Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“Six friends. Five secrets. One holiday to die for…”

2026 is the year of TM10, where we’re celebrating T.M. Logan’s tenth book! I’d been so excited to read this anyway as soon as it was announced (I loved The Daughter last year!) but I was even more excited to get stuck in when we hosted an event last weekend in Nottingham to celebrate Tim’s milestone book.

And what an incredible book it is!! 🤯 It is the ultimate binge read and I couldn’t get enough of it! Prepare yourself for the dilemmas, the secrets, the twists. Things get wild. Very happy to be sharing my review of my favourite book so far this year; The Weekend by T.M. Logan!

About the book

When a group of friends rent a converted farmhouse in the Yorkshire Dales, they have little idea that this one weekend may change the course of their lives forever.

While out on a walk, a storm descends and the friends take shelter in the mouth of an old lead mine. Inside, they discover a backpack filled with more money than they’ve ever seen.

Of course, they agree, they will hand the money to the police at the first opportunity. But as the storm continues and time passes, some of the party begin to think again. Because there are secrets festering at the heart of this group. Debt. Blackmail. A career on the brink. Problems that could be solved instantly with an unexpected windfall.

And perhaps they don’t know each other as well as thought they did.

Before long, six good friends find themselves sliding headlong into a world of deceit, treachery, betrayal and murder . . .

The beginning

Yep. As expected, I just loved this book right from the start! After reading and loving The Daughter last year, I knew this one would be just as addictive. Tim’s words picked me up and plonked me right down in the Yorkshire Dales, where six friends had rented a farmhouse for a NYE getaway. The Yorkshire setting was perfect and the brilliant description had me seeing everything so vividly. Their plans to explore, play some games and have a few drinks to ring in the new year are thrown off course a little when, after sheltering from the weather in a cave on one of their walks, they find a backpack full of cash. I loved how there was no messing around. The author plunges us into this situation, making us think about what the hell we would do if we’d just found something so significant. This would definitely be a weekend that would change their lives forever… We read from Helen’s perspective, and we see how her husband, her brother and her friends react to such a massive discovery. It also really made me think what I’d do if I came across £1.6 million… I love a dilemma in my thrillers!

“One of them is lying. And I realise, with a chill that touches the base of my spine, that I have no idea which one.”

There was already tension between these characters as they try to agree on the best course of action. Should they hand the money in, as it seemed the most logical, morally good thing to do? Or should they keep it, splitting it between themselves? How long had it been in that cave, and would anyone even miss it? There were disagreements among the six of them, but they eventually decide to keep the money for a short while, to try and find out where it could have come from, and – more importantly – to check if it was actual real cash. As things progress, we start to visit different character perspectives which I loved. I started to think more about these individual characters, their reasons for wanting to keep or hand in the money. It was sad how this money had become a rift between a solid friendship group, and I could feel things would only go downhill from here. When Helen finds that a chunk of the money is missing when she goes to count it again, it’s clear someone is lying. Someone had been in that backpack and taken over £50,000… But who was it? And what else were they hiding?

The middle

There were reasons why the money was so attractive to Helen, how it could be used for good, even though she knew it should be handed in. This really tugged at my heart and it was quite relatable to me in some ways. Her mum has dementia and needed to be moved into a care facility sooner rather than later. Helen and her brother had found five star accommodation, where she’d be looked after properly. It was perfect, but pricey. And it’s this possibility of a better life for her mum that changes her mind about the money. I loved how this dilemma was explored so deeply, and how each of these characters seemed to have secrets of their own. I was putting myself into this book, into their friendship circle, toying with the idea of keeping the money over handing it in. I even had conversations with my husband about what we’d do! Reading from each perspective, it was fascinating to see what was going through their minds. There was some sneaking around, keeping secrets from their other halves, and god I was dying to know what was going on and what they were hiding!

“He had been very specific. No room for error or misunderstanding. I want my money back. All of it.“

The book has such brilliant pacing and perfect chapter lengths which went hand-in-hand to make it such an addictive, pulse-pounding read. You can really start to tell these characters’ decisions have put them in danger, everything slowly unfolding to reveal a fantastic mid-point twist! It turned everything on its head, and things were certainly getting darker with each passing chapter. It seemed someone wanted the money back after all… I loved the intensity of it all, the stomach-churning truths coming to light, the incredible descriptions of thoughts, feelings and situations that make these characters feel so real. Everything seemed to go from bad to worse so quickly, and the author really knows how to keep his readers gripped. The layers of deceit go deeper and deeper and I could not get enough of the horrors we continue to discover. The whole thing unravels like a nightmare you can’t wake up from. It was perfect. My kinda book all over! There are hostages and demands, imposters and countless secrets from all sides, cleverly woven together. Completely unpredictable at every turn!

The end

The anxiety running through me whenever I thought about these characters and this whole thing was off the scale and I couldn’t see a way out for them. But after so much back and forth, a plan is set in motion. Whether it would work or not… time would only tell. And it wasn’t like they had much of it. There were mere hours until things would get even worse than they already were. It was bloody stressful! With every chapter, things continued to get worse. They were in deep shit. Everyone seemed to be hiding something and there were sides to some characters that surprised me. It gets so messy and out of control, and everything continues to spiral. I found every policing detail to be so well-researched, interrogations had me holding my breath. How much longer could they lie to the police for? And this was another dilemma these characters were presented with… do they involve the police at this stage or not? They were told not to, but how the hell could they fix this on their own? With lives at stake, they had to be incredibly careful. I was well and truly hooked!

“Sooner or later, he’ll tell us where it is… assuming someone else doesn’t stumble across it in the meantime. And decide to take it for themselves.”

This was one of the best, most intense endings to a book I’ve read in a long time! For many reasons, Helen finds herself needing to finish what they started on her own, even though she didn’t want to take the money in the first place. The ending is twisty and unexpected, and those twists just keep on coming, some small, some pretty damn huge. But I never predicted any of them! There is an urgency, a dark feeling of dread and panic as the inevitable plays out. And that very final twist was such a satisfying end to the book! Even after I finished, I thought so much about what could have happened after, where the characters would be, whether anything or anyone would come back to haunt them one day… An incredible book, definitely my favourite of the year so far and I am so gutted it’s over to be honest. T.M. Logan fans, you’ve probably already ordered this or it’s somewhere on your TBR, but this is your sign to put it at the top of your reading list! And if you haven’t read anything by this author yet, The Weekend is the perfect place to start. Two T.M. Logan books down, eight to go…

Overall thoughts

The Weekend is easily one of my favourite reads of the year so far, and I’m still recovering from the intensity of it all, the stress and anxiety I felt for these characters, the complete shock of twist upon glorious twist! Six friends rent a farmhouse in the Yorkshire Dales to celebrate the new year, and while out on a walk, they discover a backpack stashed in a nearby cave… with £1.6million inside. There’s instantly a dilemma for these characters; do they keep it, splitting it between themselves, or do they hand it in, as they probably should? Their decisions from this moment on would not only put them in so much danger, but would change their lives in ways they could have never imagined.

We uncover multiple secrets hidden from spouses and friends, learn how easily lies can be told and believed, as well as how quickly they can snowball into something uncontrollable. It cleverly explores how money can change a person, and the flaws of each character we meet really made the book as gripping as it was. They are unreliable, but they are also human, and exploring these moral dilemmas makes everything so thought-provoking. You can’t help but think about how you would handle this situation yourself! This book has some of the best twists I’ve read, and I didn’t see any of them coming. Completely thrilling at every turn and so bloody addictive. An absolutely flawless thriller 👏

Huge thanks to Tim and the wonderful team at Zaffre for my special signed proof! You can grab your own copy of The Weekend right now on Amazon or wherever you buy your books. Make sure you’re following Tim on Instagram for more updates!

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