This book was just not very good. With shifting points of view in the third person and no clear understanding of what was going on until the middle of it I found myself growing increasingly bored and just grossed out at times.

We have four characters to keep track of in this book. Dani Lancing, her mother and father Patty and Jim, and Tom, Dani's boyfriend from when they were kids.

I have to say that sometimes you will come across books out there that have no sympathetic characters at all. Those are the hardest books to finish for me because you just don't care what happens to the characters and when that happens you don't have a really big incentive to finish the book. Anything you make up in your head will always be better than the ending anyway.

With regards to this book, except for the character of Jim, I ended up disliking Dani's mother and found her ex Tom beyond creepy and obsessed.

It did not help that the narrative kept jumping from the past to the present and back again and as a reader I found it to be a very long winding road trying to understand how Dani died and who was ultimately responsible for her murder. Once that was ultimately revealed I just felt annoyed by the constant 'red herrings' that were strewn about the place. The ending was just awful and it leaves you scratching your head wondering why you wasted your time reading this book.

Please note that I was provided this book for free via the Amazon Vine Program in exchange for a honest review.

 

Dear Reader,

 

 

 

This particular psychological thriller caught my eye from the "Before I Go to Sleep" reference in the blurb, a book which I really enjoyed. I find this genre can be very redundant and predictable which is why you don't find me running out to grab the "latest". I do however, LOVE a really good thriller and sometimes will take chances on them. This one was a bit of a letdown, the story itself was original but the ending left much to be desired. The main characters (Dani, Jim Lancing, Patty Lancing & Detective Tom Bevans) all had serious faults, which really elevated this book for me. The characters alone have saved this book from a lower rating.

 

 

 

The story follows these characters backward and forward through time. This is slightly hard to follow but the Author helps us by giving dates with every chapter. I noticed that some chapters moved through time as well, and this was where things started getting harder to follow. Once you got into the feel of things though, it was smooth sailing. I could see someone giving up on this book much too early because of that. Luckily, I'm used to time jumping stories and this didn't bother me enough to put the book down. As the story unravels, we see the characters start to fall apart, giving us multiple layers of personality. This made it hard to predict what was going to happen and even predict what had happened.

 

 

 

The ending, without giving it away... all I'll say is that it had the twists you'd expect a psychological thriller to have but it seemed rushed. I'm not a huge fan of mysteries and thrillers that give this HUGE reveal at the end (this always seems so rushed to me). I like when you get clues along the way and when the reveal happens, it'll bring up all those points along the way. This gives you the right as a reader to predict the ending, one of the most satisfying or shocking feelings to an excellent thriller. However, this was one story that wasn't predictable... and not in the good way. The ending was enough to keep you satiated but the Author went in a direction that took the fun out of reading this genre. I'll look forward to read something else by this Author in the future to see if this has changed. Phil Viner can write, and he can develop superb characters but the story falls a little short here.

 

 

 

So, reader... are you looking for a unique mystery/thriller? This is certainly unique.

 

 

 

Happy Reading,

 

AmberBug

 

The story is masterfully told out of sequence. We travel back 20 years when Dani was alive and then to 2010, present time. We learn and know about Dani through memory flashes. And Dani, what a surprise she is. Dani’s mother, Patty, obsessed with finding Dani’s killer, does the unthinkable. How far would a mother go for revenge? Patty sucks you in from the beginning. I could actually feel her pain and despair. The story is told from different points of view (Dani’s parents and Tom, Dani’s friend/boyfriend). We also encounter the ghost of Dani in the story, but she is not there to solve the murder or make the story paranormal. Her presence is actually a powerful touch to the story. The end was a surprise. There was a moment when Viner pointed to an obvious killer and I felt let down. However, the suspect didn’t quite fit for me and, as I kept reading, I discovered why. It turned out to be not what I thought. A series of apparently unlinked events turn out to be very related at the end. This is a totally engaging book! I hope it makes it to the best selling list of the New York Times because it deserves to be there. I can’t wait for the book to come out in Spanish to give it to my mom.

I love a good mystery but this one was, well it was not good. I found it to be slow and slightly repetitive yet as usual I wanted to find out whodunit. I also didn't like the jumping back and forth in time as I found that a little hard to follow.

Received from NetGalley

**ARC provided by Crown Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review**