Z’s Reviews > The Body Below > Status Update

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)

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