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

My first gut instinct when finishing this book was that I liked it. After thinking about it more and ripping through it in my bookclub I have decided to lower my rating from a 4 to a 3.

First off this book is classified as a mystery as well as horror or paranormal. Although there is some of the latter (no horror in my opinion), it is used as a device in certain spots to further the plot in such ways that would be unnecessary if the sequence of events was simply thought about a bit more. This book would have been much more suspenseful and mysterious if the paranormal bits were more vague. Some people will laugh but some of the paranormal instances in the book don't fit in with the typical standards for such things making it feel forced.

There were a variety of other details that felt forced, as if the author was trying to meet a page count and didn't have enough ideas left to develop the plot further. I love the cat, but it's storyline was thrown in as if we needed to see that Shea's life is perfectly-normal-thank-you-very-much-look-she-has-a-cat. However, Shea has an incredibly rich back story that could be delved into a lot more. We barely scratch the surface of her trauma, instead focusing on her fear of cars. Maybe a psychologist would disagree but it felt very flat and unrealistic. And I don't mean in the sense that someone can't have a pathological fear of cars or strange ways of dealing with trauma; I mean the way she acted and reacted in the book felt like how someone without trauma thinks people with trauma are.

I liked the base storyline and thought the mystery components were well thought out. Some of the characters were likeable. I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this to anyone.

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tamara_joy's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Actually scary.

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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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augustinedreams's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

This is a fast-paced thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat through every plot-twist. The character relationships are so intriguing, and complicatedm It's a true crime murder mystery with a side of paranormal, just the way I like it.

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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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horizonous's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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alliemikennareads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

Ghosty, eerie, atmospheric. Kept me guessing and wasn’t overly predictable. Had a hard time putting it down. Loved the chapter length and overall pacing. Equal parts mystery and ghost story with characters that drew me in. Would recommend to mystery and ghost story fans!

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regen20's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

What a page turning book! I was genuinely creeped out at times.

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