The Wellness Retreat: A Novel

A Picture of Dorian Grey meets A Cure for Wellness in this suspenseful, horror-tinted thriller set at an exclusive health retreat on a remote Scottish island, where miraculous treatments offered to wealthy clientele may not be precisely what they seem. Perfection comes at a cost.Jaimie Vane used to measure her life in concert halls and standing ovations. Now she measures it in symptoms. The chronic illness that ended her career as a cellist doesn’t have a name or a cure—just a long list of things her body can’t do anymore.When her wild child younger sister Sybil reinvents herself as a live-in staffer at an ultra-exclusive wellness retreat, Jaimie assumes it’s another phase.Until her messages stop.Until the voucher arrives.Talamh Dhubh, a black-sand island in the middle of a wintery sea and home to Saoghal Spa, is a place for guests to be reborn. The founder, the enigmatic and glamorous Cyan Blache, promises restoration. Clarity. Transcendence. Whatever ails you, Saoghal will draw it from you. For guests willing to surrender completely, body and soul, the results are nothing short of miraculous.Jaimie tells herself she’s only there to find Sybil. Not to drink organic detox smoothies or pour herself onto canvas in art therapy. Not to lie in the mineral baths and bask in the curiously soothing black mud. Not to believe the guests and staff who say Saoghal changed their lives.But the longer she stays, the lighter her body feels. The quieter her pain becomes. The easier it is to forget what she was like before she got sick.At Saoghal, healing is real.And so is the cost.Because the island doesn’t merely cure the visitors who revel in the embrace of its rich, black mud…it ensnares them. And the ones who arrive broken don’t always leave. Read more