A review by bizarrebrunette
The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

2 stars 

In 1977, Beth Greer was tried and acquitted for the murder of two men. Beth continued to live in Claire Lake, Oregon where the crimes occurred. Currently, Shea Collins is a writer for a True Crime website. She's written extensively about the Lady Killer case, which Beth was linked to. After meeting Beth in a chance encounter, Shea asks her for an interview and is surprised when Beth says yes. Will Shea finally solve this infamous case and did Beth do it?

After reading The Book of Cold Cases, I can't help but feel disappointed. I had been anticipating that this would be a fast-paced thriller and that's not what this book was. While Shea researches this case, she feels a strange presence in the house which reveals that there are ghosts in the house. I wasn't a fan of this if I'm honest. If you removed the ghosts from the story, the book for the most part would have been the same, so it felt unnecessary. On top of that, if I'm going to read a book with ghosts, I want to feel scared and I never felt that way while reading this. 

Regarding the characters, they didn't stand out to me. Shea lives a life that's mostly isolated based on her childhood
Shea was almost kidnapped at 9 years old and when she escaped, her kidnapper killed another little girl instead.
I would have liked more character development with Shea. She exists in this story, but there's nothing memorable about her. It would have been interesting to hear why she created her blog and what motivates her to do what she does. Shea was supposed to be important to the story because she meant to put the pieces together, but there was nothing developed about her. This book is story-driven which is fine, however, I like thrillers with a good balance between building the story and developing detailed characters. 

With how everything plays out, I can't help but feel underwhelmed.
Beth has a half-sister named Lily who murdered the two men. I thought the two men would somehow relate to the story, but they didn't. It's not explained why Lily is the way she is. Why does she kill these men? There's no rhyme or reason for why Lily does what she does. The author hints at this with Lily's history and how her mother was SAed by a man and Lily later kills the man who did this to her mother. I didn't think that was a strong enough link as to why Lily did this. I found that to be aggravating.
I felt certain plot points were dropped or I thought would be more important to the story and they weren't. It was a bit frustrating. Towards the end of the book, I was more reading this book to finish it, but not because I cared about what would happen.
The climax of the book was Shea battling Lily as a ghost. It wasn't compelling at all.
 

The Book of Cold Cases was simply not my taste. I like thrillers and I like ghost stories, but I don't need them to be combined into one book. Simone St. James as an author may not be for me. 

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