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3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
read_amanda_read's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
slbeck94's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
ajaubrey1's review
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
vivo_morior's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
acoe102's review
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Complicated
3.75
rowanmy_boat's review
5.0
Incredible read. Had me wondering what was going to happen from start to finish. Loved the multitude of twists at the end!
adrifrazer's review
3.0
Generally most books that I actually finish will get 3 stars, but this is definitely rounding up territory. It’s a little try hard, too unrealistic, and full of unlikable characters.
kipalmer's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-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
bonnybonnybooks's review
2.0
GoodReads Blog, you've led me astray again.
This book was on their Snowy Suspense list, which itself is inaccurate because it is set in the summer. You know, as Alps hiking usually is.
I picked this up because I love mysteries/thrillers set in the outdoors. And a plot where four people go on a hike and only two return is the perfect hook.
Our four British tourists hike along the Tour de l'Argentine a true, scenic hike in the Swiss Alps. The most main character is Cat, a perfectionist events planner who is hiking with the husband she hates (Paul), the sister she hates (Ginny), and her sister's husband (Tristan), who she used to hate but with whom she is now having an affair.
The book opens with two of the four - one man and one woman - waiting bloody and battered outside the police station. It then jumps back to a couple days before, right before the hike begins. The chapters jump POV (sometimes within the same chapter!) and all the characters spend time thinking dark, vague thoughts at each other. This book is based on my least favorite thriller trope these days - people having internal monologues wherein they obsfurcate facts from themselves. The absolute WORST offender in this novel is the unnamed man who begins stalking them and is obsessed with the "determined" blond (Cat).
All four main characters are terrible. There was no tension about whether one of them would murder the other or if they would get caught because I wanted to shove them ALL over the edge of a cliff. They are terrible, miserable people and it becomes clear at the end that every last one is a sociopath. How did they never clue in on each other? Wouldn't like recognize like? The book appears to want the reader to at least be sympathetic to Cat because everyone else is "worse." But Cat is also terrible.
Half this book is the characters sniping at each other like hangry tweens. Most of the rest of the book is absolute ridiculous decisions and pointless attempts at misdirection. The maybe-a-serial killer POV was terrible, first because I was hoping he WAS a serial killer so he could off all four of the hikers and second because as I said he was using doublethink on himself for no reason. The second worst perspective was the police station "present" storyline, because it was so nonsensical. Two bloody, battered hikers show up at the police station. They are NOT under arrest. But they hang around and act so suspiciously that they may as well have been twirling mustaches. They refuse to go to the hospital (why?!?). They refuse to speak about what happened until someone from the British embassy shows up (why?!? If they are supposed to be "worried" about their "loved ones", wouldn't they be crying crocodile tears and asking someone to go rescue the missing hikers?). And most of these chapters are just the French police being "I can't believe these two are making us work on a SUNDAY."
The resolution of this book was farcical.
Anyway, Cat shoves Ginny off a ledge. Tristan decides the smartest thing was to secretly learn rock climbing (?!?!) so he could look like a devoted husband by trying to "rescue" her (?!?!). This part of the plan is wild and absurd. Tristan does rappel down, but then makes it look more suspicious by bashing Ginny's head with a rock and rolling her off the ledge. Paul starts freaking out because he realizes at that time that Tristan and Cat were having an affair, so Tristan clobbers him with a grappling hook and shoves HIM over the same ledge. But does NOT go back to make sure he is dead, because everyone is an idiot.
Tristan and Cat go to a hiker's cabin that Tristan had to spend months in hiker forums to learn about, because it's getting dark and they can't get down overnight. It seems to have taken them like 12 hours to go on a 5.5 hour hike. Anyway, it turns out that Paul is NOT dead, and he gets up the ledge without any equipment (how?!?) and with a serious head wound and somehow ALSO finds this cabin (HOW?!?!). He then proceeds to stab Tristan to death. You would think that he would now go after Cat, seeing as how she clearly murdered Ginny and was having an affair with Tristan, so its safe to assume that she may have been planning to kill Paul too. Plus, Paul already killed one person! What's another murder at this point?!? But no, Paul for no reason whatsoever completely trusts Cat and goes down the mountain to the police station and doesn't even try to throw her under the bus.
Cat throws Paul under the bus with the police, runs away, meets up with her ex-flame Frank so she can get perfect fake passports (where are all these fake passport connections that people in thrillers always have?!?). She then proceeds to slip Frank a drug to knock him out, jumps off the train and disappears. But not really! Because she is getting a job in Berlin with a woman who KNOWS HER REAL IDENTITY. This woman had hired Cat before and liked her so much she offered her a job. So Cat was like, "yeah, I'd love to - but I'm going to do it under a fake identity, is that okay?" And the woman was all like, "what's some identification fraud among friends?" BUT ALSO the tabloids are going to be ALL OVER four rich tourists dying/disappearing mysteriously, and Cat's face is going to be plastered all over, and the police/potentially Interpol are going to find it highly suspicious that someone involved in the disappearance of her sister and brother-in-law secretly ran away in the middle of the investigation. But Cat is just going to be living nearby in a major city, working with a woman who knows her real name!
I don't know why the story wants me to want Cat to succeed? She (1) had an affair; (2) developed an elaborate murder plot to kill her sister and husband; (3) is super annoying and all-around unpleasant. Why is it a happy ending that she's now rich and free?
This book was on their Snowy Suspense list, which itself is inaccurate because it is set in the summer. You know, as Alps hiking usually is.
I picked this up because I love mysteries/thrillers set in the outdoors. And a plot where four people go on a hike and only two return is the perfect hook.
Our four British tourists hike along the Tour de l'Argentine a true, scenic hike in the Swiss Alps. The most main character is Cat, a perfectionist events planner who is hiking with the husband she hates (Paul), the sister she hates (Ginny), and her sister's husband (Tristan), who she used to hate but with whom she is now having an affair.
The book opens with two of the four - one man and one woman - waiting bloody and battered outside the police station. It then jumps back to a couple days before, right before the hike begins. The chapters jump POV (sometimes within the same chapter!) and all the characters spend time thinking dark, vague thoughts at each other. This book is based on my least favorite thriller trope these days - people having internal monologues wherein they obsfurcate facts from themselves. The absolute WORST offender in this novel is the unnamed man who begins stalking them and is obsessed with the "determined" blond (Cat).
Spoiler
It turns out he's Cat's old affair partner, Frank, who is Cat's accomplice! HE KNOWS WHO SHE IS. THERE IS NO WORLD WHERE HE WOULD ONLY THINK OF HER AS "THE BLOND" IN HIS THOUGHTS!All four main characters are terrible. There was no tension about whether one of them would murder the other or if they would get caught because I wanted to shove them ALL over the edge of a cliff. They are terrible, miserable people and it becomes clear at the end that every last one is a sociopath. How did they never clue in on each other? Wouldn't like recognize like? The book appears to want the reader to at least be sympathetic to Cat because everyone else is "worse." But Cat is also terrible.
Half this book is the characters sniping at each other like hangry tweens. Most of the rest of the book is absolute ridiculous decisions and pointless attempts at misdirection. The maybe-a-serial killer POV was terrible, first because I was hoping he WAS a serial killer so he could off all four of the hikers and second because as I said he was using doublethink on himself for no reason. The second worst perspective was the police station "present" storyline, because it was so nonsensical. Two bloody, battered hikers show up at the police station. They are NOT under arrest. But they hang around and act so suspiciously that they may as well have been twirling mustaches. They refuse to go to the hospital (why?!?). They refuse to speak about what happened until someone from the British embassy shows up (why?!? If they are supposed to be "worried" about their "loved ones", wouldn't they be crying crocodile tears and asking someone to go rescue the missing hikers?). And most of these chapters are just the French police being "I can't believe these two are making us work on a SUNDAY."
The resolution of this book was farcical.
Spoiler
The survivors are Cat and her husband Paul. Cat and her brother-in-law Tristan had planned to kill their spouses on the hike and make it look like an accident. Cat wanted to kill Paul because he sexually assaulted a co-worker and lied about it. Tristan wanted to kill Ginny because she is annoying and I guess he didn't want to lose money in the divorce. Also, Cat wanted Ginny dead because Tristan told her that Ginny murdered their parents so they couldn't change the will back to include Cat. Ginny supposedly "manipulated" their parents into disinherting Cat by telling them Cat didn't care about them anymore because Cat never called or visited. Cat thinks this was unfair, but also...she never DID call or visit. She was too busy working! She's mad that her parents believed Ginny, but even though Ginny is a manipulative sociopath, she was still right! Cat DIDN'T care about her parents enough to actually talk to them as an adult, but Cat still thinks this is unfair that Ginny pointed it out and misattibuted the reason - it's not that she didn't love her parents, they were just less important than her work! She seems as annoyed at missing out on her inheritance as she is that Ginny murdered their parents.Anyway, Cat shoves Ginny off a ledge. Tristan decides the smartest thing was to secretly learn rock climbing (?!?!) so he could look like a devoted husband by trying to "rescue" her (?!?!). This part of the plan is wild and absurd. Tristan does rappel down, but then makes it look more suspicious by bashing Ginny's head with a rock and rolling her off the ledge. Paul starts freaking out because he realizes at that time that Tristan and Cat were having an affair, so Tristan clobbers him with a grappling hook and shoves HIM over the same ledge. But does NOT go back to make sure he is dead, because everyone is an idiot.
Tristan and Cat go to a hiker's cabin that Tristan had to spend months in hiker forums to learn about, because it's getting dark and they can't get down overnight. It seems to have taken them like 12 hours to go on a 5.5 hour hike. Anyway, it turns out that Paul is NOT dead, and he gets up the ledge without any equipment (how?!?) and with a serious head wound and somehow ALSO finds this cabin (HOW?!?!). He then proceeds to stab Tristan to death. You would think that he would now go after Cat, seeing as how she clearly murdered Ginny and was having an affair with Tristan, so its safe to assume that she may have been planning to kill Paul too. Plus, Paul already killed one person! What's another murder at this point?!? But no, Paul for no reason whatsoever completely trusts Cat and goes down the mountain to the police station and doesn't even try to throw her under the bus.
Cat throws Paul under the bus with the police, runs away, meets up with her ex-flame Frank so she can get perfect fake passports (where are all these fake passport connections that people in thrillers always have?!?). She then proceeds to slip Frank a drug to knock him out, jumps off the train and disappears. But not really! Because she is getting a job in Berlin with a woman who KNOWS HER REAL IDENTITY. This woman had hired Cat before and liked her so much she offered her a job. So Cat was like, "yeah, I'd love to - but I'm going to do it under a fake identity, is that okay?" And the woman was all like, "what's some identification fraud among friends?" BUT ALSO the tabloids are going to be ALL OVER four rich tourists dying/disappearing mysteriously, and Cat's face is going to be plastered all over, and the police/potentially Interpol are going to find it highly suspicious that someone involved in the disappearance of her sister and brother-in-law secretly ran away in the middle of the investigation. But Cat is just going to be living nearby in a major city, working with a woman who knows her real name!
I don't know why the story wants me to want Cat to succeed? She (1) had an affair; (2) developed an elaborate murder plot to kill her sister and husband; (3) is super annoying and all-around unpleasant. Why is it a happy ending that she's now rich and free?