The Night in Question: A Novel

by Nic Joseph

Your ride is here...

When Paula picks up her last passenger of the night, all she sees is a few more dollars to put toward her husband's medical bills. That's before she recognizes the quiet stranger in her back seat as a world-famous musician and realizes the woman waiting at his destination is not his equally famous wife. So, Paula does what any down-on-her-luck woman would do.

She asks for money in exchange for silence.

But when a woman is murdered in the same building days later, Paula discovers she is the only witness to the secret affair—an affair that incriminates the musician. Now, Paula's silence comes at a much more dangerous price.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Book Club, Audiobook, Thriller Suspense

312 pages, Paperback

First published October 2, 2018

About the author

Nic Joseph is fascinated by the very good reasons that make people do very bad things. She writes thrillers and suspense novels from her home in Chicago. As a trained journalist, Nic has written about everything from health care and business to aerospace and IT. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s in communications, both from Northwestern University.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one...entertaining and twisty. It lacked the extra oomph to make it a 4 star read, but it was definitely a page turner! Paula is a rideshare driver who sets out to blackmail a pop star who she gives a ride to, in order to get money to pay for a potentially life-changing surgery for her injured husband. After she inserts herself into the life of the woman he's having an affair with, she finds herself embroiled in a murder. Now she's a suspect, but she can't tell police the whole truth on account of the whole blackmail thing... Nothing groundbreaking here, but a fun story to get lost in for a little while.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the basis for this one, the whole idea of can a person be inherently good if they make a series of bad decisions? What if those choices are made for the greater good, does that give them a pass or maybe just some leeway? It’s interesting to say the least and besides these moral questions it’s also super tense and told using a structure that I love.

Both Paula and the detective investigating the murder narrate this with Paula supplying the bulk of the narrative. It jumps from after the night in question itself to before and then the actual night of but it was laid out very clearly and wasn’t confusing for me at all. I found it to be a true page turner, it was written very fluently and I was engaged and eager to find out how it would all end. It reads like a slow burn to begin with but then the tension steadily increases the further you get and then by the ending things get really good and the intensity is through the roof. I had my suspicions and while I was partly right the author did have some tricks up her sleeve. At times I was reminded of a good old fashioned whodunnit with a modern twist so if you like that style check this one out.

The Night In Question in three words: Taut, Pacey and Engrossing.

[Cyndi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story and it had an excellent flow and lots of interesting action. The main character is devilish in her persistence and tenacity and has many admirable, as well as many foolish qualities.

Many thanks to Edelweiss, Sourcebooks Landmark and Nic Joseph for my complimentary ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

[KC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paula has to do something terrible although it is for all the right reasons, but after an acquaintance is murdered, she soon finds herself way in over her head. With multiple suspects, more unreliable than the next, Nic Joseph has masterfully spun a tale that will keep readers guessing up until its stunning conclusion. For fans of B.A. Paris and Fiona Barton.

[Audra (ouija.reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot of The Night in Question is tangled enough that attempting to give a solid synopsis will only result in unraveling it, so if you’re intrigued at all by a cab driver who has information about a crime but doesn’t exactly do the right thing with it, you might want to check this one out.

This thriller plays on the reader’s expectations, making you second guess who is the bad guy all throughout—is it the famous man Paula dropped off? Is it someone else in the apartment where she left him? Is it Paula herself? As the story develops, you find out you really can’t trust anyone, which definitely keeps you reading.

For me though, that’s not really enough—especially for a thriller. It needs to be amazing, to go to the edge and then over it into territory I’ve never explored with a book before. I found this narrative pretty run-of-the-mill as far as thriller fare goes.

I found the alternating chapters from Detective Puhl’s perspective that were tucked in between to be distracting. This seems like a small detail, but I read through a bunch of other reviews, and the detective character isn’t mentioned in one of them. She is a partial narrator but not important enough to call out in the description of the book (from the publisher) or in reviews? It seems strange that she would seem so insignificant, but her stereotypical characterization and lack of real action to move the plot forward made her forgettable. The only reason the chapters from her perspective were in the book at all was to give the reader information that we couldn’t have gotten from Paula’s unreliable perspective, and it just felt like sloppy writing to me. Maybe the book just should have been written from third person omniscient, instead?

What I did like were Paula's motivations throughout. She is an interesting character because I could imagine being in her shoes and attempting to do the right thing, make the right decision, and then screwing it up and watching the stakes get higher and potentially more deadly.

The final twists and turns of the book were a bit confusing to me—I felt that everything should have been apparent to Paula much sooner. And of course, the narrative itself hides crucial information until it feels the need to share, which I find unfair as a reader.

How are we supposed to solve the mystery if we aren’t given all the clues? Isn’t that the whole point of reading a thriller? You want to put together all the pieces before the characters, figure out whodunnit and why. If the narrative doesn’t offer the opportunity to do that, I feel it is, at least in part, a failure.

My thanks to Sourcebooks for sending me a copy of this one to read and review.

[Morelia (Strandedinbooks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one really had a good hold on me...but then. But then. *deep sighs*

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

View full review at: 5171 Miles Book Blog.

Many thanks to BookSparks for the chance to read and review this book!

The Night in Question by Nic Joseph is part of the BookSparks Fall Reading Challenge chosen by author Mary Kubica. As soon as I read the synopsis for this book I couldn’t wait to start reading. It seemed like the perfect fast-paced Thriller to get my blood pumping during those cold Fall evenings! If you’re interested to check out the complete line-up for the Fall Reading Challenge click here! We’re excited to have Katherine Heigl joining us as the celebrity ambassador highlighting these great reads.

I didn’t realize just how desperate I was for a great Thriller until I started reading this book and couldn’t stop. I have been in a bit of a slump lately, throwing in the towel with my last two reads before I had finished. I decided it was time to change up genres and get lost in something less predictable. I had a hard time choosing between When the Lights Go Out by Mary Kubica and What Have You Done by Matthew Farrell, two more books listed in the Fall Reading Challenge, but this one stuck out to me as what I was needing to break the slump.

This book felt ultramodern with the use of ride-sharing as the plot point at the heart of the story. It seems as if everyone these days is talking about their Uber experiences, which in some ways seems slightly scary, but also really inventive and cool. This addition made for a new and unique storyline I haven’t read before, but one I’m sure we’ll be seeing again. I have to give major points to Nic Joseph for being a pioneer of using this idea for her book! The Chicago setting was enjoyable too, as I was able to picture the city quite clearly in my mind as the main character, Paula, was driving around.

My favorite aspect of The Night in Question was the main character’s inexperience and unexpected involvement in the world of crime. Instead of the same tired murder story with a psycho killer, we experience an everyday woman feeling the weight of the phrase “desperate times call for desperate measures”. In many ways, this made the story more relatable, allowing readers to put themselves in the main character’s shoes, questioning if they, too, would make the choices Paula was lead to make.

I also really enjoyed how this story was woven together. It was well-thought and left enough clues to keep readers wanting more, without being overly predictable. I had a few guesses about what could happen, but I did not see the ending coming whatsoever. There were parts of the story that seemed slightly unrealistic and a few minor details I might have liked to have more information on, but overall, I was incredibly impressed with this story. A solid 4-star read, which is basically five stars for a Thriller coming from me. For some reason, I can only think of two thrillers I have ever given five stars. I’m apparently too picky or my years of reading Nancy Drew books made me a decent detective. 😉 Regardless, I would recommend The Night in Question if you are looking for a unique, modern Thriller. I would also like to check out more books by the author, Nic Joseph, in the future, as her writing style was quite appealing to my tastes.

[Cassie’s Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paula works for a ride share as a second job trying to earn extra money for her husbands medical treatment. He was in an accident and now is wheel chair bound. One evening before she is about to clock out she receives an alert for a pick up by a person named “Lotti”. When she gets there she realizes it’s a Grammy Award winning pop singer Ryan Hooks and the woman he is meeting is not his wife. When he gets out she realizes he left his phone behind. Paula considers offering him his phone back if he pays 180k , the amount she needs to pay for her husbands experimental surgery to help her husband walk again. When a woman is found murdered in the apartment building where she dropped Ryan Hooks off at and her apartment is broken into , Paula is sure Ryan is behind it all. Paula reports her suspicions to detective Claire Phul. The book bounces from Phuls murder investigation and Paula’s story from the time she picks up Ryan and after the murder happens. The tone of this book isn’t a dark one it’s sometimes even a little funny, and Paula makes it a point to make it a point to let people know she isn’t a bad person. When she decides to insert herself into the lives of the Gold Coast apartments where she dropped Ryan off at to figure out who he was meeting it seemed reckless to me. It seemed like everyone has their own agenda minus detective Phuls. It wasn’t a heavy read and there were some thrills all and all I give three stars.

[Vida Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

**SPOILERS** **SPOILERS** **SPOILERS**

The plot was dumb, the “protagonist” even dumber. Almost all aspects of the plot stretched credulity. Even the foundational event of that launches the plot (Paula’s assumption that Ryan is having an extra-marital affair) is wacky, and has to be bolstered by events after the fact. The idea of blackmailing Ryan also makes no sense. With no back story for Ryan, we are given no reason for why he would be so afraid to have his affair exposed that he would pay Paula $185,000 (BTW, doesn’t that seem awfully cheap for such a potentially life-altering medical treatment?) to avoid exposure. In today’s world, Ryan’s most likely reaction would have been to report her to the police, and use his social media celebrity to cast himself as the victim, and Paula as the villain. He would have come away even more beloved by his adoring fans, and the resulting publicity would have increased his music sales. Remember David Letterman?? Jeff Bezos??

More unclear/inexplicable/dropped plot points:

1. It never occurs to Paula that her most distinguishing feature (one brown eye and one blue eye) would make her easily identifiable to police?
2. Why did Ryan commission Paula’s husband to create an art piece for him?
3. When Paula broke into the old guy’s house to look at the video, why didn’t she bring a flash drive with her, so she could copy the video file (in about one minute) and get the heck out of there before he returned? Has she really planned to sit there and watch it?
4. Since Paula didn’t tell her husband that there was $185K hidden in their house, how did he know to pay someone to break in and steal it?
5. Why did Paula mistake Emma for Beverly? Did they look alike? Or was that Emma in the window that night, but Ryan wasn’t there to see her, he was there to see Beverly?
6. Was that Paula’s blood on the wall at the bottom of the stairs? If not, whose was it? The cop made a big deal about it, but it wasn’t resolved.
7. What was the deep red stain on the carpet in Beverly’s apartment? Another plot point with no resolution.

All in all, this book was a disappointment.

[Nattie]

Apparently I need to stop reading books that are set in Chicago. I have lived in Chicago my entire life and I like to read books set here but they often turn out to be bad, this one was not an exception.

I didn't know the author was a black female so I was surprised. Normally I wouldn't care about the author's race, but I have been wishing more blacks would write thrillers, particularly psychological. Maybe if that happens there will be more diverse main characters, but who knows, and perhaps there are more writing in the genre but aren't getting published?

This was a miss for me, but I would try something else from Nic Joseph.

[Shaheda · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author had a good story line and a good plot going but the execution was not done well enough, I feel. The ending felt that it was just thrown together and I'm still not able to get over the whole back entrance confusion. Also there were lots of errors in the book and that was distracting. I'd definitely read another one of her books but she should really get another editor.

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you do something bad but for a good reason, doesn't that make you a bad person? That's the question at the forefront of this novel. Paula blackmails someone out of desperation to help her husband rather than out of greed. But does that make her actions more justifiable? Is Paula a good person? I think that's what the author wants the reader to reflect on the most in this. Throughout the novel, Paula continuously tells herself that she's a good person despite her actions. Her need to constantly reinforce this to herself tells me all I need to know about Paula.

This is a very interesting read with a unique plot. Was it perfect? No, but it was a satisfying read.

[Brei · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of The Night in Question from Sourcebooks in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited to receive The Night in Question because it had a very different premise than most of the thrillers I have been reading. It started off with a bang but I felt like the ending was a little rushed and parts were wrapped up a little too easily.

Paula liked to call herself a good person but she basically stalked Emma. In real life who does that?

I guess I keep comparing this book to real life and it just doesn't match up. Everything was tied up with a nice little bow and it was too convenient.

I guess I felt like Nic Joseph could have stepped up the game a little bit with this thriller. It had a great premise.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first 3/4 of this book because the story was interesting, even though the characters were pathetic. I liked the Chicago references too. But the ending was disappointing and made no sense, at least to me.

[David Blake · Rating 2 out of 5]

Felt like a Hardy Boys genre...

[Maureen]

One of the worst books I read this year. I finished it simply because I felt like I had given so much of my time to it already I may as well finish.

[Verushka · Rating 3 out of 5]

*What is this about?:* Paula is desperate – desperate enough to blackmail someone for an operation for her paralysed husband. But the man she’s blackmailing, singer Ryan Hooks, is desperate too.

*What else is this about?:* Paula is us. The reader, the billions of people going about their lives, until something happens to her husband, Keith, and everything is irrevocably changed. There’s hope though, hope in an operation that might give him the use of his legs back… so what would you do if you were as desperate as Paula?

The Night in Question poses an interesting moral dilemma, and I for one can’t say for sure what I’ll do in Paula’s situation. I'd say it's more 3.5 in terms of rating.

Paula and Keith led the life she always wanted – they were happy, their work as artists was going places, and they had everything she’d ever wanted… until their life was changed when Keith was struck by a driver more interested in texting and was paralysed.

There’s longing in every word and action of Paula’s – when she’s at the diner where she works, or when she’s in her car as a DAC driver. She wants their life back, she wants Keith to be better and there’s hope – a doctor who is trying an innovative surgery that actually has worked for people. However it costs close to $180,000 and it’s way out of reach for them.

Until Paula drives Ryan Hooks to his mistress’s apartment. She doesn’t recognise him at first, and thinks he’s flirting with her, but even that comes with a healthy dose of longing for what she and Keith were at one time.

But the next day, she finds his phone in her car, and takes her friend, Vanessa’s idea about a reward and turns it up to 11: or $180,000 to be exact.

However, Paula is also curious about the woman that Ryan went to see, about what could make him risk his marriage and the threat of a divorce if he was ever found cheating again. Emma is beautiful, well put together and lives in an expensive house and even commissions artists she meets in dog parks under assumed names to do work for her company.

Yup, Paula gets her stalker on.
And that’s when the murder happens at a dinner party that Paula is invited to, the money Ryan paid her gets stolen and Paula realises she very much wants to be a good person.

Which is why she goes to the police – drunk – it’s a recurring theme for her, which is weird as she hates that Keith drinks so much.

The police investigation is the other timeline in this, following in Paula’s as finds herself more obsessed with trying to find out what happened that night, and how was Ryan involved. Because she remembers him there clearly. Or hazily, because hey, yes, drunk (this character trait really made no sense to me).

Paula’s investigation is haphazard, and fuelled by more than a little luck, which is why it’s so engrossing. She’s using common sense and lying through her teeth to get to the bottom of everything because that’s what any one who isn’t a PI or cop would do.

And of course the ending? Nothing that I thought it would be.

The Night in Question is a wonderful exploration of what people with money and without will do when they’re desperate – stupid things, horrible things that they wouldn’t do normally is the answer you’re looking for.

But that doesn’t mean you won’t understand why they do they things they do, and that was the hook in this book for me.

[Bookreporter.com Mystery & Thriller · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE NIGHT IN QUESTION begins near its end, bobs, weaves and dives through time, and reaches a startling conclusion, all without a single narrative misstep. Those who have quickly acquired the habit of reading anything that author Nic Joseph publishes will be eager to sink their teeth into this fine contemporary tale that combines traditional mystery elements with the flavor of the day --- the narrator who is unreliable, both deliberately and otherwise --- with a touch of police procedure just to sort some (but not all) of it out.

Paula Wileson is the protagonist of the piece, a determined but believably unsure woman who has been thrust into difficult circumstances. Her life has been turned upside down by an accident in which her husband, Keith, was injured and left wheelchair-bound. She is working two jobs to make ends meet: as a waitress at a diner and as an Uber/Lyft-type driver, the latter of which propels THE NIGHT IN QUESTION.

One night, Paula finds herself driving a fare who turns out to be Ryan Hooks, a popular rock star. At first she does not recognize him, but what is even more memorable for her is their destination, where she delivers Ryan to an apparent assignation at an apartment house in an upscale part of town. Paula subsequently discovers that he has left his phone in her car. She initially plans to return it, but after doing a bit of research on Ryan --- who turns out to be very, very married --- she decides that the phone, which contains some incriminating documentation of his affair, can be leveraged. Paula’s motives aren’t pure, but they’re understandable, given that Keith is a viable candidate for some experimental surgery that might restore him but is too expensive for them to afford. Paula’s plan is to blackmail Ryan for just enough money to finance Keith’s operation. It doesn’t take much for him to agree.

Meanwhile, Paula finds herself intertwined with Ryan’s apparent paramour to the extent that, under an assumed identity, she attends a party at the woman’s apartment where the details grow fuzzy in direct proportion to the alcohol consumed. By early that morning, someone is dead, the police have been called, and Paula --- or at least her alter ego --- is wanted for questioning. Paula has some memories, but none of them are of the murder. She recalls just enough, though, to come to some conclusions, particularly about Ryan.

It takes a minor but extremely interesting character to provide part of the missing pieces to the puzzle, which in turn is ultimately solved by a sharp, driven and crafty homicide detective who is determined to see that justice is provided for the victim. The result is a self-contained mystery that succeeds on all levels, including a couple that you probably will not see coming.

THE NIGHT IN QUESTION preserves and extends Joseph’s winning streak. At this point, the critical acclaim she has acquired exceeds the commercial success she has earned and deserves, but this book could right that shortcoming in quick order. If you aren’t yet on the Nic Joseph train, try her latest. It is a first cabin experience.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Night in Question by Nic Joseph is a recommended thriller set in Chicago.

Paula is working a second job as a Drive Away Car ride-share driver to make some extra money to pay her husband Keith's medical bills. On her last fare of the night she picks up a man who called himself "Lotti" and drops him off at a gold coast apartment building where, obviously, a woman is looking out the window, waiting for him. The next day she realizes that her fare was actually Grammy Award–winning pop singer Ryan Hooks and the woman he was meeting was not his equally famous wife. Paula considers what to do with this information, as any honest woman would, but when she finds his phone in her car, she knows exactly what she'll do. She will offer to give him back his phone for a $180,000 "reward." The $180,000 will pay for an operation that would allow Keith, who is wheelchair-bound after his accident, to walk again.

When a woman is found murdered in the apartment building later, and when someone breaks into her apartment, Paula is sure Ryan is responsible. She reports her suspicions to Detective Claire Puhl, who is investigating the murder, and Paula is called in for an interview. The novel alternates between Puhl's murder investigation and Paula's story.

The tone in this thriller is light and sometimes humorous. Paula is very concerned that the reader knows that she is a good person, that she would never lie about important things, and that she really needs the money to help Keith. When she inserts herself into meeting the residents of the Gold Coast apartment building where she dropped off Hooks, her intentions seem dubious at best. All the narrators, with the exception of Puhl, are unreliable and operating on several different agendas.

The Night in Question is a nice mystery and has some twists and surprises along the way without a huge build-up of suspense. The ending is surprising and worth getting through some of Paula's endless rationalizing about how she really is a good person, even though she is doing all these questionable and illegal actions.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Sourcebooks.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2018/0...

[Jim Thomsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nic Joseph’s THE NIGHT IN QUESTION is a much-praised new work of psychological suspense that hails from the trendy, operatically pitched “twist-a-minute” school. And it is the rare novel sunk by its very first page. Prologues are a high-wire act to begin, easy to screw up and leave the reader stranded at the gate. And for that reason it’s only occasionally done, and even more occasionally done well.

This prologue, which begins with the words “I decided early on that telling the truth — the whole truth — was out of the question,” is annoying on two levels. One, it announces its intention from the get-go to jerk around the reader, all but saying “Look how fashionably unreliable I am! Awesome, right?” And two, it fails to follow through on its promise of twisty unreliability. Paula Wileson, the narrator, attempts to blackmail a pop-music star cheating on his wife, and her ham-handed efforts to get closer to him collide with a murder of a woman who lived in The Other Woman’s building. Paula, a rideshare driver whose efforts are driven by an attempt to raise money for a surgery that may enable her husband to walk again, has reason to be circumspect and even coy with the cops. But she turns out to be a much flatter and more conventional character than the prologue promised, and the novel’s failure to develop the other characters undermines its big reveals.

Paula is an intriguing character until those last chapters, and Joseph is canny enough to keep us invested in how this well-meaning Chicago woman keeps getting herself into and out of trouble she can’t quite handle. But Paula is nowhere near as devious or unreliable as those first pages portend, and in the end THE NIGHT IN QUESTION turns out to be like dozens of books in its genre — well-crafted but unable to convincingly get out of the corner it paints its characters into by the third act.

(I’m also docking it another star for going to the bother of creating a pop star with complicated motives and failing completely to find extra dimensions — or page space — for him. A serious missed opportunity.)

[Romantic Critic · Rating 1 out of 5]

The protagonist was too stupid to live that I almost wished the villain would get away with it at the end. Was Paula’s clumsiness or naiveté supposed to be endearing? Or was the intended effect to surprise the audience, as she somehow managed to get away with her blackmail at the end? Whatever the author’s intention was, Paula’s incompetence ruined the book. It was cringey enough when she asked Ryan Hooks, the celebrity she was blackmailing, how much he should give her. Then, when she discovered that a fellow guest had died the night of the party they attended, she came forward to the police, but gave her statement in the most suspicious manner ever. It was even more rage-inducing how she was sure that Emma was one of the good ones after meeting her two times – one of which it was fairly obvious that Emma had laced Paula’s drink. Paula revealed the existence of the video footage to Emma, without even knowing what said footage entailed! On that note, since the video was sent via email, couldn’t the police have just requested the email trail of the sender to view the missing footage? There was no need to panic that the laptop was shattered or create the “clever” ruse to offer police surveillance at the dog park in exchange for the sender pretending that he had a second copy of the video to Emma and Paula. Even the closing scene was infuriating! Paula’s husband admitting that he was the one who had orchestrated the burglary was the icing on top of the shit cake, when they finally secured enough money to pay for his surgery. I couldn't stop seething at the asinine characters and plot developments.

[Georgia · Rating 3 out of 5]

🌟🌟🌟 / 5 stars

Don’t get me wrong - I enjoyed the author’s writing style and the book itself was fast paced and kept me with it all the way to the end... I just think I’m getting a little tired of the whole unreliable protagonist thing. It seems like it was executed really well in some hugely successful psychological thrillers and now it’s just become something of an overused trope, which does negate some of my overall enjoyment.

There were also a couple of more minor plot points that also detracted somewhat from my overall enjoyment. In one chapter that was narrated from the detective’s perspective, it suddenly seemed to switch from third to first person narration for a sentence or two and then back again; which I found somewhat jarring. The concept of the main character using a different name for anonymity was highly flawed when she has one of the most identifiable physical attributes. The reveal of who was behind the burglary was also a little questionable.

Those minor things aside, I think it was still a relatively enjoyable read and I didn’t fully guess the twist so I’ll give credit to the author for that too.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This mystery/suspense novel opens with main character Paula going to the police with information about a murder several days before, which she believes is connected to a drop off she did as a ride share driver the week before that. We know from the start that Paula is keeping information from the police, but not what she’s keeping secret or why. The book then goes back to the week before the murder (the murder being the “night in question of the title” and then to the days after until we catch up to Paula at the police station, interspersed with chapters from the perspective of Claire, the detective investigating the murder.

This was a fun and really quick read which definitely kept me guessing. Paula makes SO MANY bad decisions yet she is still somehow a sympathetic character. This actually was on track to be a 4 star read, but the end just felt so rushed and confusing. I still enjoyed the book though, and even though it wasn’t quite as good as Nic Joseph’s previous two books, I’d still read a fourth one if she ever publishes one.

3.75 stars

[Coffee&Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you do something bad to someone who's doing something bad, but for a good reason......does that make you bad, too?
Nic Joseph has swiftly launched herself onto my fave authors list. I can't say that list is short, because these writers are doing the dang thing out here, but it is sweet, and I'm so happy to have found her and her work. After sucking up her first two novels, I was chomping at the bit to read this one. A mystery that is so modern it's almost a newborn-- a rideshare driver who becomes embroiled in a murder investigation and just a skotch amount of extortion. Just a bit, but it's for a good cause!
Joseph always adds a twist that, after all this time reading crime dramas and mysteries, I don't see coming. In this book, there were two.
Expertly written, deeply personal and human, and way WAY entertaining. Grab a copy and put it in your face!

[Gloria · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I just saw this on the shelf at the front of my library and picked it up. It's not very good. The main character isn't particularly interesting, or even sympathy-inducing. The victim is obviously based on Robin Thicke, but isn't very well-fleshed-out at all. He's like a cardboard cutout in place of a pop star. And Paula is just kind of a jerk. Fine, she has reasons for needing money that are noble-ish. Does that excuse what she does? No. And the whole long journey to figure out what exactly happened, and the little twist ending.. Just didn't thrill me. Because the writing is flat and nothing is particularly exciting and the characters are all really kind of vague. None come alive, not even her husband Keith. A few times she mentions good times they shared in the past, but you get almost no details about what current Keith is like. Anyway, this book just did not do it for me.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book - listening to it on audio I give it a solid 3 1/2 stars - to be fair - I think this would be a 4 star read had i just sat and read it without distraction. My mind tends to wander sometime when just listening. This storyline is something that could totally happen and I do like it when I don't guess the outcome. I think it was well written and I would definitely read another book by Nic Joseph.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhere between 2 1/2 and 3 stars. Paula is a rideshare driver who picks up and drops off a famous singer. She doesn’t recognize him at the time and later realizes who he is. She ends up jumping to several conclusions, taking actions based on those assumptions that end up being really bad decisions. I stuck with it to see what happened in the end, but the characters were superficial and the plot had several holes.

[Rena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this story. Here's a character who does the wrong thing, but for the right reasons. Paula does questionable things and she makes bad choices, but she's desperate and has a good heart. She has the Robin Hood idea -- is it so bad to take money from a very wealthy person in order to give to a poor person who desperately needs it? There are some twists, so it's a good mystery.

[Jurkovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well constructed novel by Ms. Joseph that focuses on "the night in question" and then bounces days around the events of that evening to construct a murder mystery. The use of the term "DAC" as a substitute for Uber or Lyft was ok, but always through me off a seamless read. No spoiler here, but several of the characters were undeveloped adequately to really enjoy the read.

[Ginny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paula drives a famous musician to a destination and later realizes the woman he meets there is not his wife. She decides to blackmail him for money to pay for surgery that may help her husband to walk again. The story was well written but even though Paula's reasons were altruistic, it was difficult to relate to her choices.