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marissaknee's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
arianamadison's review
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
karlyfries's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
moreadsbooks's review
3.0
Another day, another detective inspector. Steve Mosby has written several books (although sadly, as far as I can tell, only one as yet featuring Zoe Dolan, one of the DI queens of my heart), yet we only own two of his titles - how can this be? Mosby features a new DI in each book, and although I adore Zoe, this is still thrilling enough to get me emotionally invested in DI Andy Hicks so I have high hopes for his other books. There are a lot of the usual elements of crime fiction, especially that the lead detectives will be confounded/have their faith shaken by the inexplicable nature of the crime they're investigating, and like The Nightmare Place, the killer reveal is a little preposterous, but I was still entertained. Although some of the twists are annoying guess how THRILLED I was that allllll of those people were beaten to death with a hammer so one dude could get away with murdering his pregnant wife. No really, guess! , I am solidly behind the final wrinkle although it seemed like a terrific coincidence, I can appreciate that Hicks's long lost brother was Emmaline's killer, and while I disapprove of the casual murder of a random woman in order to inflame/haunt the main detective, Hicks was savvy enough to comment both on what a buffoon he'd been & how high the cost, but also how violence begets violence and DV in general . This summer finds me in the mood for nothing but British crime fiction both in what I'm reading and what I'm watching, so here I come for more, Mosby.
catmum's review
3.0
I'm waffling between giving this two stars and four. Four because the writing was good and fast paced with pretty decent characters. Two for way too many coincidences (and having the protagonist ponder the nature of coincidences only makes it worse not better) and an ending that annoyed me no end because it only lets you know that the entire premise was a cheat. I guess I'll make it three.
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