A weekend away for six friends on a deserted island goes horribly wrong, with disastrous and long-lasting consequences.

What begins as a fun reunion between long-time friends ends in tragedy as they realise that, following a violent storm, they are trapped on the island with a murderer

That is the premise of ’The Weekend Escape’, the latest thriller from the pen of a local author Rakie Bennett.

The tense and claustrophobic story focuses on the friends who, far from finding a chance to relive their younger lives, they uncover hidden secrets and are forced to face up to some unpleasant ghosts from their shared past.

This is Rakie’s third book, following on from last year’s ’Little Girls Tell Tales’ and 2019’s ’The Flood, which follows similar themes of the protagonists being cut off from help and being forced to confront their threats, with no help coming.

Rachel initially conceived the tale with the idea of setting it on the Calf of Man, although the setting was changed to a fictional island off the coast of north-west England.

However, Rakie still based the fiction shell island on the Calf

’A group of friends and I were chatting about visiting the Calf for a writing retreat,’ said Rakie.

’We hoped to stay in the bunkhouse there and spend the weekend working on our writing projects.

’Unfortunately, lockdown scuppered those plans, but it got me thinking about an idea for a story.

’The bunkhouse itself features in "The Weekend Escape", but doesn’t resemble the real building at all!

’I still hope to get out there to stay for a weekend some time, although I’m not sure if any of my friends will want to go with me if they’ve read what happens in this book.

’I love the Calf of Man. It’s such an amazing place, and I was very excited to use it as a location for a story,’ continued Rakie.

’However, I was nervous about getting details wrong or misrepresenting the area, so I decided to set this story on a fictional island instead. Shell Island is exactly the same size and shape as the Calf, and several of the place names are the same, although I took some liberties with geography. I hope everyone forgives me!’

One of the key themes in the book is the relationships between the six friends who end up trapped on the island together.

’I wanted to see how the group would react if they were trapped in a storm together.

’Would old loyalties count for anything once they realised there was murderer on the island?

’I was excited to see whether their friendships could survive being put under that kind of pressure.’

’The Weekend Escape’ is out now on Kindle and Audible, with the paperback due to be released in February 2022.