by Catherine Ryan Howard
Overall: This thriller has a lot going on. Told from different perspectives, it jumps around in time, presenting the lead-up to the crime, the crime itself, and the investigation in out-of-order vignettes to build suspense. Honestly, the less you know about this one going in, the better! I’ll just say it involves a couple who’ve just started dating but decide to move in together during the initial covid-19 pandemic lockdown in Dublin, Ireland.
Likes: there are lots and lots of twists. Some I saw coming, some I partially guessed, and a few really took me by surprise. I really enjoyed the mental games and relative lack of violence (there’s not much for a thriller). Each twist dug a little deeper into the characters’ psychology and motivations – my favorite! The gory bits were mainly in the discussion of a body postmortem and felt manageable to me – there’s far more description of the investigators’ reactions than the actual gross bits.
Dislikes: the ending was quite abrupt. I would have liked more closure on the main story, and there were some dangling threads/red herrings that I didn’t think were fully resolved. If you read this one or have read it, DM me so we can discuss!
FYI: suicide, sudden death, domestic violence, stalking, murder. Some graphic description of advanced human decomposition.
Liz Helfrich 