Ok, but lost me on the kidneys
Suspension of disbelief is not my greatest skill, so a lot of novels try me past the point of bearing. This one wasn’t too bad, though there are some aspects that I hope are fictional, such as the apparent acceptability of incompetence, political influence and negligence on the part of local law enforcement. As this is a not infrequent theme in American novels and doesn’t even seem to raise eyebrows, I suspect this is not the case.
I do wish that people would put in the effort to do a little basic medical research. Children’s fingers are smaller than adults, but are not magical. If pressed firmly enough they still bruise. Either both carotid arteries need to be occluded, or the trachea, to cause death from oxygen deprivation. Tracheal occlusion will definitely cause damage visible on autopsy.
Also, any single abdominal stab wound that caused sufficient damage to destroy both kidneys - which, for reference are located to either side of the spine BEHIND all the other organs - would most likely have ended up with the rest of her organs looking like fruit salad, and at the very least, quantities of bowel being removed, probably with the associated (but far from sexy) colostomy. Frankly the kidney diversion was self indulgent and improbable diversion into Hallmark territory which caused me to lose a lot of respect for the author. If you can tolerate these diversions, it’s a solid 3.5 stars. For me, 2.5 stars.