Falling by Emma Kavanagh #BookReview

A plane falls out of the sky. A woman is murdered. Four people all have something to hide.

Jim is a retired police officer, and worried father. His beloved daughter has disappeared and he knows something is wrong.

Tom has woken up to discover that his wife was on the plane and must break the news to their only son.

Cecilia had packed up and left her family. Now she has survived a tragedy, and sees no way out.

Freya is struggling to cope with the loss of her father. But as she delves into his past, she may not like what she finds.

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Falling is besides a backlist book also my fourth novel by this author (I rated Case 48: The Kidnapping of Isaiah Rae and The Missing Hours with four stars and The Killer On The Wall with three stars btw) so I was curious to find out how I’d feel about this one.

There are three different threads in this novel, one’s about a missing (presumed dead) woman so there is a police investigation going on, then there’s Cecilia who survived a plane crash and there’s Freya, daughter of the pilot who was flying the plane. A connection between two people on the same plane wasn’t hard to imagine but I didn’t know how the missing woman (a police officer) could have been involved so that certainly kept me curious. Unfortunately the first half of the book was quite boring for me and I even skim read parts of it. It did pick up and got a little more interesting in the second half though so the perseverance did pay off a little in the end.

Most of all I wish Cecilia hadn’t been so unsympathetic. She was extremely unlikeable to me. She’s not to be left alone with her young 3 year old son and was planning on leaving him and his father actually on the day of the crash (I have no idea why she doesn’t afterwards). She doesn’t have any motherly feelings and she’s not even very friendly towards her own husband. At the end I know there were reasons for this and it’s not that she’s a complete sociopath, but it didn’t make me very excited to read about her.

Every puzzle piece fits in the end so I can clearly see the plot idea the author had in mind, and I like her idea, there are good twists and it’s not all that predictable, but the key is to make the journey also interesting and she lost me a few times, especially in the beginning. Maybe I was impatient and not understanding enough for Cecilia but it is what it is. I do hope I’ll choose my next one wisely because none of the thrillers I read lately is wowing me and I’m leaving it open if it’s the books or my own fault.

I bought a paperback copy of this novel. This is my honest opinion.

The Couple on Cedar Close by Anna-Lou Weatherley #BookReview

One sunny August afternoon, the residents of Cedar Close throw their annual summer barbecue. Children play in the cherry-tree lined street, tables are laden with food, and the wine is flowing. For Laurie Mills, it’s her first time meeting the neighbours. And it’s the first time she discovers her husband Robert is having an affair.

Cedar Close has always been a nice place to live – a quiet suburban street where everyone looks out for one another and bad things don’t happen.

Until late one evening, when Robert Mills is found dead in his bedroom.

Downstairs, in their beautiful kitchen, his wife Laurie sits alone in the dark with her head in her hands.

She can’t remember the last few hours, but she knows she didn’t kill Robert.

The trouble is, no-one believes her…

I’m afraid I don’t have much to share about this novel. Laurie is suspected of murdering her (nearly ex-) husband but detective Dan Riley’s intuition tells him that there’s more than meets the eye here. Yes Laurie’s an unreliable narrator who doesn’t remember what happened between cooking a meal for them and finding him murdered but this wisp of a woman is believed to have murdered her husband and then to have called it in herself while she’s covered in his blood. Yeah, I’m finding this a little strange as well.

The writing was enjoyable to read but the murderer of Robert was so bloody obvious from the get go (and reading other reviews I’m not the only one of this opinion). Since everything is pretty much hinged on finding out the killer, it irritated me that they couldn’t see what was right under their noses. This wasn’t really a murder mystery for me and what kept me mostly interested was that I was waiting to see HOW they would catch the killer if they’d ever get there.

There are indeed two really evil people between these pages (and one of them is an incredible cheat), there’s some touching on domestic abuse, and the murderer is a total psychopath in the true sense of the word, lacking any morals or empathy. I still find it incredible how they can stay in the shadows like this and people in their vicinity are none the wiser.

I did enjoy following Dan Riley and his colleague Davis around, they’re a great team and I’m happy that the best and for me the most unexpected twist that really solidifies the case happened on their watch.

Overall a so and so novel which was readable but doesn’t really stand out. I expected more twists and especially not knowing whodunnit so early on. I’m not writing this author off just yet though because I see the potential there is with another less obvious plotline.

I bought a copy of this novel. This is my honest opinion.

Meet Me When My Heart Stops by Becky Hunter #BookReview #Netgalley

What if your soulmate could only ever be the love of your afterlife?
The first time Emery’s heart stops, she is only five years old…

Emery is born with a heart condition that means her heart could quite literally stop at any moment. The people around her know what to do – if they act quickly enough there will be no lasting damage, and Emery’s heart can be restarted. But when this happens, she is briefly technically dead.

Each time Emery’s heart stops, she meets Nick. His purpose is to help people adjust to the fact that they are dead, to help them say goodbye, before they move on entirely. He does not usually meet people more than once – but with Emery, he is able to make a connection, and he finds himself drawn to her.

As Emery’s life progresses, and she goes through ups and downs, she finds that a part of her is longing for those moments when her heart will stop – so that she can see Nick again.

This is the story of two fated lovers who long for each other, but are destined never to share more than a few fleeting moments – because if they were to be together, it would mean the end of Emery’s life.

Emery has a heart condition and for a number of reasons (shock, pain or excitement) her heart can fail at any given time. She dies countless of times throughout the story and it starts when she’s only 5 years old.  Every time she dies she sees the same person in the ‘in between’ and he’s becoming more and more important to her, he doesn’t judge her like all the others do.

As a reader I saw Emery grow up and deal with her condition. She was overly protected by her father and – in her mind at least – it caused her parents to break up. As a young woman she then tried to get far away, living to the extreme… going skydiving for one thing. Her ageing involves different approaches and goes with many ups and downs. Her death is always looming over her and how can it not affect her life and the reactions of the people around her? It’s a difficult journey, she can’t find a job she likes or a man she loves. And frankly, having a real relationship is something she’s not interested in, because how can she when she might leave someone behind? The only one who’s always there is the ‘guide’ she sees when she’s dying. She feels safe with him, she feels they were assigned to each other for a reason and she starts longing to see him again. It’s simple, she’s falling for him while it’s an impossible love.

All the while there’s someone near her who’s loved her from a distance since she was a young teenager. Good dependable Colin would do anything for her. I have to say that I felt for him all through the novel and I wish he wasn’t treated as second best. If it were up to me he wouldn’t be in love with her at all, then I’d find it easier to be in peace with her desire for Nick. Colin, of course, doesn’t know at all about the unfair competition, as far as he sees it there’s no man in her life and he keeps hoping she’ll love him back.

I thought the story would be more soul destroying but I was quite ok and I actually wouldn’t mind having a guide who puts you at ease at what is about to come. I did find it strange (and a little disappointing) that she doesn’t attempt to tell anyone about what happens when you die, and who you see, even if it could put someone who is important to her at ease.

Ultimately she’ll have to make a choice. Is her desire to live big enough or will she choose to die? The ending was quite bittersweet for me. I think she made the right choice but I’m not sure if it’s for the right reasons.

I can’t explain in more detail but whether you’ll love the book and give it 5 stars depends on who you’re actually rooting for and I was rooting for someone else. He just shouldn’t have been so damn likeable and sweet.

I received a free ecopy from the publisher via Netgalley to read and review. This is my honest opinion.

Black Lake Manor by Guy Morpuss #BookReview

A locked room. A brutal murder.
And a killer who can turn back time…

In the former mining town of Black Lake on the west coast of Canada, there is a story about a shipwreck. All those aboard died, except an unnamed man who staggered ashore. His descendants have a unique ability: once in their lives – and only once – they can unwind the events of the previous six hours.

More than two hundred years later, Ella Manning, marine biologist and part-time police constable, is attending a party at Black Lake Manor, the cliff-top mansion of the town’s divisive local billionaire. With a raging storm coming in from the Pacific, she and several other guests find themselves trapped. And when their host is discovered brutally murdered in a locked room, they turn to her to solve the crime.

Against the odds, Ella is sure she has identified the killer… but then time is unwound. With no memory of what she discovered before, her investigation begins again, with very different results. Someone is willing to use their gift to protect a killer, and everyone is a suspect…

/

Of course I was drawn to reading this because of the locked room component. It was quite an  interesting concept but I was also a bit lost when reading about the logs of the door to Lincoln’s office being locked and unlocked because I wasn’t sure what that told me. There were repeated discussions about those specific times and a lot of attention drawn to it but I kept wondering if it wouldn’t be equally interesting to see who locked and unlocked their own bedroom door after 10 pm, it might rule out some people too who shouldn’t be wondering about?

Black Lake Manor has a fascinating mind-bending concept where some descendants of the Akath have the power to wind back time 6 hours. I enjoyed the story and I was even into the concept of hard light and ghost characters but there was just a bit too much of mythology and rituals involved for my taste and I didn’t feel Ella gained a lot with each unwinding of time. I was of course most of all interested in solving the murder mystery but so many other things were to be taken into account that it felt the story was focusing more on past legends than the present.

There was a lot I did like though, I really liked the three separate timelines, I loved that Ella had an octopus as a pet called Scarlett and how they interacted, I liked the lawyer character in the story most of all and Ella was a good character too, but the other characters weren’t all that interesting or developed.

The best surprise was at the end when I finally found out how and by whose hand Lincoln died. Big surprise there!

All in all an okay book but not one I think I’ll want to read again. It’s just a bit too much out of my box. I’m still debating whether Five Minds, his previous novel, would be more my style, the vote is still out.

I bought a hardback of this novel. This is my honest opinion.

Escaping from Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco (Stalking Jack the Ripper Book 3) #BookReview

Audrey Rose Wadsworth and her partner-in-crime-investigation, Thomas Cresswell, are en route to New York to help solve another blood-soaked mystery. Embarking on a week-long voyage across the Atlantic on the opulent RMS Etruria, they’re delighted to discover a travelling troupe of circus performers, fortune tellers, and a certain charismatic young escape artist entertaining the first-class passengers nightly.

But then, privileged young women begin to go missing without explanation, and a series of brutal slayings shocks the entire ship. The disturbing influence of the Moonlight Carnival pervades the decks as the murders grow ever more freakish, with nowhere to escape except the unforgiving sea. It’s up to Audrey Rose and Thomas to piece together the gruesome investigation as even more passengers die before reaching their destination. But with clues to the next victim pointing to someone she loves, can Audrey Rose unravel the mystery before the killer’s horrifying finale?

This is the third book in the Jack The Ripper series and I very high expectations for this one. I absolutely love magic and illusions so Houdini certainly made me want to read this. I’m not sure, however, this one tops my favorite of the series so far, which was the first one of the series, Stalking Jack The Ripper.

I find this novel a hard one to review because there wasn’t anything I didn’t like. In general I just missed some real twists and thrills, even though the travelling entertainment on board (The Midnight Carnival) did its best every night to dazzle the people on board of the RMS Etruria on their way to New York and the reader at the same time.

The travelling company’s leader is run by the enigmatic Mephistopheles and it wasn’t only Audrey Rose Wadsworth who was under his spell. I could see his attraction and the fact that he hid his face behind a mask only made him more of a fascinating enigma. Of course I felt bad for Audrey Rose’s partner-in-crime Thomas Cresswell who doesn’t hide his love for her but I never believed for one minute she would really fall for Mephistopheles. The author alludes to this rivalry and a (faux or not so faux after all?) love triangle for most of the novel and it might not be what some readers hoped for since Thomas Cresswell is just perfect but it’s good to see that there might be another person who matches well with Audrey Rose. I enjoyed reading about this potential new love interest, the author did a great job with Mephistopheles. I felt bad for Thomas but also for Mephistopheles because I believed he was really into her too so whoever she decided on, someone was going to lose.

As far as the mystery and murders go, it was all very mystifying but there were not really enough clues along the way to really be able to figure this one out although I wasn’t quite surprised when the true killer’s identity was revealed either.

I was intrigued by the character of Houdini (although none of his tricks were explained which was not totally unexpected but still a bummer) and I loved that the author included a photo of the real Houdini in the book which made it feel more authentic but he didn’t get a lot more attention than any of the other characters and I kind of expected the story to focus more on him.

Overall it was a good read but I think I missed a real ace up the sleeve in this book. I’m still debating whether I’m going to continue with the series or not.

I bought a paperback copy of this novel. This is my honest opinion.

Too Late by Colleen Hoover #BookReview

Sloan will go through hell and back for those she loves. And she does so, every single day. Caught up with the alluring Asa Jackson, a notorious drug trafficker, Sloan has finally found a lifeline to cling to, even if it’s meant compromising her morals. She was in dire straits trying to pay for her brother’s care until she met Asa. But as Sloan became emotionally and economically reliant on him, he in turn developed a disturbing obsession with her – one that becomes increasingly dangerous every day.

When undercover DEA agent Carter enters the picture, Sloan’s surprised to feel an immediate attraction between them, despite knowing that if Asa finds out, he will kill him. And Asa has always been a step ahead of everyone in his life, including Sloan. No one has ever gotten in his way.

No one except Carter.

Together, Sloan and Carter must find a way out before it’s too late . . .

Too Late is the first novel I read from my Christmas stack because I have to read at least one CoHo book each year and I simply didn’t want to wait any longer. If I’m not mistaken this is the 20th book by Colleen Hoover that I read (I started reading when she was working on her Slammed series so there was no backlog, the only way I could have done it) and she’s definitely the author I’ve read most.

There’s never a bad book by this author and yet I wouldn’t recommend Too Late to readers who are new to CoHo because it’s different from her usual work. I knew it was going to be darker but it still got to me.

Asa – Sloan’s boyfriend – is a guy I wanted to strangle. He has no respect for women in general (there’s a lot of foul language) or for Sloan, he forces himself upon her again and again, views her as his possession, I simply didn’t see any good in him. You want to get far far away from such a person basically and yet you have to read about him and how he’s Sloan’s only option. To make matters even worse, while I was yelling in my head to her to just get away from him, he manages to tie her even closer to him. Sure, there’s a reason why he is the way he turned out and it all goes back to his childhood but that didn’t redeem him in my eyes, he didn’t deserve Sloan, end of it.

Carter, ah Carter is the good guy who falls for Sloan while undercover. Of course she’s going to fall for a decent, normal guy who pays her some attention, it wasn’t very surprising. I enjoyed the danger that loomed over them if Asa were to find out they were going for lunch together, let alone the rest of it… Speaking of, the rest of it didn’t feel very romantic at all, I had higher hopes but maybe this wouldn’t fit with this kind of story and it would feel a bit too much if there were candles and everything.

Too Late is a novel about life with a drug kingpin, it’s harsh and tragic. There’s danger for Sloan and for Carter and towards the end the tension is certainly turned up a notch of ten. The undercover operation isn’t really explored and it’s more about the dynamics between Sloan, Asa, a few side characters at the house and Carter. It’s not a happy story and while the ending was as satisfying as could be, everything that happened before made the biggest mark on me.

While a good read it’s not one of my favorite novels by her. If you’re looking for romance I suggest you pick another one of CoHo’s books.

I bought a paperback copy of this novel. This is my honest opinion.

My 2023 AudioBookReviews

I listened to quite a few AudioBookReviews this year. For some reason I often find them harder to review (and to like) than paperbacks so I’ve decided to only give a rating in general and only give a more complete review of what I found the worst and the best audiobook that I listened to this year. Let’s see if I can surprise you…

The Prisoner by B.A. Paris :

False Witness by Karin Slaughter:

The Drift by CJ Tudor:

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllistar:

At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope

Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.

Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life

It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer – I want to tell you everything.

“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead

As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth – and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.

This is one of the most enjoyable audiobooks I listened to so far. It’s narrated by Dawn Harvey and Christine Lakin and I absolutely loved both voices (I only found out now that Christine – the younger voice – is actually kind of a celebrity and starred in a 90’s TV show called “Step By Step”).

Anyway The Only One Left is a story about Kit, a caregiver who doesn’t really have a choice but to accept a position at Hope’s End where she needs to take care of Lenora Hope, someone suspected of murdering her entire family. Kit isn’t without a mysterious past either because rumor has it she had a hand in helping her terminal mother die.

At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope

Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life

“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead

The novel is very atmospheric and there are a lot of strange things happening in the crumbling manor but it can’t possibly be Lenora moving about, can it? But then who is keeping Lenora from telling Kit what happened on that fateful night, and why?

I couldn’t figure this one out AT ALL. Riley Sager is still at the top of his game with awesome twists and turns and I’m telling you, this mystery is a killer read! It’s amazing that he could surprise me so much with such a small setting and cast but my jaw practically dropped to the floor when reading this one. I’m afraid to say I already made my top 10 post this year but it really deserves a place among my most favorite reads this year.

Could you hate your neighbour enough to plot to kill him?

Until Darren Booth moves in at number 1, Lowland Way, the neighbourhood is a suburban paradise. But soon after his arrival, disputes over issues like loud music and parking rights escalate all too quickly to public rows and threats of violence.

Then, early one Saturday, a horrific crime shocks the street. As the police go house to house, the residents close ranks and everyone’s story is the same: Booth did it. But there’s a problem. The police don’t agree with them.

Since I loved The Only Suspect so much I thought I’d try one from the backlist as an audiobook. Those People centers around some fateful events and the people in the street of Lowland Way that could be responsible for it. Ant and Em, Finn and Tess, Ralph and Naomi, and Sissi across the street all have their reasons to hate their newest neighbours Darren Booth and Jodie -I-dont-even-know-her-surname. Booth is the neighbour from hell, playing loud music and keeping everyone awake next door, blocking the street with his many cars since he started to sell them from the house… The problems are numerous and they build up and up and there’s nothing they can do.. until one night the tables are turned. Who’s behind it though and will it have the desired effect?

Have you read Murder on the Orient Express? Well I advise you to do so beforehand because the author gives away the entire plottwist of Agatha Christie’s novel. I’m sorry but that’s so not done and totally unnecessary as well. She might throw the reader a line that this novel might be similar but it is not. There you go, you might as well know.

Those People wasn’t all that interesting, it was a bit too slow for my taste and I didn’t really care much about the people, except for Sissi who owns a b&b and suffers greatly from the attitude of the man living across the street. Her guests are leaving bad reviews so she might have no other choice then to close her business, if the site doesn’t make her already. I also found it not so easy to distinguish the who’s who of some of the characters, they didn’t really stand out so much individually.

The whodunnit was surprising and so was the victim in this story but the characters were not developed enough and it was not always easy to keep everyone apart. The case was intriguing but it was all a bit drawn out so since I don’t have a two and a half star graphic I’ll give it three stars. I can hardly believe it’s the same author who wrote this novel I absolutely loved (The Only Suspect), her writing seems to have grown massively. If it was the other way round I’d probably would have given up on her now but I know what she’s capable of so I do keep an eye out for future work!

When the Devil Drives by Chris Brookmyre #BookReview

Is the devil merely the name we give the worst in ourselves?

When private investigator Jasmine Sharp is hired to find Tessa Garrion, a young woman who has vanished without trace, it becomes increasingly clear that there are those who want her to stay that way. What begins as a simple search awakens a malevolence that has lain dormant for three decades, putting Jasmine in the crosshairs of those who would stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried.

Uncovering a hidden history of sex, drugs, ritualism and murder, Jasmine realises she may need a little help from dark places herself if she’s going to get to the truth.

But then needs must…

/

I bought a copy of this novel without knowing it was actually the second book about Detective Jasmine Sharp of Sharp Investigations. There are a few references to a previous investigation and to her uncle but other than that it there were no threads transferred so it can be read as as standalone (although it did make me curious to know more about what happened to her uncle).

This is not the first novel I read by Chris Brookmyre (The Cliff House and Black Widow are highly recommended btw) but the genre of this novel leans more towards his other novel The Cut. I wasn’t really sold on the angle of the devil and its presence among some of the theatre company and all this juju talk about satanism but I was patient enough to find out more and I have to say that the third part of the novel really picks up speed and my interest accordingly, and there was a great twist that I hadn’t seen coming either.

Jasmine was a great protagonist with a criminal for a sidekick, which was a bit surprising but it worked well and another plotline follows another female’s investigation, this time from the police’s side, into a murder during a theatre performance. I didn’t get the information who was killed so that kept me on my toes and while the police didn’t actually contribute a lot I enjoyed how one plotline eventually caught up with the other.

Jasmine is investigating a small pool of suspects who were all actors in a Scottish play and yet it wasn’t possible for me to determine who killed the woman in the opening pages of the book. Brookmyre is one clever plotter and he has a very distinct writing style that you’ll probably either love or hate and I find myself firmly in the first category.

This novel might not have been my favorite one due to some of the topics included (I’m starting to think gothic is never going to please me) but I’m still a fan of his twists and turns and the way he can surprise me.

I bought a paperback copy of this novel. This is my honest opinion.

No Name Lane by Howard Linskey #BookReview

The hunt for a serial killer unearths an unsolved cold case from over sixty years ago.

Young girls are being abducted and murdered in the North-East. Out of favour Detective Constable Ian Bradshaw struggles to find any leads – and fears that the only thing this investigation will unravel is himself.

Journalist Tom Carney is suspended by his London tabloid and returns to his home village in County Durham. Helen Norton is the reporter who replaced Tom on the local newspaper. Together, they are drawn into a case that will change their lives forever.

When a body is found, it’s not the latest victim but a decades-old corpse. Secrets buried for years are waiting to be found, while in the present-day an unstoppable killer continues to evade justice.

No Name Lane was a good read and the first of the DC Ian Bradshaw detective series currently consisting of four books.

The novel follows two disgraced men, one a journalist and one a detective and both will dive into the disappearance of a teenage girl and a body found by some local builders. The blurb already tells that it’s not the missing girl and someone’s pointing fingers right away (and then of course shutting up completely) so that’s a good starting point for the investigation.

There’s a lot going on with two cases and with two different sets of people working them, and I can’t say I was very impressed with the police work. Tom and Helen were the ones getting most results, mostly by knocking on people’s doors and Tom was my personal favorite character. He’s clever and has a good heart. I also enjoyed what was hanging between him and Helen and I hoped they would just go for it. My patience was severely tested though 😉.

I was completely surprised with the outcome of one of the cases and in the other more historical case I wasn’t too sure either who the killer might have been after the identity of the body came to light, there were a few possible candidates. Perhaps the investigation in the past weighed a bit more and went a bit deeper than the other one but both plots were pretty intriguing and clever.

And then there was also the added mystery of what happened in a previous investigation of PC Ian Bradshaw which led to him following therapy and visiting a colleague in a wheelchair. It’s torture for him but it’s his fault so he’ll do whatever he must. It’s a thread throughout the book and I was eagerly awaiting the end of the book to know what caused all of this.

Overall No Name Lane is an enjoyable novel although the police department’s shenanigans irritated me sometimes and I was more ‘team journalists’ so there was still a bit of an unbalance there but perhaps that will even out more in the next book since PC Bradshaw did come out better at the end of it.

I bought a paperback copy of this novel. This is my honest opinion.

Burnt Paper Sky by Gilly Macmillan #BookReview

Rachel Jenner turned her back for a moment. Now her eight-year-old son Ben is missing.

But what really happened that fateful afternoon?

Caught between her personal tragedy and a public who have turned against her, there is nobody left who Rachel can trust. But can the nation trust Rachel?

The clock is ticking to find Ben alive.

WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?

Rachel and her 8-year son are having a Sunday walk in the woods like many times before. He asks if he can run ahead to the swing and she lets him. It’s the last she sees of her son… and her nightmare begins. One where she’s soon named by some members of the public as the one who probably killed him.

The novel is told by Rachel and DI Jim Clemo but also included are detective Clemo’s therapy sessions. I guess I was mostly intrigued by that fact because why would he suffer from insomnia and be ordered to follow therapy?

Burnt Paper Sky (also known in the US as What She Knew) was rather slow for me and I had to wait over 200 pages to have something happen and feel a little more intrigued for the first time. It takes very long to get to the who-did-it and it’s really more about police procedures and the impact of a disappearance. How easily people are being targeted by the public for no reason. The agony of Rachel is palpable which is good but I expected more of a twisty thriller, which it was not for me. It would have been better if she had written a true crime novel because it had that sort of quality to me. The blurb presents it as if Rachel might be truly guilty but there is no room for doubt from the start so it was a little misguiding. I did like that in the end there are two possible suspects at the same time and although I had a feeling who the abductor was, it still was a thrilling moment when it was confirmed.

This is Gilly Macmillan’s debut novel and it didn’t entirely surprise me. I know there is a second novel about DI Jim Clemo but I wonder if his sensitive soul really makes this job a good match for him. I’m sorry to say that even though I was satisfied with the ending, the novel dragged too much for me and I’m not going to continue this series.

I bought a paperback copy of this novel. This is my honest opinion.