Status Updates From The Body Below

TLDR

A slow-paced mystery about forgiveness and regret, characters are more the focus than the plot and how the past haunts us

3.5* round to 3 b/c the length got to me for what was happening and what we learned, it just seemed too long and I got bored

-ending had a little too many like huh? Mason covering for his wife ok? and then wiling to murder in cold blood his friend...Huh?
-I liked Conn interviewing ppl in his sister’s life but he wasn’t really learning about her but just what she was up to w the case against her manager, I think I wanted more regret/acceptance/mourning of her passing
-Celine was well-written but themed-convo psych term drops was too much

I never got much from Conn and the switch to Celine was abrupt. I appreciated her take on things due to her educational background, but sometimes it was too in your face to be taken seriously

+character-driven
+eerie opener
+nail-biting stand off

I thought he’d be more affected knowing once and for all his sister is dead

But, to be fair I got pretty bored in the middle and honestly saw like 6 hours left tin the audiobook and was overwhelmed with desire to DNF. Not because it was badly written, it just wasn't hooking me in the way I wanted. So, it's fair to say I probably missed many details throughout that time

This was looooong. It had a great opener and then slowed dramatically. It focused on the main characters and one we never even meet, Laurel now Trudy. I liked her haunting of the narrative but I could have used more interactions with Conn and his sister, even in the past. He only remembered miss chances and when uncovering her life before death, it didn’t come across as personal to me.

Also, the unknown blood on the knife was Mason’s wife, her motorcycle tire marks were also in the flatbed of Shapiro’s truck…so did Mason confess to cover her murder of Laurel?

But when conn said he thinks he touched a body in the reservoir he had to remove it, and when he said the bike was weird he had to remove that too

Conn manages to escape into the lake, Mason takes boat out trying to shoot him in the water, cop gets there in time shoots Mason who falls in, Connie doesn’t want to grab him but he says dog what you think is right (it’s hinted that he keeps him underwater)

Her coworkers said she was on pto camping (place they used to go together, so he thought it was a sign) but he saw her there and she said no. He took out his hunting knife in rage and killed her then dumped the body (cuz his sperm was on her) Shapiro was walking along the trail so he had to get rid of him too

Mason shows up armed, turns out their differing childhoods caused a lot of problems between him and Laurel, she had too many opinions he hit her and she cheated on him, he felt inadequate cuz his sperm sucked they couldn’t get pregnant, he stalked her at work, bought her a brand new mountain bike

Conn speaks to the lawyer, says Laurel asked about restraining orders, some guy would wait for her outside work, damaged her bike

Conn doesn’t want to believe it’s Mason, but the only person who knew that he found Laurels body in the reservoir was him, by the time he told police the body was gone

He goes to masons cabin and in the garage finds Shapiro’s truck, broken down. He’s disposing of it in the lake

And that Conn at the time ignored her while he was working in the big city

There’s a fire in the town that sets aflame the office of the lawyer helping Laurel build her case, homeless man dies, he’s ID’d by beer cans near him with both his DNA and the managers

They look at his time sheet and murder occurred on day he took a personal day

Conn meets w police from NH where managers wife died, she fell from the stairs and it’s being investigated as staged murder

Tornado, their drug dealer as teens, warns Conn from suspecting him, (he did time after Laurel testified against him then got out she gets murdered) trying to start his life again and her testimony was a plea deal to reduce his sentence, they dated and he said her husband beat her … Mason

She thinks about the obsessive love penny had for Shapiro and Shapiro had for laurel that in putting your object of affection on a pedestal you objectify them, they now can be owned

Detectives visit and say not only is her bike and laptop missing but her filing cabinet is empty

They investigate her mailbox and find the earliest dates as mid July but she went missing end of June, so someone emptied her mailbox

Conn wants to ask Laurels daughters about her new bf but Celine stops him saying he need to be an uncle and not feed into their fears, instead she suggests asking his boss to start an expose on sexual misconduct and possible company issue at the job

Celine’s checks on Mason, admits to him she was visiting Shapiro’s wife and then she went AWOL. Sofia if she shouldn’t blame herself than neither should he blame himself

He meets with the other coworker who confirms that the manager preyed on women who needed the job and couldn’t risk being fired, and that he looked thru their lockers so might have seen Laurels files on the managers acts

Celine did a criminal record check, found out one of his divorces is sealed record (despite being publicly available) so it’s sealed for a reason

Conn is desperate to find out who Laurel was, reminiscing on her as a child and where he left off after their estrangement

The coworker doesn’t know who Laurel’s current bf was and says to talk to other coworker Gale

Police keep him updated, Shapiro was stabbed w large hunting knife that had His blood, Laurel’s and one unknown. They warn him from doing his own investigation

Conn is desperate to find out who Laurel was, reminiscing on her as a child and where he left off after their estrangement

He meets w one of her co-workers to ask about the manager hitting on her, but she is reluctant to talk about, may be a victim of it herself

Next day the wife holds the affair up at the grocery store at gun point and when Mason doesn’t draw his weapon as is protocol, he tries to diffuse w a friendly face and she shoots the woman dead and the remaining cops shoot the wife after, she’s in critical condition. Mason has guilt and is being under review for his lack of weapon draw

Celine is torn cuz she can’t mention one of Shapiro’s affair attacked his wife (was told in confidence) but the wife can so she urges the wife to come forward cuz maybe the spurned affair killed Shapiro or hurt Laurel

They get a tip that a body was found at the dump, it’s Shapiro!

Cops come to kinda warn them off the investigation, Mason comes by to say that he overheard the cops at work and Conn is suspect, and they’ve had tips coming in saying Laurel is alive

Conn asks around and some local shop worker says Shapiro is not the greatest guy but wouldn’t murder, he was trying to turn a new leaf for laurel taking college courses and not smoking, she also mentioned that laurel started cross fit… so somewhere along the way both siblings sought solace in fitness to come back from their darker deeds

Her CrossFit instructor confirms Laurel’s manager was hitting on her

Celine calls Mason for advice on how to talk about the assault without giving up her source, she finds Penny at her job and gets her license #

Conn goes to see the psychic Estelle that his mom saw was when they were kids, he asks her where can he find his sister and she just points to his head, so now he knows she’s dead

Shapiro, the bf, had an affair with Laurel and his daughter Gracie was a student client of Celine’s

Celine speaks to his wife, he had many affairs and one came after her, Penny. Despite the moral quandary she wants to tell Conn inc the woman came for laurel too (she likens it to when the town constable once took justice into his own hands killing a man who beat his wife, innocent by public opinion but broke the law)

He met his fiancé Celine a child psychologist 2 years ago, a widow w injured fingers from a car crash, she reads him to filth when they argue about “truth” how sometimes things are true to ppl even if not explicitly true

She told Conn that him being in her life allowed tolerating remembering the good things about her late husband, and she wants to do the same for him. Oh I like this

They find healthy food, expensive mountain bike and part of a tent that is the same color as the body wrapped in the reservoir

Possible suspects are her bf, her ex druggie bf who she testified against and got out a few months ago

Police start to search the reservoir

Conn meets his sisters kids, uses present tense

he contacts in the plice tell him she was planning a camping trip, her bf had a record, foster care reaches out if he would be willing to take care of her 2 kids

Because she is only missing, they couldn’t get a warrant for her house based on murder so got one for child endangerment instead

Conn asks Laurel’s ex husband Mason a cop to help search the house for any clues to her whereabouts

Conn is a retired investigative reporter who swims lakes (creepy, nope) and one day while swimming across a reservoir his leg brushes against what he thinks is a body but out of fear convinces himself it’s not

A couple towns over a woman is missing and he gets a call that it’s his sister estranged for 5 years, both having issues for him it was sobriety