Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - The Book of Cold Cases

I thought I’d had this book all figured out, and I sort of did, but the twist was fantastic! The dual point of view was interesting and a great way to tell different aspects of the story without rushing key plot points with the court transcript deviation that was surprising yet played a huge part in making the book move forward. Simone St. James did. an excellent job creating interesting characters and a compelling story!

The only part I wasn’t super fond of was Beth’s storytelling close to the end. I get the why behind it, but it somewhat dragged and didn’t add too much for me, personally. Overall, a book I would recommend listening to because the narration is great, but also enjoyed reading.

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blouviere4's review against another edition

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mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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tlynn_07_14_21's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved this book and cannot wit to read more by this author. This book was definitely dark and mysterious, creepy and suspenseful. The mansion was so atmospheric. I truly got some Goosebumps at times. The first chapter of this book grabbed a hold of me like no other book of this genre ever has. I was not expecting that paranormal twist at all.
Beth Greer gave me some serious Evelyn Hugo vibes, but darker.
Lily Knowles 100% Lisa vibes from Girl, Interrupted.
Even the MC, Shea is lugging around some darkness.
If you're into Thrillers, this should be on your tbr.

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shannasbooksnhooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

"'You don't always get a motive....That's something you learn in police work. You don't always get the why, especially with stranger killings.'"
This was a fun book, and I'm glad I picked it up. This was my first dip into the true-crime and mystery genres. While I'm not sure if I'll dive into it with more reads, I know I enjoyed this read. It was fun for what it was, and it was nice getting to know all the characters. I think this is a good book for that nice dip of your toes into the waters of mystery and/or true-crime books.

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ambenicole418's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I really like this book! It’s a murder mystery with a touch of ghost story. We don’t get to see the bulk of the ghost stuff until the last half of the book (because who is haunting the house is important to the overarching murder mystery plot), but when you do get to the parts about the ghosts you can feel the intensity and spookiness of the whole situation. Overall, while I did take a few issues with the book I really enjoyed this story and would recommend to anyone looking for a murder mystery/thriller book.

Dislikes:

I didn’t really like that they never explained the haunting of the house, specifically, they never explain why the house itself feels sentient in the fact that it seems to be taunting Beth at times with her alcoholism and images of her father or why Marianna is also haunting the house.
The first and last time we see her ghost towards the beginning of the book she is opening doors in the house looking for someone and then banging on Beth’s door loudly for her to open it, but they never give an explanation for why she does this. We also don’t find out what happened to Marianna’s ghost at the end of the story. At the end of the book they explain that the house is still haunted and mention that there are now two ghosts in the window which we assume to be Lily and Beth, but they never say anything about Marianna’s ghost.
Is she still there and if not what made her finally leave?
And while the ending was satisfying enough I wasn’t a huge fan of the some of the choices.
The way Shea paints Beth as a muderous villian and makes it her mission to put Beth away for Lily’s death you would think that Beth killed an innocent person in cold blood. The police were never gonna put Lily away for the murders she committed. There was no evidence and the only person alive that even knew she existed and what she was doing was Beth. Lily made it clear that she wasn’t going to stop killing people and she was probably gonna force Beth to kill too. I mean even in death she was still trying to kill people. I’m not saying Beth was a righteous hero or anything, but by killing Lily she stopped more innocent people from dying, and I don’t think she deserves to be condemned and jailed for that especially at Beth’s ripe age of 60+ years old.

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