Invisible Boy

Madeline Dare #3

by Cornelia Read

The smart-mouthed but sensitive runaway socialite Madeline Dare is shocked when she discovers the skeleton of a brutalized three-year-old boy in her own weed-ridden family cemetery outside Manhattan. Determined to see that justice is served, she finds herself examining her own troubled personal history, and the sometimes hidden, sometimes all-too-public class and racial warfare that penetrates every level of society in the savage streets of New York City during the early 1990s.

Madeline is aided in her efforts by a colorful assemblage of friends, relatives, and new acquaintances, each one representing a separate strand of the patchwork mosaic city politicians like to brag about. The result is an unforgettable narrative that relates the causes and consequences of a vicious crime to the wider relationships that connect and divide us all.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Detective, Mystery Thriller, Crime, Contemporary, Womens

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

I have circumnavigated the globe, throwing up in many of the world's airports as I hate to fly. I was born in Manhattan, and spent my childhood racketing around from New York to California to Oahu.

I know old-school WASP culture firsthand, having been born into the tenth (and last) generation of my mother's family to live on Oyster Bay's Centre Island. I was subsequently raised near Big Sur by divorced hippie-renegade parents. My childhood mentors included Sufis, surfers, single moms, Black Panthers, Ansel Adams, draft dodgers, striking farmworkers, and Henry Miller's toughest ping-pong rival.

I am now at home molding the characters (evil laugh here) of my twin daughters, the younger of whom has severe autism. I am the world's worst housewife, nicknamed by my intrepid spouse "a lighting rod for entropy in the universe."

I like to read a lot, being especially fond of the backs of cereal boxes and badly garbled assembly instructions written by persons for whom English is not the language of choice (although my all-time favorite bit of writing was contained in the song list on a bootleg Dylan tape in Hong Kong, which claimed "Bowling in the Wind" was the first cut on side A).

For the last several generations, my family's motto has been "Never a Dull Moment." None of us know how you would say this in Latin. I subscribe to my sister's gustatory philosophy, which is that "there are two kinds of food in the world: food that's good, and food that needs more salt."

My two favorite songs are Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams" and that little bit of Bach Glenn Gould plays right when the Tralfamadorians are coming out of the stars to kidnap Billy Pilgrim and his old dog Spot in the movie version of Slaughterhouse Five. The Rolling Stones doing "King Bee" gets an honorable mention.

I have now published two novels, A Field of Darkness and The Crazy School. Field was nominated for seven awards, including the Edgar for best first novel. I am also the grateful recipient of a 2008 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship.

I would like to be Winston Churchill when I grow up.

Reviews

[Jennie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Madeline gets drunk. Madeline does drugs. Madeline swears. Does more drugs. Gets drunker. Has a hangover. Swears some more. Finds a body. Provides an outlet for the author to preach about child abuse and white guilt in the most empty, ignorant, insipid way she possibly can.

Does some more drugs. Wears ratty clothes. Swears some more. Hangs out with bitchy friends, swearing, drinking, and doing drugs. Gets sassy, and sassier. Madeline is once again in some town with no explanation of why she's there. No reference to the crazy school, apparently in New York City now because someone needed a roommate....?

I gave it 150 pages. Rolled my eyes a lot. Sighed heavily. Decided all the characters were completely unlikeable. Wished I were reading a different book. Realized I could make that a reality quite easily. Closed book and series forever.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sigh. This falls somewhere between "I didn't like it" and "it was okay." I'd read the two previous Madeline Dare mysteries with similar mixed feelings. Maddie Dare has potential: she's smart, snarky, a top drawer pedgiree but she's also got cash flow problems and a crappy job, she loves her husband and he seems like a great guy and she has a powerful sense of justice and desire to protect the innocent. She also has a potty mouth, gets drunk rather a lot, is not adverse to a little recreational drug use ... okay, it felt like more than a little. Parts of the plot were not well resolved for me, and I really don't need every t crossed and every i dotted but still, there were things just left hanging while the central mystery was solved awfully early. I guess the drama and tension were supposed to unfold in the courtroom, and it did, and how that all ends brings up some very legitimate questions about our justice system and the culpability/responsibility the drug junkie mother bears in the death of her child at the hands of her abusive boyfriend. Also, I found the amount of information that flowed form the cops and the assistant DA to Maddie, a witness in the case, to be a little unrealistic. Least I hope so. All in, not perfectly satisfying and in the end I just felt like all the drinking, drugs, cursing and trash talk was just trying to hard and kind of smothered the funny, witty bits for me. I will not be picking up another Maddie Dare.

[Bibliophile · Rating 2 out of 5]

The mystery portion of this mystery is tiny. Mostly it is about the sassy, smart-assy Madeleine Read and her misadventures in Manhattan in the nineties. This time, she stumbles upon the bones of a murdered child. Lucky for her, the detective in charge is a kindred spirit who for that reason (I can't think of any other) keeps Maddie up-to-date on the investigation, thus enabling further misadventures.

I don't necessarily require a lot of sleuthing and skulking in a mystery novel, but if the story is mostly character driven, the characters should be well drawn and interesting. Madeleine Dare is supposed to be badass, but her cursing and bitching do not make it so. Mind you, I have nothing per se against cursing and bitching (I do both on occasion), but here it just comes off as uncouth and childish: "hey, look at me so sassily swearing and quipping!" We are constantly reminded of Maddie's impeccable pedigree and her family's old money, presumably in order to highlight her rebellious life choices. Although she is dismissive of her background and eats pizza just like regular folks, she is still a terrible snob and repeatedly expresses her contempt for the nouveau-riche, beacause really, how vulgar. She is occasionally very funny, but tries way too hard to be cool. There's nothing wrong with a flawed heroine (I quite liked Maddie in Read's previous books), but this one is so full of herself it's mind-boggling. For instance, her guilt over her old, old, family's slave-owning ways makes her want to stop random black people in the street and apologize. Ugh.

Those of you who get along better with Madeleine will surely enjoy this breezy mystery more.

[Hannah Jo Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even if I hadn't enjoyed the first two books in this series, I would have been hooked on this book simply after reading the first two paragraphs:

"So here's what I love about New York City: If someone acts like a dumb asshole and you call them on acting like a dumb asshole, the bystanders are happy about it.

Anywhere else I've ever lived they just think I'm a bitch."

Sassy, sassy, sassy! That's the voice of Madeline Dare, a former debutante who happens upon mysteries. Frankly, this book isn't much of a mystery, but it is a fast-paced, and often funny, look into the life of this woman who lives paycheck to paycheck in New York City with her husband, sister, and her sister's friend. There's some interesting family backstory, the "mystery," and a look at race's role in the criminal justice system.

I think this is a good suggestion for people who like sassy women characters (and don't mind if they swear, drink, and occasionally smoke a little weed), but don't necessarily read mysteries. It might be one of those bridge books that nudges people into reading more mysteries.

[Maya · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I were a normal person I would have stopped reading about ten pages in, but I find it impossible to quit on even the worst book. I googled the author and learned she did mostly young adult books, which made me want to cut her some slack, I guess, but the writing is just horrible. Too many adjectives, too many failed attempts at being clever. In fact, the writing was so bad that it did a good job distracting me from the utterly mediocre plot. The parts that try to deal with race relations were bumbling at best, racist and ignorant at worst. I've been writing fewer reviews bc I generally do them on my iPhone but this was bad enough to merit one. I'm just glad I'm a fast reader so I only wasted a few nights on this.

[Sheila Good · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I started this book, I was intrigued. Thought it would have some interesting twist and turns related to genelogy, race and a cold case murder. In the end, it had more to do with a case of terrible, elementary, disjointed writing and I'm still not sure what story the author was trying to tell! I'm left thinking, perhaps, this was an exercise in junior high fiction writing class!

[John Seyfarth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave up on this book at about page 80. The story centers on the discovery of a 3-year-old boy's skeleton, the condition of which suggests murder. However, the narrative lacks coherence, as the descriptions of the investigation are interspersed with nonsensical chapters of supposedly witty repartee between the narrator and her friends. These details have little to do with the story except to demonstrate the empty-headedness of these people.

[Kyle Kerr · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book didn't know what it wanted to be. It started as New York bitchy, then shifted to sad and sappy, and finished off as a courtroom drama. I liked the main character (I had no idea this was a series character), but found some of her motivation lacking. Interesting read but could've used some better storyline editing.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heroine Madeline Dare is definitely an acquired taste. One I have to re-acquire each time I pick up a Cornelia Read book. Each time I start one, I find Madeline slightly obnoxious and almost too much to take, but by the end, I always go back to wanting her to be my best friend.

This book was different from the first two Madeline Dare books. It isn't REALLY a mystery, because we know almost immediately who the killer is; it's more like social commentary on the trial of the culprits and how Madeline fits in to the situation and relates it back to her own life.

The last of that seems to be what this book was really about. Rather than a mystery solved by Madeline, this time the murder was just the backdrop for a whole novel's worth of exposition on Madeline: Past, Present, Future. This isn't to say I minded this shift in gears by the author, just that it wasn't what I was expecting.

Much tragedy befalls Madeline in this book, and the more we learn about her past, the more it seems that her whole life has been like this. It's compelling, but it also gets a little too heavy, particularly when juxtaposed with the snappy, witty dialogue which Read writes so wonderfully and which makes Maddie and those in her orbit so likable.

I waffled between three and four stars and ultimately went with three for a couple of reasons: First, that stifling, tragic heaviness previously mentioned. Next, some seriously unlikely plot threads. Would the police REALLY allow a witness to search a crime scene for a homicide? Supervised by a detective or not, this is ridiculous. This was set in 1990, not 1790. Forensics have come a long way even in the last 25 years, but modern police procedure for a murder scene was established well before then. Finally, Dean really bugs me. I get that we're supposed to think he's a wonderful husband, and this isn't to say he's a bad one, but the man is far from without flaws. BIG ones, in my opinion.

I also didn't understand the last chapter at all...is this setting up for the next book? Or was there some subtle but important meaning regarding Maddie and her mother's relationship that I didn't pick up on, aside from the obvious?

I'm still eager to get to the fourth book in the series. All problems with the narrative aside, I'll probably never tire of reading about Madeline and her exploits.

[Cheryl Masciarelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Synopsis: The year 1990, Madeline Dare, returns to New York City. Boarding school educated, self proclaimed liberal, liberated and very much opinionated. She accepts an invitation to help in the clean up and restoration of a historical family cemetery that is generations old and has been vandalized for years and not been tended to professionally. She comes upon skeletal remains in the tall grass and weeds and determines that the bones are of a child and freshly placed. Who is this child, who put him here and why here in this family plot? She has some misfortunate accidents or are they intentional?
My Thoughts: From page one, I was pulled in with the writing style and, at times, funny New Yorkese narrative. During her quest to find justice for this child, Teddy, Madeline also learns that there has been abuse in her own family. She is also trying to be honest and loyal to a long time friend from boarding school. Madeline has to deal with the dynamics of her relationships with family members, old and new friends, and a little boy she never knew.
My Opinion and Rating: I found the style and narrative unique and enjoyable. I gave this book a rating of 4 for the following reasons. Without giving anything away, I felt that there were two major traumatic incidents that should have been written with more of an in depth and detailed explanation. I also thought the same regarding the dynamics of the relationships that were involved.

[Gaby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Invisible Boy is the third of Cornelia Read's stories involving the quirky, struggling socialite Madeline Dare. Unlike The Crazy School which is part amateur mystery, Invisible Boy is largely focused on Madeline Dare, her family and her life which I found to be a more interesting read.

From the earlier novels, we know that Madeline Dare's family ranks high in the Social Register and that her Mayflower legacy largely trumps her current poor financial situation. Though Madeline shares a cramped and no-frills (read: slightly rundown) apartment off of Union Square with her husband, her sister Pagan and her friend Sue, her connections and legacy still open doors. While she faces slights and snubs, Madeline handles things with her brand of grace and humor. I found Cornelia Reed's description of old prep school friendships especially effective and added to my appreciation and understanding of Madeline. Madeline's sense of justice also comes across well in Invisible Boy; she is willing to face all sorts of risks to bring Teddy Underhill's killers to justice.

Overall, I liked enjoyed Invisible Boy. This third story reveals more of Madeline Dare's history and personality, which works to her advantage.

ISBN-10: 044651134X - Hardcover $24.99
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (March 30, 2010), 432 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

How did I miss this author before now?

I picked this up because I liked the cover and the plot sounded like it had potential. It wasn't quite what I expected, but that's okay because it was really enjoyable. Our intrepid heroine, Madeline Dare (what a great name) is a kind of Nora Charles sort of character - very classy and sassy. I enjoyed her and her friends enormously.

The mystery at the center, the death of a small boy, isn't really a whodunit or a whydunit - it's more of a youknowwhodunitnowdealwithit. Everyone here is pretty well fleshed out and the bad guys aren't quite the bad guys that they might be seem even though they're definitely bad guys.

It's fun to watch Madeline trying to sort out her life now that she's in a phase where she's married and away from school and working and figuring out who she is as an adult. Her dilemmas are believable and her tragedies are very real.

Crisp snappy writing, good plotting, interesting characters. I'm going to find the rest of Ms. Read's books!

[Peggy Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just got a new library card and raided the "new" mysteries shelf. This is evidently part of a series of novels featuring Madeline Dare...a one-time debutante with a very dysfunctional family background. She blames a great deal of it on being raised mainly in California. Honey, dysfunctional families live everywhere. I have to disagree with most of the reviewers. Everyone in the book is incredibly foul-mouthed. Everyone (except maybe the police investigator) uses drugs frequently. I found many of the characters really off-putting, and didn't feel the others were well-enough developed. She threw red herrings around like confetti and didn't really explain or tie off any of the many, many loose ends. WAY too many vague references to past exploits no doubt the subject of previous books. The abrupt ending made me think she just got tired of writing this story, but she planted the seeds for the next book......which I will be skipping.

[Jo Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

After her first two books, I was looking forward to Read's latest -- disappointing. In comparison to her previous works, the main plot was lacking. And, the subplots were grossly underdeveloped and questionable as to why she bothered to include them. At times, Read even managed to push her protagonist, Madeline, beyond edgy into unlikeable – sad to see. Hope this book is an anomaly and not the start of a trend.

[Karen Hall · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I thought THE CRAZY SCHOOL was extraordinarily good, a favorite of last year, this one didn't do it for me. The protagonist uses so much bad language that it was hard for me to read it, and I'm far from prudish. It simply distracted me too much from the action.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't realize this was third in a series with the same protagonist..the book stands on its own but I felt like I was missing a few things. Overall, it was ok..not as powerful or emotional as I was expecting. And I thought a lot of the dialogue sounded phony.

[Alena · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not realize this was part of a series when I picked up at the library. I will not be reading the others. Just a sad book. I think it is supposed to be deep and moving, and maybe for many people other than me. Not my type of book.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although I found her previous two books entertaining, this one is awful..... shallow characters, stilted conversations, pointless unrelenting "bad" language and use of recreational drugs were tiresome. It felt like a desperate attempt to make the characters "hip". I got to 130 pages and gave up.

[Rosalind · Rating 1 out of 5]

Purchased this from the BN discounted section for 4.98 and still brought it back for a refund! Awful dialogue...how many times does one need to say f**k? Scattered sentences, idiotic characters....could not get beyond 50 pages.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this author. Can't wait for more.

[Kathy Davie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who knew? Turns out this is the third installment in the Madeline Dare…um, police procedural? series with this story set in New York City in 1990. I hadn't realized this was part of a series. To be honest, I can't imagine why anyone would want to read more about Madeline as I found her whiny and immature. I want to say it's a mystery, but it's not. The only mystery was who the boy was and that was quickly determined. It certainly was a no-brainer as to who did it.

My Take
What it is, is a fictional account of a woman at odds with her heritage, a clear view of the class she belongs to without the money to back her being in it, a clear if somewhat idealistic view of the world, and a strong sense of poor-me self. It's when Madeline finds the skeleton of a little boy, the ribs bashed in, in an old and neglected family cemetery in the middle of New York City that triggers her thoughts on how people treat each other and brings back memories of her childhood. It is a great example of how to avoid the dreaded info dump.

The start is a crack-up and a very dramatic introduction to Madeline's views on a class of society that is incredibly self-indulgent with an overweening sense of entitlement.

"'You!' Poke. 'Need!' Poke. 'To change!" Poke-poke. 'Your goddamn attitude!' PokepokePOKEpoke.

…

'And you … need to change your goddamn medication.'"

There are bits of fun in Invisible Boy, but mostly it's a descent into the daughters' resignation about their mother's attitude and lifestyle choices; their repressed frustration over their parents and the lack of money growing up; their anger and disbelief over the over-entitled class to which they, technically, belong; and, Madeline's frustration over social services, family stupidity, and the justice system.

It's also an exploration of liberal versus conservative. It's funny in some respects and incredibly angry-fying in others. Yes, I made that word up, and it's how I feel. Christoph and his employees are, ugh, such Neanderthals about anyone outside their class who embrace a different point of view, and they believe women have their place. So condescending.

"'Jesus, Dean, you married a feminazi?'

'Beats a Republicunt.'"

Be warned, there's plenty of swearing in this. Makes me look a piker in the blue language department. And it doesn't impress me. The language sounds overworked, more like she's cussing for effect, right along with her family and coworkers. And for all the poor-mouthing she does, Madeline and her friends sure do eat out a lot.

I can't blame Madeline for her attitude to the rich bitches who obsess about their food intake while popping pills to deal with their boredom. I wanna tell 'em to get a life. Do something meaningful. And yet I don't see Madeline doing anything meaningful until she discovers Teddy's skeleton. She's more concerned about her soap box than reality as Dean points out later in the story.

The numbers about missing people and murders are grim. The truth about who does most of the abuse to children is worse: people not related to the child but who live in the house. Stepfathers and -mothers, boyfriends or girlfriends of the biological parent. Oh, stranger-danger still exists, but it's minuscule compared to "trusted ones".

"'So what did you want to be?'

'Same thing as now, Batman.'



'How's that working out?''Three more boxtops, they're mailing my cape.'

It's a bit odd that Madeline was so concerned about protecting children even when she was a kid but never knew about what happened to her younger sister. It's sad that women and children were being abused back when she was a child; it's sadder still that it still goes on. And for all her protectiveness, she's clueless and unable to step up to help her friend, Astrid. God knows there were enough signals.

"'In your non-expert opinion'

'Yes sir, in my non-expert opinion. Not least because that foliage had been untouched since the mid-nineteen fifties.'

'Despite the considerable homeless population known to camp inside the cemetery?'

'…they seemed to have done a great deal more camping than gardening.'"

I don't buy the interaction between Maddie and Skwarecki either. I can't imagine a real cop giving away so much information or allowing so much two-way interaction. As much as I'd love to believe a cop would worry enough to sleep over if I were threatened — especially if he's cute, ahem — it doesn't ring true.

Why is it that women can't leave a man who treats them like crap? Who treats their children like crap? I don't get that.

"A good marriage is when you know the other person will always make sure you have a place in the lifeboat."

It's an interesting tale, even if I can't stand the main character. I think it's a real-life perspective on family and living and interacting in New York.

The Story
An interest in her family's past takes Madeline out to an abandoned family cemetery — in Queens. It's what she finds in the jungle-like growth that will take Madeline on a journey through the court system as she struggles to find justice for a sweet young boy.

The Characters
Madeline "Bunny" Dare is answering phones at The Catalog, frustrated after having been a staff writer in Syracuse. Dean Dare is her six-foot, five-inch unemployed carpenter-farmboy husband frustrated over the lack of work.

Pagan Ludlam is her younger sister and assistant photo editor at The Catalog and a flatmate along with Sue, a friend from boarding school days. Trace is their half-brother living with his dad in Oahu. Mom, Constance, is "psychocompetitive on the water" and flits from man to man. Michael was one stepfather; Pierce Capwell was another, an abusive bully when the girls were young. He despised Madeline, lucky girl. Larry McCormack, retired from the nuclear energy business, is the latest.

Cate Ludlam is a newfound cousin with her own passion: clearing a long-forgotten family cemetery in Jamaica, a middle-class neighborhood in Queens. Mrs Van Nostrad was one of the searchers with the Quakers.

Astrid "Nutty Buddy" Niro-de-Barile is/was her best friend from their boarding school days. Supposedly she's from a titled background, but they clicked back then. And had each other's backs. Antonini is an Italian boyfriend who took off for Europe, so she jumped into marriage with Christoph, her new husband who owns a company in New Jersey that imports machines from Switzerland. Madeline reckons it's tragic that her friend is "the single most exquisite human being" and brilliant. Vincent Taliaferro is Dean's boss. Camilla was their snotty fellow boarding school student.

The police
Detective Jayné Skwarecki goes beyond the call of duty and cares. Officer Fergus Albie is the "babysitter" whom I don't think has been on the job for too long.

Louise Wilson Bost is an assistant district attorney for the Borough of Queens and dresses to the nines. Kyle West, is an old friend from school and a special prosecutor in Special Victims.

Teddy Underhill was three years old the day he died. Angela is Elsie's great-granddaughter and Teddy's mother. Albert Williams is the boyfriend. Dougie and Donald are his buddies, and they were raised by Teddy's great-grandmother, Elsie Underhill. Angela's mother, Alicia, Elsie's daughter, was shot to death by her boyfriend, Butchie.

Ms. Keller, an ER nurse, was Angela's neighbor in Brooklyn; she called in on a line for mandated reporters. Marty Hetzler is Angela's attorney; Galloway is Albert's. Judge Malcolm Arthur is presiding over the trial in Queens.

One example was of "Her psycho-crackhead-lawyer boyfriend Joel Steinberg beat their illegally adopted daughter Lisa … and … [Hedda] Nussbaum didn't do a thing about it…"

The Catalog is…
…a company that sells books from publishers via telephone (this is pre-Internet days and pre-cellphone!) Yong Sun, Yumiko, Tracy, and Karen are her fellow phone order-takers. Betty is the owner's ex-wife but retains enough influence to come in and slap 'em all around. I think Granta is part of the organization, but I don't know what it does.

The Cover
The cover is appropriate with its graveyard of tombstones against a backdrop of the New York skyline. I'm guessing that the overgrown jungle that practically hid the cemetery from view wasn't tidy enough for the cover. The grays, however, are very appropriate as they suit the tone of this story. One of gloom and a depressive look at family and social services.

The title is about Teddy Underhill, the Invisible Boy while he was alive and in the newspapers after he was dead.

[Cathy VanLear · Rating 2 out of 5]

First a disclosure, I have not read the previous books in this series and beginning with the 3rd book may have contributed to this review. The storyline had potential: the murder of a 3-year-old boy and the whole truth about his life and death. However, the shallow characters, stilted conversations, unrelenting “foul” language, and continuous use of recreational drugs was tiresome, disgusting, and distracting.

Although, Invisible Boy claims to be a compelling mystery, there is almost no mystery or intrigue but comes across as a courtroom drama.

Although I struggled to complete this book due to the unlikable characters and Read’s awkward writing style and crude language, I do think the storyline is interesting and has potential for a good read.

Thanks to Goodreads and Cornelia Read for the opportunity to read and write an honest review of Invisible Boy.

[Nancy H · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a a book that grabs the reader from the beginning and doesn't let go until the last page. In this story, Maddie goes with a friend to help clear an old abandoned cemetery, and finds a child's skeleton lying on top of a grave and seemingly placed there recently. So Maddie becomes friends with the policewoman who is investigating, and they are determined to find the culprit and get justice for the poor child. At the same time, there are strange things going on with another friend of Maddie's, as well as with Maddie's husband's new boss. This is a book that will keep the reader turning pages.

[Veronica Morales · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had so much hope for this book, but it fell flat. The dialogue is horrific and the characters lack depth. Read makes a sad attempt at making Maddie’s problems seems difficult, but instead makes her and her friends sound like whiny kids. Read’s political views are smeared all over this book distracting from the overall story. There’s almost no mystery in this book and the few chapters that do have mystery fail to intrigue the reader. The first 300 pages of this 418 page book fail to draw in the reader. I had to force myself to keep reading.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Madeline Dare is back and this adventure didn't resonate with me like her first two books did. This book ends up being a mostly lame courtroom drama. There are a handful of side stories that don't matter. The intrigue here is limited. The author still has a really likable character in Dare but this was not the showcase for her. Her friends are cliches and much less likable. Overall, without reading the first two books, this might have been much better but knowing there could have been more is troubling.

[Marli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great main character

This is the first book I have read by this author and I fell hard for Madeline from page one. The story was funny and sad and moving but there really was no resolution to anything. Lots of descriptive and pointless deaths, but definitely no happy ending. Loved loved loved the wedding toast!

[Heather Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. I started this series as some light/trashy reading, but this book stepped it up, packing some real emotional weight. Issues of child abuse, drug use and mental health problems are dealt with carefully and powerfully, without losing some of the lightness and wit of the narrative voice.

[Angie Noetzelmann · Rating 2 out of 5]

2/5 stars. Not sure if the writer was trying to show off, but using big words instead of every day words is very annoying. Same with foreign words. A few major grammatical errors. Everything feels left unfinished.

[Lisa Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

I FINALLY FINISHED!!!
It took forever to finish this book. I wasn’t loving it from the start and that made it easy to avoid. It wasn’t awful, just couldn’t get into it.
The last part of the book was actually a quick read, but I didn’t really like the way the book ended.

[Sandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thanks, I hated it. There's minimal mystery, none of it solved by characters on page. There's a bunch of ugly tangles that never get resolved. An awfully unsatifying read. I fored myself to finish it for resolutions that never came.