1 Are you invited? In the heart of the English countryside, a group of teenagers gather at a remote castle for a weekend of fun and games. But when the first of them dies, the party takes a deadly turn. As the body count rises, the remaining guests must race against time to uncover the killer’s identity before they become the next victim. Set against the backdrop of a sprawling English estate, Natasha Preston''s latest thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.

Auteur

Natasha Preston is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Cellar, The Cabin, Awake, You Will Be Mine, The Lost, The Twin, The Lake, The Fear, The Island, and her latest, The Haunting. A UK native, she discovered her love of writing when she shared a story online—and hasn't looked back. She enjoys writing romance, thrillers, gritty YA, and the occasional serial killer.

Texte du rabat

Bessie and her classmates' spring break party at a remote English castle turns deadly as a storm traps them with a killer, forcing them to unravel growing suspicions while the body count rises.

Résumé
#1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Natasha Preston is back with another pulse-pounding, twisty read!

Are you invited?

In the heart of the English countryside, a group of teenagers gather at a remote castle for a weekend of fun and games. But when the first of them dies, the party takes a deadly turn. As the body count rises, the remaining guests must race against time to uncover the killer’s identity before they become the next victim.

Set against the backdrop of a sprawling English estate, Natasha Preston's latest thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.

Échantillon de lecture
1

“Have you seen the size of this castle?” I ask my best friend, Kashvi, angling my phone screen toward her.

She rolls over on her bed in our dorm room, the warm light above her head reflecting in her dark eyes. She has tan skin, black hair that reaches her butt, and the brightest smile I have ever seen in my life. Kash has been my best friend since we met on our first day at St. Mary’s Grammar School when we were four.

We share the same love for Taylor Swift, rom-­com movies, and sneaking out to parties. We’ve roomed together for the past seven years, both of us absolutely refusing to share with anyone else. I’ve heard that a lot of the girls snore, and I would definitely end up committing murder if I was stuck in a room with one of them.

“Allegra said her dad renovated the outside and that’s why it doesn’t look derelict,” Kash says. “Don’t get too excited, because the inside is a different story. We’re camping in a cold, empty castle.”

“Fun. That makes me feel so much better about lying to the dean and my parents so we can stay there over spring break,” I say dryly.

Kash smiles. “You’re not bailing on this trip, Bessie. Do you know how difficult it was to get my parents to let me go to ‘Allegra’s house’ instead of New Delhi? They really wanted me to visit relatives I’ve only met about two or three time in my life.” She does air quotes with her fingers because we’ve all told a little lie to our parents. An abandoned castle isn’t somewhere my parents would want me spending a long weekend.

“I vividly remember the crying and begging, Kash.”

She sits up on her yellow tie-­dye bedding, pointing a pink-­tipped finger at me. “I did not beg.”

“Whatever. Look at this! It has a moat. Think the water is safe to swim in?” I ask her. “It looks okay. And didn’t Fergus say there’s a generator, so we’ll have heating and electricity? I’m sure he told me that.”

“I asked Allegra the same thing about the moat. She said, and I quote, ‘If you want to catch ten different plagues, go ahead,’ so I’m thinking no. But yes to the generator.”

“Well, what does she know? The weather is uncharacteristically hot for English springtime. I’m packing my bikini just in case,” I tell her.

She shrugs, looking at me like she thinks I’m the one who doesn’t know what she’s talking about. “You know there’s a big storm the first two days, right?”

“I can swim on Sunday,” I say rather pathetically, since I can already tell it’s a bust.

The weather looks awful for this afternoon and Saturday, but after that I see only sunshine on my app. Party for two days, swim for two days. There’s a chance.

“It’s your funeral,” she replies.

“Someone will come in with me.”

“I can’t believe we’ve managed to keep this a secret. One massive, weekend-­long party in a remote castle in the country and no one has said a word. It’s a miracle when you think about it. Jia and Odette are both enormous gossips.”

Odette, not in our year, has been invited because she’s friends with Hugo—­a total heartthrob who would never look twice at any of us because we’re younger than him. Allegra tried getting with him and then went for Shen, the hottie who moved from China to the UK to board at the same time as Jia.

Hugo is also our friend Raif’s brother, but Raif doesn’t want anything to do with us anymore.

“We haven’t managed to leave campus yet. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I tell her.

Sure, we’ve sneaked off campus before, but it was always for just a few hours. We’d be tucked back in bed when Mrs. Evans, our dorm’s houseparent, did her morning rounds.

This time we’re leaving for spring break alone, not with an adult as mandated by school policy.

She waves my worry away in true Kash style. When it comes to planning, she is the queen. She knows every single aspect of what we’re about to do. She’s been through it in her head hundreds of times, from the destination to the accommodations, and I’m not sure that’s much of an exaggeration.

The planning part of our weekend adventure is the easy part.

Zeke is driving, and he’s supposed to be taking me to my parents’, since our families live twenty minutes apart. I emailed the school from my mom’s account, giving me permission to leave school grounds without being collected by a parent. I’ve had access to her email for years, since she never changes her password.

Kash, Shen, and Jia are getting a taxi to the station. They’re meant to be taking a train to the airport, where Kash will in theory board a plane to New Delhi and Shen and Jia will fly to Beijing.

However, Zeke and I will pick Kash up. Allegra will get the others.

Allegra and her twin brother, Fergus, both drive too, so they’re taking their cars.

“We’ll be fine. This isn’t the first time we’ve lied to every adult we know,” Kash says, studying a printout of the castle’s plans. Before we go away anywhere, Kash has to do her research. She doesn’t like being surprised. The red folder containing property and location information from Allegra has curled at the edges, she’s opened it so many times.

“No, it’s just the first time we’ve lied in order to head to an abandoned castle.”

No adults, no one other than us, knowing where we are. It’s exciting, the most anticipated party of the year.

“Cool, isn’t it?” she says, wiggling her dark brows.

I drop my phone on the bed and smile. &ldqu…