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embo970's review
3.0
I do like this author and this book. Just didn't like all the focus on the "familicide" expert about women not capable of committing crimes like this. I know it was to further the story by focusing (spoiler) on the Prof and his denial, but it seemed very uncomfortable.
good read though, for sure.
good read though, for sure.
mrs_george's review
3.0
This definately kept me guessing! I enjoyed it. My sister (who lives alone and is paranoid enough as it is) was pretty freaked out by it though. She won't even open Little Face now!
shiradest's review
3.0
Whodunnits are not my thing in general, but I am hesitating between 2 and three, probably coming marginally closer to 3 stars than 2. The protagonist is written in 1st person, while all other points of view, seen about every other chapter, are in close 3rd. There were also some additional interesting ways of keeping the tension up, by building context around the main plot via sub-plots, and also keeping the work human by bringing in both class antagonism and parent vs. single or married without kids perspectives.
Read, Write, Dream, Walk !
Read, Write, Dream, Walk !
#PublicDomainInfrastructure
ShiraDest
March 30th, 12018 HE
addy1991's review
4.0
As a wife and mother, I readily admit that I do not like Sally Thorning very much. Yet I found myself wanting to read this book until the very end. DC Waterhouse has a new sergeant but doesn't let that hinder him in his quest to uncover the answers... even if those are uncomfortable ones. Plenty of twists and turns that seemed to mislead and misdirect, enough so that the the unveiling of the suspect surprised me because it wasn't someone I had considered at all.
braniffleigh's review
3.0
The first part of the book was great and moved along quickly. I felt like the second part of the book was S-L-O-W. I wish I'd known this was part of the Spilling CID series before I started it, but I didn't find out until halfway through so I kept going. I have a thing about reading a series from the beginning.
lazygal's review
4.0
Not quite black, more like dark grey - but definitely psychological weirdness in the manner of Barbara Vine.
Imagine having a one-week no-strings affair with someone: you'd probably tell them all sorts of deep dark secrets, confessions you might never tell another soul. So what happens when you hear that man has now killed his wife and daughter but it's not the same man you met. Sally is naturally quite disturbed by this, not to mention that she's overworked and her babysitter can't take care of her daughter during an upcoming conference. At the same time she's investigating who she did actually meet, the police are investigating a possible family annihilation. Or two.
The narration switches from Sally's story to the police investigation, with the two colliding as Sally meets "Mark" again, and the police figure out who he really is. I have to admit, I was surprised by the revelation.
Definitely an author to remember, the next time I'm looking for a book to buy.
Imagine having a one-week no-strings affair with someone: you'd probably tell them all sorts of deep dark secrets, confessions you might never tell another soul. So what happens when you hear that man has now killed his wife and daughter but it's not the same man you met. Sally is naturally quite disturbed by this, not to mention that she's overworked and her babysitter can't take care of her daughter during an upcoming conference. At the same time she's investigating who she did actually meet, the police are investigating a possible family annihilation. Or two.
The narration switches from Sally's story to the police investigation, with the two colliding as Sally meets "Mark" again, and the police figure out who he really is. I have to admit, I was surprised by the revelation.
Definitely an author to remember, the next time I'm looking for a book to buy.
minvanwin's review
3.0
Sophie Hannah was recommended as a Tana French read-alike. In fact, they even write blurbs for each other's book covers. And while I enjoyed reading this, it wasn't nearly as enthralling as a Tana French novel. French's writing style, ambiguity, and character development are much more satisfying to me...Still this was a good mystery meets domestic drama story.
jessmanners's review against another edition
3.0
3.5? I'm unfairly penalizing the book for my own confusion, which stems a) from being distracted at crucial moments and b) stupidly hopping into a series on book number three, assuming that it would be like her Poirot books, and there wouldn't really be any preexisting dynamics that I'd need to be aware of...oh well! I'm going to blithely move on to #4 in a moment (I blame the library for not having the first two in audiobook form!).
Anyway...there's an episode of Seinfeld (I'm mostly sure it was Seinfeld...) in which one of the characters has an unreasonable bias against some group of people (I want to say dentists?), but can't find anyone to agree with them. Eventually, they do come across a kindred spirit, and feel enormously relieved--the punchline is, of course, that the simpatico person is an enormous bigot across the board, and uses this as an invitation to rail against minorities...
I bring this up, because there were moments in this book that felt like that--when the diary entries first start, there's a glimmer of recognition about the frustration of being a parent to little kids...and then, of course, the writer of the diary proves to be an absolute monster in this regard, and you, the reader, feel guilty for having felt that moment of solidarity (Hannah does offer a nice out at the end, where she acknowledges that even really, really good moms want a break sometime, so, phew!).
Having said that, it's worth noting that Hannah fills the novel with really terrible fathers--all well-meaning, but oblivious and selfish and lazy (with one notable exception). It's telling that their experience ultimately felt more similar to my own than any of the mothers...whoops!
Anyway, apart from this book triggering all sorts of parental guilt in me, I liked it...like I said, I definitely missed a step or two along the way...there were certainly moments when I confused characters with one another, both on the police side of things and on the suspect/witness side of things. I was deeply confused by the steps they took to figure out the murderer's true identity...and how they didn't realize it was him when they saw him in a different context...still! even with all that! This was fun. I just need my library to get the first two...or wait til my next audible credit rolls in, I guess.
Anyway...there's an episode of Seinfeld (I'm mostly sure it was Seinfeld...) in which one of the characters has an unreasonable bias against some group of people (I want to say dentists?), but can't find anyone to agree with them. Eventually, they do come across a kindred spirit, and feel enormously relieved--the punchline is, of course, that the simpatico person is an enormous bigot across the board, and uses this as an invitation to rail against minorities...
I bring this up, because there were moments in this book that felt like that--when the diary entries first start, there's a glimmer of recognition about the frustration of being a parent to little kids...and then, of course, the writer of the diary proves to be an absolute monster in this regard, and you, the reader, feel guilty for having felt that moment of solidarity (Hannah does offer a nice out at the end, where she acknowledges that even really, really good moms want a break sometime, so, phew!).
Having said that, it's worth noting that Hannah fills the novel with really terrible fathers--all well-meaning, but oblivious and selfish and lazy (with one notable exception). It's telling that their experience ultimately felt more similar to my own than any of the mothers...whoops!
Anyway, apart from this book triggering all sorts of parental guilt in me, I liked it...like I said, I definitely missed a step or two along the way...there were certainly moments when I confused characters with one another, both on the police side of things and on the suspect/witness side of things. I was deeply confused by the steps they took to figure out the murderer's true identity...and how they didn't realize it was him when they saw him in a different context...still! even with all that! This was fun. I just need my library to get the first two...or wait til my next audible credit rolls in, I guess.