VBT# Finders Keepers - Jessica Huntley

Review: Finders Keepers - Jessica Huntley - September 2026

Some books have you reaching for a cuppa and settling into the couch. This one had me reaching for a cuppa and glancing nervously at the door.

Finders Keepers opens with Mel, Liv and Jennie, three lifelong friends who would do anything for each other. When Mel's mum passes away, a hidden key leads them to a storage unit. Inside they find more than £100,000 in cash, and a body. And because the girls are in desperate need of money, they make a decision that will haunt them: keep the cash, say nothing.

Reading that opening, I couldn't help thinking of the true New Zealand case from a few years back, when an Auckland family bought an old storage shed at auction, opened it up, and found two suitcases with human remains inside. They stumbled on a fortune too, and they've been paying the price ever since. It gave me a proper shiver. Real life, it turns out, can be every bit as unsettling as fiction, and it made Jessica Huntley's premise feel uncomfortably possible.

What I loved most is that this isn't really a story about a dead man. It's about friendship, and what happens when it's tested. When the threatening messages begin, someone knows their secret, and some of the money has already vanished. Only one of them knows where. Watching three women who once shared everything begin to whisper, doubt and turn on each other was the real heart of the book for me. Anyone who has ever had a friendship wobble will recognise the ache of it.

The pace is brisk, the chapters short, and I found myself saying "just one more" far past bedtime. Where it lost me slightly was in a few plot turns that stretched belief, and I would have liked a little more depth to the characters' backstories.

Still, it's the kind of book that gets you talking. Which brings me to the question Jessica Huntley leaves hanging over the whole story: what would you do if you stumbled on a fortune? Is it a case of finders keepers, losers weepers?

I'd like to think I'd do the right thing. But then, I've never been desperate. And that, I suspect, is exactly Jessica Huntley's point.

Perfect for a wet weekend, a plate of something sweet, and a friend you trust completely. Or perhaps, after this, one you trust just a little bit less.

Amazon: https://link.amazon/B00aKFgbu