was a middle of the road thriller novel for me.

This book was a fun whodunnit.

A plane crash claims the lives of 153 passengers and 7 crew members. The 8 survivors were quickly coined the “Lucky Eight”.

Five years later, one of the “Lucky Eight” survivors is murdered. Then another. The detectives on the case learn of how entangled in each others lives these survivors really are as all their secrets are exposed. I could not predict who the killer ultimately was.

Although I enjoyed this book, because there were so many characters I found myself sometimes finding it difficult to keep them straight.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

3.5 stars

This is a great, low pressure summer thriller that features eight lucky (?????!) characters but focuses on some more than others.

The Lucky Eight are the survivors of a plane crash that happened five years earlier, and when the novel begins, they are commemorating this event at their annual gathering. As if things couldn't get more depressing, one of them ends up dead, and it becomes apparent immediately that this was no natural event. These folks endure plane crashes and murders! Lucky?! You tell me...

There is a lot to like about the structure of this piece. First, Clodagh, one of the survivors, is an intriguing character. As a result of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) she incurred in the crash, Clodagh has transformed from a high powered and well respected solicitor to an individual who struggles with memory, order, and details. This makes her a stellar figure in this whodunit because she literally has no clue what is real or not. Readers go right into that whirlpool with her, and the result is that this work contains actual mystery and thrill. If you are also a bit exhausted by the predictable nature of so many recent installments in this genre, you will certainly appreciate these welcome characteristics!

Because there are so many characters, it can be challenging to feel as connected to some as others who - in hindsight - would be useful to know better. At the end, I found myself happy with the overall experience but not as enthused as I might be with some added character development and further dispersal of those connections. While this isn't my top thriller of the summer, I did enjoy it and do recommend it if you're feeling lucky (actually lucky, not relative to this lot).