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A review by hatswood
Their Lost Daughters by Joy Ellis
3.0
This is the first crime book I've ever read. My wife loves a bit of true crime so I thought I'd dip my toes in with a bit of crime fiction.
I came into this book with an open mind (I think) and to be honest I was a little disappointed. It was very slow, and there were a lot of things going on with seemingly no connection. The story slowly unfolded and things came together, but at the end it felt like a rush to tie everything together neatly and have literally everything connected.
While the premise was interesting and the big reveal was pretty original and something I haven't seen or read before in any other fiction, the execution wasn't as good as it could have been I think. Joy Ellis isn't a debut author with this one but I wouldn't have been surprised to learn that she was. The first couple of hours are basically clumsy exposition but I figured that was normal for the first or near first book in a series following two main characters. The characters don't talk like normal people either which took me out of it a bit. Things along the lines of "Hello Detective Inspector Jackman, I think tomorrow will be a long and troublesome ordeal and I suggest we have a nice meal prepared by your housekeeper and get some good rest to be prepared for it" said by his second in command and ostensibly a good friend he has worked with for years.
I think with a bit more polish and better pacing I would have enjoyed it more, but as is I probably wouldn't recommend it.
I came into this book with an open mind (I think) and to be honest I was a little disappointed. It was very slow, and there were a lot of things going on with seemingly no connection. The story slowly unfolded and things came together, but at the end it felt like a rush to tie everything together neatly and have literally everything connected.
While the premise was interesting and the big reveal was pretty original and something I haven't seen or read before in any other fiction, the execution wasn't as good as it could have been I think. Joy Ellis isn't a debut author with this one but I wouldn't have been surprised to learn that she was. The first couple of hours are basically clumsy exposition but I figured that was normal for the first or near first book in a series following two main characters. The characters don't talk like normal people either which took me out of it a bit. Things along the lines of "Hello Detective Inspector Jackman, I think tomorrow will be a long and troublesome ordeal and I suggest we have a nice meal prepared by your housekeeper and get some good rest to be prepared for it" said by his second in command and ostensibly a good friend he has worked with for years.
I think with a bit more polish and better pacing I would have enjoyed it more, but as is I probably wouldn't recommend it.