Settling on 3.5 stars for this one, rounded down. The second half of the book was more engaging/enjoyable for me, as by that point I had started to feel more than irritation for the characters, and the plot unraveling was sort of cool. But it also lost me a little at the end, because one of the main twists/reveals does not make sense!
The book follows Kelly Lund, who in 1980 at the age of seventeen was convicted of the murder of famous film director John McFadden. After spending twenty-five years in prison, she is released. The book picks up five years after that, when she is implicated in the murder of another famous Hollywood icon, this time her father-in-law, beloved movie actor Sterling Marshall, and once John McFadden’s best friend.
The book is told in two timelines, mostly from Kelly’s POV. The first POV is from several months prior to the first murder, and the second starts as Kelly is driving home from the crime scene of the second. The plot is pretty twisty, and the twists were genuinely surprising for the most part. My problem is that one of them, the biggest one that the entire plot was based on, doesn’t hold water.
SPOILERS We find out that Kelly and her dead twin sister Catherine were the secret children of Sterling Marshall. Less than a handful of people knew the truth, and Marshall never told anyone—not his own children with his wife, not the twins, and not his wife. Not even when—and let me emphasize this—his son Shane fell in love with Kelly, his half-sister, and they decided to get married. I mean (!!!!!). Tell your fucking kids not to marry each other because they’re related! Instead, he tells Kelly never to have children with Shane or else, and forces her to get an abortion of the baby they conceived during conjugal visits. Also, conveniently, even though neither Shane nor Kelly know they are siblings, they do not have sex except for three times, all while Kelly was in prison. This is written off as “they must have known somehow deep down.” Um, all right. First of all, birth control, there is a lot of it. Second, you’re going with an incest twist and you can’t even commit? END SPOILERS. Also, the flashbacks were kind of a slog to read. I much preferred reading the scenes set in the present day.
I don’t know if I will be reading any more of this author’s books. There’s so many books out there I could love, and I didn’t love this one, but never say never I guess.
[3.5 stars]
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