It Ends At Midnight: The addictive bestselling thriller from the author of Blood Orange

Harriet Tyce’s It Ends at Midnight opens with two bodies falling from an Edinburgh townhouse during a lavish Hogmanay party, then rewinds to uncover how they reached the railings. At its centre are barrister Sylvie and her oldest friend Tess, whose cancer diagnosis revives a school-era secret they have spent decades trying to bury.

What gripped me was the poisonous intimacy between them. Their friendship is built from competition, dependence and the constant rewriting of shared memories, leaving Sylvie unsure whether Tess is seeking closure or quietly punishing her. The chapters set during their teenage years are especially unsettling, showing how status, male cruelty and the need to belong can distort the truth.

Dark, sharp and increasingly claustrophobic, this is a thriller about guilt rather than innocence. Edinburgh’s fireworks and grand Georgian streets provide a brilliant setting for a reckoning in which every celebration feels like a countdown.