I was expecting a light, quirky mystery. What I got was rambling mess I ended up slogging my way through.
This audiobook suffers from two major flaws. Firstly, it’s just too long for what occurs. Second, it has a bit of an identity crisis.
Drunken one night stands can be awkward under the best of circumstances, but when both parties experience missing memories things begin deteriorating fast. Then both Tom and Amelia agree they’re reasonably sure someone or errr…. something carried a body past the window at some point in the night things go from bad to worse. There’s some definite “The Hangover” vibes happening throughout the book.
The most promising aspect is the setting which takes place in Tom’s ancestral home. The crumbling manor, filled with hidden rooms, passages, and valuable antiques. The house is a character herself, in fact, Tom calls her Miss Havisham (Great Expectations). Max Roll’s narration is probably the sole reason I finished this, otherwise I would’ve DNF it within three chapters, so shout out to his talent. The female narrator was grating and shrill off and on for the first 50%, but she did improve towards the end. Her style felt too peppy for the material.
The book reads as though the author had an amazing brainstorming session and tried to cram ALL the ideas into a single novel. Instead of, gathering a few of the strongest elements for one book and saving the rest for future projects. There’s decent bones somewhere beneath all the rambling. The mystery isn’t captivating, but with some tweaks maybe it could have been? The romance felt far fetched. I wasn’t buying the chemistry or the attraction given the scenario. If two people, who barely know each other are being hunted like animals, they’re in survival mode, dehydrated, no one has showered or brushed their teeth. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say they would not be thinking about how much they want to have sex over hmmm, how much they want to SURVIVE.
Even the ending drags, my finger hovered over the fast forward button.
Unfortunately, I found A Murder to Remember to be a book to forget.