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A review by tatterededges
The Dead Ex by Jane Corry
3.0
Multiple characters POV including newspaper articles and diary entries and as well as multiple timelines make this kind of confusing. Especially when some characters operate in several times under different names.
There was a lot in this book that made me scratch my head and say "Er, what's that?" but these are the ones that stand out.
My first question was why would David ever Marry Vicki?
Followed quickly by, in 2018, what cop or healthcare worker reacts that way to epilepsy?
Back to David, all of the characters who slept with him described him as ugly. He was overtly duplicitous since every woman who slept with him in the book was at one point the other woman, he was even cheating on the women he was cheating with. Why would any of them actually trust him (or like him)? He certainly didn't display any charm in the book.
If he was involved with arms dealers, why would he need to coerce Jackie to kill Vicki? Surely he could have easily made her disappear? Would have been a hell of a lot simpler. And why would Jackie just confess at the end?
The police focussing on Vicki as a person of interest in a missing person case where a grown man with a history of disappearing and where there are no signs of foul play seemed completely half-baked. Especially given she was a well-respected ex-governor who had only lost her job after being attacked in the prison. The police would not have treated her like she was a criminal from the get-go.
Her lawyers were shit. The whole case rested on the fact that they found the chain in her house, but they arrested her at the train station on her way home, how'd she get the chain into her home, wipe it clean and hide it away??
And then David just magically turns up in the middle of the trial and gets to jump on the stand and announce that Vicki was violent during their marriage without being cross-examined? Where's the police reports David? Evidence of bruises? oh, that's right, you're a man, you're testimony is enough.
Zelda did not have the intelligence, nor was she quick-thinking enough to have planned to kill Tanya and frame, Vicki. It also makes no sense that Zelda would focus on Vicki as the reason for all her problems. If she really was fixated on Vicki, there would have been some kind of restraining order, after all she was thought to have tried to kill Vicki in prison.
I can't even with the whole Scarlett/Helen plotline. Ridiculous from start to end. Also, arsonists have a distinct profile and it doesn't look anything like hers.
And then because Patrick overhears something a drunk ex-con says in the pub, it's all over?
ok, now that I think about it, I'm downgrading my rating to 2 stars.
There was a lot in this book that made me scratch my head and say "Er, what's that?" but these are the ones that stand out.
My first question was why would David ever Marry Vicki?
Followed quickly by, in 2018, what cop or healthcare worker reacts that way to epilepsy?
Back to David, all of the characters who slept with him described him as ugly. He was overtly duplicitous since every woman who slept with him in the book was at one point the other woman, he was even cheating on the women he was cheating with. Why would any of them actually trust him (or like him)? He certainly didn't display any charm in the book.
If he was involved with arms dealers, why would he need to coerce Jackie to kill Vicki? Surely he could have easily made her disappear? Would have been a hell of a lot simpler. And why would Jackie just confess at the end?
The police focussing on Vicki as a person of interest in a missing person case where a grown man with a history of disappearing and where there are no signs of foul play seemed completely half-baked. Especially given she was a well-respected ex-governor who had only lost her job after being attacked in the prison. The police would not have treated her like she was a criminal from the get-go.
Her lawyers were shit. The whole case rested on the fact that they found the chain in her house, but they arrested her at the train station on her way home, how'd she get the chain into her home, wipe it clean and hide it away??
And then David just magically turns up in the middle of the trial and gets to jump on the stand and announce that Vicki was violent during their marriage without being cross-examined? Where's the police reports David? Evidence of bruises? oh, that's right, you're a man, you're testimony is enough.
Zelda did not have the intelligence, nor was she quick-thinking enough to have planned to kill Tanya and frame, Vicki. It also makes no sense that Zelda would focus on Vicki as the reason for all her problems. If she really was fixated on Vicki, there would have been some kind of restraining order, after all she was thought to have tried to kill Vicki in prison.
I can't even with the whole Scarlett/Helen plotline. Ridiculous from start to end. Also, arsonists have a distinct profile and it doesn't look anything like hers.
And then because Patrick overhears something a drunk ex-con says in the pub, it's all over?
ok, now that I think about it, I'm downgrading my rating to 2 stars.