3.3 This book has serious problems. I feel like this particular author’s fiction has reflected her personal issues (family relationships, diet and exercise, etc) for a long time, but they tend to take over with this entry in a formerly improving series. This book can’t decide what it is, mystery or soap opera, but it’s not good. So much of the book felt like vague exposition. There were definitely detailed, gripping scenes that were written as one would expect from a bestselling author but they were held together with pages of the worst kind of ‘telling not showing’, there were weird discrepancies with characters ages, and while there’s a constant stated backdrop of fear of these harsh religious uncles we never even meet, there also seems to be little concern for the fact that Kate’s father impregnated a 16 year old (but we have no clue how old HE was at the time…was he 20, 25, 30? No idea. And no repercussions/condemnation of the fact that she was underage. Maybe it’s not statutory rape in FLORIDA, but if a girl is too young to vote or get married it’s not a good look!!! Sara (his sister) seems to have been contemporaries with Jack’s grandfather, her great love, while her younger brother was associated with his son, but I wouldn’t have imagined there to be more than a few years between the siblings. Lack of details kept derailing the story. And the diet thing was so overwrought that I almost felt sorry for the awful Ava character at one point! A little detail to make the characters relatable (who hasn’t been on a diet?) or distinct is one thing, but this was so excessive it felt like what different characters were eating was almost the only thing going on. There also wasn’t actually a murder, just multiple attempts following one accidental death. 🤦🏻♀️