The Nurse’s Secret by Liz Lawler is a psych thriller that self-identifies as a police procedural. The result is….well, read on.
I thought the premise was good. I mean, a story should be good when it starts with a murder, right? And obviously, nurses are supposed to help people, so the title indicates that this may not be the case.
The story unfolds from three points of view, Sarah, Nick, and Charlie. It’s an interesting choice because as a psych thriller, I would have thought more would have been from Sarah and another character’s point of view.
Nick and Charlie are both law enforcement, investigating the murder, so their perspectives are more similar to each other. And since they make up two-thirds of the story, I think that’s why I got a definite police procedural vibe.
That’s okay, but it wasn’t what I was expecting.
Additionally, there’s a history between two of the main characters (not saying who), so that complicates some of the aspects of the story.
There are also a lot of extraneous characters. Some of them, we get to know, and some are already out of the picture before the story even starts. In fact, everything is very character driven.
This means there are a lot of balls to keep in the air, and a lot of connections to try to keep straight. Add this to the detailed police info, and it all of a sudden isn’t a page-turning psych thriller. It’s more, “I hope I can keep everything straight” and “Wait, who is that again?”
It also doesn’t help that the murderer is pretty obvious from early on. The reveals come fast and furious in the last 10-15% of the book, but by then so much has occurred, it’s almost a throwaway.
And that’s another thing: the pacing is uneven. There are long sections that seem to serve no purpose and then everything happens very quickly at the end. I like a bit more evenness in my stories.
If you’re looking for a traditional psych thriller, The Nurse’s Secret isn’t it. However, if you understand that there is mystery upon mystery, lots of focus on character and convoluted motives, along with a hefty focus on police work, then Liz Lawler has written the book for you.
I think I would have liked it more if I had known the latter.
