Beautiful Ugly

Feeney (Good Bad Girl) stumbles with this hackneyed tale of a grieving mystery author who seeks solace on a remote Scottish island. A year after bestseller Grady Green’s wife, Abby, disappears, his life hits the skids—he hardly sleeps, he’s late on delivering his new novel, and his financial troubles force him to move into “the worst hotel in London.” Salvation comes via Grady’s agent, Kitty, who offers him the use of her deceased client’s cabin on the secluded Isle of Amberley. On the ferry over, Grady thinks he sees Abby; soon, his hallucinations worsen, and he grows wary of the frosty locals. With zero cell service, no car, and a variety of macabre surprises waiting in his cabin, it takes Grady a while to notice Amberley’s conspicuous absence of birds—and men. Feeney assembles her plot from familiar parts: elements of The Wicker Man, Gone Girl, and Shutter Island jostle for space among flat descriptions (“The house... is enormous, by far the biggest I’ve seen on the island. It should have been called the Big House on the Hill”) and flatter characters. Worse, her trademark twists are more far-fetched than ever. It’s a letdown. Agents: Kari Stuart, CAA, and Johnny Gellar, Curtis Brown U.K. (Jan.)