So I start my review by saying congratulations to this new author and I do wish him well as he continues down this literary journey. This is our March book club read and I like the fact that we choose this particular book because it has added to my range of understanding and ability to dig deep. With all of that being said let’s dig in. This for me was a rough read, it took me a minute to really get started and get a sense of the characters and where the author was going. But once I started to get an idea of where this book was taking us, it made more sense, I understand and like the direction the author was going with this story and I believe the plot is very intriguing.
However, the layout and structure was hard for me to follow and maybe it was my kindle version but there was a great deal of errors and majority of the characters started with what appeared to be Roman numeral twos. I doubt that was intentional as the chapters had names per the table of contents in the beginning of the book. As I was reading, I almost felt like I was dropped in the middle of a scene and missed a great deal of character development in an earlier book. We got hints and clues about each character but not enough in my opinion to smooth out the edges of this book. Because of this lack of character development as key characters are introduced to the story (and there were a lot) it was hard to keep track. I gathered that the author might have wanted to keep a few characters intentionally vague to add to the intrigue of the story line, for me this had the opposite effect. Readers want to be able to connect with at least one of the characters in a book that they are committing to enjoy and when that doesn’t happen, mixed with a story line that is a hard to follow, which almost puts it in a DNF category. As a book club policy we decided to continue on with the read but it was challenging.
Overall, while I can see and appreciate the direction this author was trying to take us, I feel like the attempt fell flat, towards the end of the book, we were met by a plot twist which I do feel was a little rushed and not organic in its development. So while I was surprised she was behind the murders, I guess I figured deep down it had to be one of the two main characters. And I guess trying to understand the “why’s” leaves it open for a book two or a potential series, which I believe is the direction this author is trying to take us. If there is a book two, in this readers opinion (keep in mind I am but one view) character development is key to building understanding and connection. And who knows the author might have had these characters in his mind for years before they made it to print, which is great but I don’t feel like the vision was made clear in these 300+ pages at least for me.