Day: October 16, 2021

I am of a split opinion on this book. On the one hand, it had good suspense and a twist that I didn’t expect. But on the other, there was a lot of exposition and “thinking” which didn’t make for a lot of action.

Well, it did, but it wasn’t current action. I’ll try to explain.

A lot of psych thrillers have “Now” and “Then” chapters. To me, that keeps the action current because the reader clearly knows where they are in time. And if I’m told that I am now reading something as it happened eight years earlier (for example) I can put myself in that point in time.

In this book, however, pretty much everything that occurs in the past is recounted in characters as they remember it. And while there is action in the memories, it doesn’t feel as exciting as if I was put right in the middle of it.

And I recognize that this is totally a personal preference of mine. I’m just trying to explain it (and probably not doing a good job of that). I just felt that as a reader, I was in the characters’ heads too much. But other people may like that method of storytelling.

The plot itself was a good one. We know that Beverly has secrets and that Riley is a pretty typical eight-year-old. I did think that Beverly went a little too heavy on her worries, but once everything became clear, I could see why she did that.

The story is told from different points of view – mostly Beverly and Riley – but with a mystery person interspersed. Roughly halfway through, the mystery person is revealed and then the action moves more to the current time.

I did partially guess the big reveal fairly early on, but the author had a couple of twists that I didn’t expect or guess, so I really enjoyed those surprises. There were enough red herrings to also keep a few guesses suspended until the truth was revealed. And the epilogue wrapped everything up nice and neat – almost too much so.

But again, that is a matter of personal preference. I get the juxtaposition of the scenes at the end, so I am pretty sure that I understand why the author wrote them that way.

If you don’t mind character flashbacks that are more mental than actual action, this is the book for you. Even if you’re like me and prefer more “in the moment” action, I would still recommend it for the twists, a heroic neighbor, and a cute dog.

Author Bio:

Nicole Trope went to university to study Law but realised the error of her ways when she did very badly on her first law essay because, as her professor pointed out, ‘It’s not meant to be a story.’

She studied teaching instead and used her holidays to work on her writing career and complete a Masters’ degree. In between raising three children, working for her husband and renovating houses, she has published six novels. She lives in Sydney, Australia.