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A review by paulabrandon
A Breath After Drowning by Alice Blanchard
3.0
Dr. Kate Wolfe is devastated by the suicide of her patient, Nikki, who she thought was improving. She believes she has a way to redeem herself by taking on the case of Maddie Ward, whose mother finds her too much of a handful and claims she is possessed.
Maddie reminds Kate a lot of her younger sister, Savannah, who was murdered sixteen years ago. Her murderer is due to be put to death in a matter of weeks. At Nikki's funeral, Kate is approached by Palmer Dyson, the detective who investigated Savannah's death. He believes that the man on death row is not the killer, and that the real killer is still out there, having murdered many other young girls. Kate's search for the truth uncovers secrets about her life, including the marriage of her late, mentally unstable mother to her cold, distant father.
This was a decent thriller that had me interested in coming back to it whenever I could. I read it a lot faster than many other books this year. There is not much I can really say about it! It didn't wow me. It's not the best of its genre, but it's far from the worst. Kate's relationship with her boyfriend James was a bit cringey. Her to-and-fro over who the killer might be is somewhat exasperating - she'll change her mind within the space of a paragraph! The book also tries to take a bite out of the popular unreliable narrator trope, but it falls pretty flat. The climax is exciting, even if the killer's motive is a bit thin, and the author struggles to connect all the various plot strands convincingly.
However, I enjoyed it. I've been disappointed by a lot of books this year, but this managed to keep me hooked despite being part of a crowded genre.
Maddie reminds Kate a lot of her younger sister, Savannah, who was murdered sixteen years ago. Her murderer is due to be put to death in a matter of weeks. At Nikki's funeral, Kate is approached by Palmer Dyson, the detective who investigated Savannah's death. He believes that the man on death row is not the killer, and that the real killer is still out there, having murdered many other young girls. Kate's search for the truth uncovers secrets about her life, including the marriage of her late, mentally unstable mother to her cold, distant father.
This was a decent thriller that had me interested in coming back to it whenever I could. I read it a lot faster than many other books this year. There is not much I can really say about it! It didn't wow me. It's not the best of its genre, but it's far from the worst. Kate's relationship with her boyfriend James was a bit cringey. Her to-and-fro over who the killer might be is somewhat exasperating - she'll change her mind within the space of a paragraph! The book also tries to take a bite out of the popular unreliable narrator trope, but it falls pretty flat. The climax is exciting, even if the killer's motive is a bit thin, and the author struggles to connect all the various plot strands convincingly.
However, I enjoyed it. I've been disappointed by a lot of books this year, but this managed to keep me hooked despite being part of a crowded genre.