Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the unsolicited audio ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review.
The blurb makes this one sound really interesting, which is why I accepted the ARC from the publisher. Catherine’s mother Ruth has been newly diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, but some odd incidents lead Catherine to look into her mother’s past—their shared past—and secrets come spilling out not only regarding where her mother came from, but what her mother is doing current day, and even her medical diagnosis.
I liked this one but didn’t love it. I was always interested in what was going on, but it didn’t help that I’d already read a book very much like this one before (aside from the Alzheimer’s), SPOILERS Karin Slaughter’s Pieces of Her END SPOILERS, which did this secretive mother premise much better. I saw pretty much everything coming. It’s well done, though, despite my being frustrated at the disbelief I had to suspend, that Catherine’s mother Ruth never told her what was really going on. The reasons given just didn’t really work for me. I also think the author could have done a better job making the antagonist more fully fleshed out, not just to us as readers, but to Ruth and Catherine as well. SPOILERS Catherine spent barely any time at all with him after she realized what kind of person he really was, but she acts like she knows exactly how he will react at any given moment END SPOILERS. The ending was a bit anti-climactic, and didn’t do much for the story thematically.
I liked Kate Mara as the audiobook narrator, but she uses the same voice for both Catherine and Ruth. She could have done more to distinguish between the two first person POVs.
All in all, if you like thrillers more than I do, this is probably well worth checking out, but it’s probably not going to stick in my mind for very long.
[3.5 stars]