Domestic Suspense Archives

Honesty off the top: this is 100% the tale of two books. I’m glad I stuck with it, because even though it started slowly it picked up quite a bit in the middle and there was a mostly satisfying ending.

Right from the start I could tell that Genevieve was a character on edge. In the first chapter, she has received divorce papers. The story proceeds from there in current time…to a point.

After a major event (you can find out what that is from other reviews and blurbs), the author begins to jump around between both time and characters. For as many different perspectives there are the character’s voices were never confusing.

The timeframes caught me a couple of times, but nothing too major that distracted me.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I thought that the beginning of the book was much slower. There wasn’t a lot of action and what there was seemed formulaic and contrived in some parts.

But then at halfway through, things picked up, and the author deftly turned what I thought I knew (via the characters) on its ear. Turns out that nothing was really as it seemed – for the most part.

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I thought from about 50% to 80%, pretty much the middle third of the book, was excellent. Secrets were revealed, motivations were explained…and yet there were still misunderstandings.

The one thing that didn’t work for me (entirely) was Gen’s personality. I mean, I get it and it does make sense in the bigger story and it actually gives more meaning to the certain events that occur.

But I didn’t feel like there was enough preliminary attention given to it. It’s a weird conundrum. It totally makes sense and is very logical for Gen’s behavior, but it came out of nowhere. Even as things are explained toward the end, it still felt too much it was just sprung on the reader.

I also thought that the end kind of limped together – I didn’t care for the resolution between Meg and Hawk. That seemed trite. And it all tied up a little too neatly.

That being said, that 30% toward the middle though made the rest of it all worthwhile. Definitely give this one a try!

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Author Bio:

Courtney Evan Tate is the nom de plume (and darker side) of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Courtney Cole. As Courtney Evan Tate, she is the author of Such Dark Things and I’ll Be Watching You. Courtney grew up in rural Kansas and now lives with her husband and kids in Florida, where spends her days dreaming of new characters and storylines and surprising plot twists and writing them beneath rustling palm trees. Visit her on Facebook or at courtneycolewriters.com

Let’s start simple: this was one of the biggest mindscrews I have ever read.

I have read domestic suspense with tight and twisty plots, but I can’t remember one where I was so off-balance.

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The author did a fantastic job of keeping me guessing the characters’ motives throughout the entire book. In some books, some revelations make things clear even as there are more twists to come. Not the case here; everything stayed murky, and the story was that much better for it.

I liked how the author dropped hints about past events, but always with something else still waiting in the wings.

(By the way, I know this is cryptic, but it’s challenging to write a review on a book like this without giving anything away – and this is one that you definitely need to experience for yourself).

I thought the characters were well-described, and most of them seemed realistic. I did think that the American couple (Bo and Walt) verged on caricatures, but perhaps that was purposeful. It didn’t detract from the story; it was just noticeable.

I also thought that Heather’s parents were a little under-developed. I didn’t feel like I got a good grasp on them (Salvation Army volunteers, gardeners, and…what else?) There were times that it seemed as if they were supposed to be Bible-thumpers, but others where they were “normalized.” I think that is why the revelations about them in the latter part of the book were a little harder to take.

The same goes for Heather’s relationship with Jason. It didn’t seem as solid of a plotline as other parts, and almost seemed more as just a convenience to get Heather away from the drama at Copper Lodge.

I did think that the heart of the plot, the relationship between Elizabeth and Lucas, was exceptionally well-done. I switched back and forth as to whose story I believed, and that is what ultimately drove the tension and all of the twists. Right up until the end, I still didn’t know who was in the right.

There were a few loose ends, or at least a couple of plot points that I think deserved better endings (Agata and Piotr are mostly left hanging, for example). But when I finished the book, I literally asked myself, “What the hell did I just read?” And I like that in a suspense/ thriller story.

If you pick this one up, be prepared to be UNprepared as you read. Sometimes things don’t have to make perfect sense; they just have to happen. That is certainly the case with this book.

Author Bio

Clare lives with her husband and their two daughters in Surrey, where her little green shed at the bottom of the garden provides a haven for her writing life. Before becoming a writer, she enjoyed a career in television, as a researcher in documentaries and then as a script editor in drama at the BBC and Channel Four, where her love of storytelling took hold.