Reviews

I have heard so many rave reviews for this book I jumped in without reading the blurb or listening to the preview so I was surprised that it’s not set in Ireland. I have loved several of her Irish books and the narrators accents. However that in no way hampered my enjoyment of this excellent book. For me the big thing letting this terrific book down is the cover.

I had the audiobook read by Kristen Sreh and Stacey Glenboski who do a great job.

Nina and Simon are a young couple in love, they go to his parent’s cabin for a weekend but only Simon returns.

This is very suspenseful and tense, it’s very much about how Nina going missing impacts on the two families and their behaviour. The characters are well crafted, and you really feel for what they are all going through, it’s quite emotional in places.

It’s less of a twisty thriller and more domestic noir. It’s riveting reading throughout with a great pace. I absolutely loved it. It’s going into my books of the year. This is definitely one to look out for.

storybookcorner's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.0

katdid's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A pretty sad story that (for me) went in unexpected directions. Told from multiple POVs and in a mix of first and third person. I wondered at times if this was part of a series 'cause characters made reference to things that seemed like they happened in a different book, e.g. Matthew's friend from the K9 squad asking after his cop sister whom he apparently dated. Maybe McTiernan is setting it up for a series or maybe this was just flavour?

The title is kind of a red herring, because you find out maybe halfway through what actually happened to Nina. I expected there to be a fairly sociopathic chapter from Simon's POV but was spared that. Why on EARTH would he try and mack onto Grace, c'mon now, the hubris of that dude.

I would definitely read other books by this author.