From My Cold Dead Hands by Hilly Barmby is a suspense novel with a great premise that mostly follows through.
Who can’t get behind an amnesiac trying to piece her life back together? That’s a good start.
Add to it that the accident that caused the amnesia apparently happened in the UK. However, the victim (Cassie) is American. Although, she also sports a British accent at times.
More mystery.
And what about when she starts getting flashes of memory, but they don’t jibe with the reality that her husband, kids, and father are showing her.
It leaves the reader with an awful lot to figure out, which is engaging because you’re basically mirroring what Cassie is going through.
I thought the twists and turns were good, and there were just enough hints to make the amnesia, recovery, and realization of the truth plausible.
Where the author lost me a little bit was the neo-Nazi/Southern racist angle. No, that’s not a spoiler because it’s in the blurb of the book.
While I understand that the author was trying to make Cassie’s past thoroughly abhorrent as a plot point for her to want to improve her life going forward, there was just so much of it that seemed formulaic and antiquated.
It was almost as if the author found a historical textbook or website and thought, “Oh, this will work.”
I suppose race is a sensitive subject regardless. But the rich American South family whose members are “secretly” neo-Nazis is a stereotype that needs to be put to bed. There are other, less offensive ways this could have been addressed in the novel.
At any rate, Cassie’s journey is still interesting. There were parts where I rolled my eyes at the obviousness. But all in all, From My Cold Dead Hands certainly had the suspense going for it. I would read another book by Hilly Barmby.
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