Matthew and Helena meet up after several years at their university reunion…how do you feel about school/university reunions? Have you ever been to one? Did anything in particular happen?

In the story, Matthew is forced to keep Helena’s secret. Would you be able to keep a secret like Helena’s? Have you ever kept a secret for or from someone? If you have, how did it feel keeping the secret? If it was a secret like Helena’s would you go to the police? 

If you had had a near-death experience like Helena did while hiking with Matthew in Iceland, how do you think this would have affected your future? What would you do with your life?

Helena’s relationship with her husband Lee was abusive. He was physically abusive as well as controlling her financially and emotionally, monitoring what she ate and stopping her from using the internet and her phone isolating her from friends and family. He also punished her by locking her in the walk-in freezer. What effect do you think this had on her? How do you think she coped?

Helena is desperate and she decides she can’t stay married to Lee any longer. After her plot to escape fails, she comes to the decision that she is going to kill him and make it look like an accident. How do you think she must have been feeling in order to carry out such an extreme plan? What else could Helena have done to escape from Lee?

Devon turns up at Helena’s house saying she heard her admit to murdering Lee. She blackmails Helena for money but Matthew and Helena end up locking her in the basement. If you had a secret that big how would you feel about paying a blackmailer? What lengths might someone like Helena might go to keep the secret?

Throughout the book there are flashbacks to what happened between Helena and Matthew at university and what happened to Lee. Do you like this method of storytelling? How did it help you create a feel for what was happening and what each of the characters were like? 

Devon is held captive in Helena’s basement. How do you think she was feeling? How do you think you might cope in that situation, what might you do to stay calm? How do you think she might plan to escape?

Both Helena and Matthew end up doing terrible things – killing Lee, kidnapping Devon, breaking into Devon’s house, killing Robin? Why do you think they took such extreme measures? How do you think they must have been feeling? How do you think Matthew and Helena could live with the guilt of killing Lee and Robin?

Towards the end of the book, Matthew is forced to crawl into the smugglers’ tunnels to find Devon. He feels panicked being in the confined space. How would you feel about confined spaces? Do you ever recall being in a situation where you’ve had to face a fear?

Lee faked his own death to avoid paying the debts he owed. How do you think he could’ve got away with it? How do you think Helena felt seeing him again?

What did you think about the ending where Robin’s brother Ryan found Helena’s confession on the memory stick? What do you think Ryan should have done? How do you think his actions to blackmail Helena for money might play out? Should there be a sequel, and where would it take the story?