Reviews

Interesting premise, but the execution was lacking majorly. I didn't like any of the characters really. Nell was wishy-washy and stupid, Dan was weirdly pushy about trying to get a date with a woman who lost her husband less than a week ago, Mac was not loving or caring, Quinny was really the only character I actually somewhat liked and she's hardly a part of the story.
Nell was so frustrating many of times.

Like going to Adam's/Winifred's office and taking the twine and paper and bringing them to her house. She should have told the detectives it was there and let them discover it. The detectives also frustrated me for not questioning that she tampered with it or faked the discovery of them in order to clear Adam's name. Infuriating. Also, when she suspected Bonnie was in on it somehow, and instead of telling anyone where she was going or what she was doing, she decided to put herself in danger. Also I don't understand her warning to Gert about not telling Bonnie that Nell was going to be there during the clothing donation.. If Nell was already planning on confronting Bonnie in like 30 minutes and laying all the cards out on the table, I don't understand why the warning about the potential meeting the next day was relevant. Her disbelief over 'psychic abilities' later didn't make sense either, since she was so set on that her dead parents saved her life when she was caught in a riptide when she was 15. This was an integral part of the story because it was the entire reason she didn't know if Adam could swim, why she never went out on the boat, etc. so the disbelief of the entire premise of contact with 'the other side' was out of place and ridiculous.

There were other things that didn't really make much sense/were never really fully explained at the end.

For example, Adam was upset about the wrong jacket because it didn't have the key in it. He takes Winifred's pocketbook off the boat with him before it explodes, but never bothered to look in it????? Then due to that he had to enlist Bonnie's help in getting the key from his clothes.. but his relationship with Bonnie is never really explained. If she was a good friend of Gert's, why would she do this for Adam and betray Gert/Nell like that? This is never really explained why she would go to those lengths for a guy that she met once. What was his endgame with Bonnie then if he did get the key?? If he was badly burned that way and couldn't appear at the bank, was he going to chill for months until he was recovered, then go get the fake documents? Since it was Winifred's picture on the other fake documents, it's not like he could have taken Bonnie in her place, so was the endgame always to murder Bonnie when he was done using her? Idk, again, it would have helped to have Adam and Bonnie's relationship fleshed out a little more to understand what was in it for her to do all this for him. Also I get that the Jed POV was brought in initially to be a red herring, but he dropped out of the book after the second POV from him, so it was super obvious that he wasn't involved. It's also left unclear whether Peter Lang knew anything about the explosion, if he had faked the 'accident' and had enhanced his 'injuries' with makeup or something since when Nell met with him a week after he was 'fully healed.' It's clear that it was another herring to throw us off, but it left it unresolved at the end.

It also was pretty slow, so there wasn't any tension or anticipation. The dialogue/thoughts were a little clunky and switched from 1st person to 3rd person randomly. This could have used a heavy dose of editing.

jyxr's review

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5.0

true to form. love her books

jes8284's review

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2.0

Think this is only MHC book i started and didnt finish

dennisfischman's review

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2.0

Fun bur formulaic.

deepfriedfairy's review against another edition

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4.0

This book has been in a box in my garage for a very long time and I'm glad I finally read it. It was really good. There were a few twists that I didn't see coming and I love it when that happens.

reading_w_dee's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

tiggytiggy's review

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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