I remember reading Roger Ebert’s movie guide as a middle schooler (yes, I was quite popular, why do you ask? All my teachers loved talking to me. Peers? Well, won’t you look at the time.) and one sentence ruined most thrillers for me – I’m giving you an out here, because this isn’t a spoiler for this book, but pretty much any whodunit ever written or filmed – SPOILER ALERT. He wrote that nothing in a movie is introduced for no reason, and if there’s something mentioned in passing for seemingly no reason early on in a film that doesn’t come up again, it’s almost certainly pertinent to the climax. Seems obvious when you think about it, but lazy filmmakers are counting on it that you won’t. (See also: my mentioning to my dad that I liked The Outer Limits, and his responding “huh, it seems like that show is always about someone being forced to make a choice and making the wrong one” making me wonder how I hadn’t noticed that before.)
Anyway, I liked this book, but I was pretty sure I knew who the final two (victim / killer) were going to be, although it could have gone either way as to who was in which role. Which is to say, I have read too many thrillers.
That said, knowing an ending isn’t the be all end all of a book, and this was an enjoyable ride. The characters are interesting even if there are a few too many – I kept forgetting about two couples in particular – and we have some fun twists and turns. My one complaint about the writing itself rather than the plotting is one that drives me crazy about a lot of mysteries – alluding too many times to a big secret before revealing it. There’s only so many times you can read about (I’m making this one up) “that night in Monte Carlo – but no! We promised to forget about it,” before you stop caring. This isn’t the worst offender, but it’s a pet peeve of mine.
Definitely worth the read, and I’m excited to read more Foley.