Overall Take:
This is a heavy character driven novel, I recommend borrowing a copy.
Star Rating:
4 stars
Genre:
Police procedural, light thriller
Synopsis:
Esme left home to become a professional ballerina. Now she finds herself back home after an injury took her out and she failed her relationship. The timing is perfect because her father is in the end stages of struggling with alcoholism and her brother could use the help. The day she returns home, her childhood best friend is found murdered in her backyard. She’s shocked and grieving. As the story of who killed her friend unravels, she begins to wonder if it was a case of mistaken identity. Could the killer really be after her?
Thoughts:
This book was a slow burn thriller with limited twists. Not a whole lot happened in this one until the very last quarter of the book when things were revealed. I am finding that a lot of books are being labeled thrillers right now and they are really not what I would classify as a thriller at all. This one was more of a police procedural, which does fall under the thriller adjacent umbrella. I find them to be much slower paced.
This book wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t what I expected, especially after having read some of these author’s prior works. However, after adjusting my expectations and thinking of this more as general fiction, or suspense, I found myself enjoying it more.
I loved the atmosphere and the characters. This was a very character driven novel, and the characters were well developed. I enjoyed getting to know their back stories and learning all about them including what made them tick. I loved how descriptive the locations were as well, everything was very moody and dark which made me feel emotional while reading.
This book was rather heavy in feeling, just like there was a dark cloud hanging over everything. I have learned that this is just how this author writes, it’s her style and I enjoy it and will keep coming back to her books. It is rather interesting – just don’t expect a cheerful light book!
While this book wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, it was a good read, and I would recommend it.
Thanks for my copy to:
Thank you so much to Kensington Books, @kensingtonbooks, and Netgalley, @netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date:
December 26, 2023
Page Length:
304 pages
Publisher
Kensington Books
Link to buy
Affiliate link
https://amzn.to/3tb4FXE
