Shoutout to BookPage, the free monthly magazine found at all my local libraries, for recommending Taylor Adams’ Hairpin Bridge. This isn’t a book I would have picked up on my own, so it was exciting to expand my horizons with new-to-me author and a darker read than I’m used to. Overall this was a well-written, taut thriller with something meaningful to say about grief. 
The story begins like all good stories – in a diner. Lena Nguyen, a loner in her twenties, is seeking closure after her twin sister Cambry’s apparent suicide. Cambry jumped from the infamous Hairpin Bridge, a notorious closed bridge that has served as the site of several unfortunate events. Lena has traveled up to the area to speak with the state trooper who tried to save Cambry, and to get some answer. They meet in the diner and then head out to the site. Lena wants to see it for herself.
Even though they were twins, a face was pretty much Lena and Cambry shared. They weren’t close as adults. Lena is a rule follower, while Cambry was a wanderer, sort of a ghost even while she was alive. She was always slipping between the cracks of society.
In a dreamlike way that reminded me of old Silent Hill games, Adams jerks the reader back and forth between the sisters’ perspectives over the last several years, ultimately leading to the present.
I think readers of Scandi noir and Hannah Morrissey, as well as viewers of shows like Broadchurch, will enjoy this book. It’s a quick read, but not a light one.
Rated 3.75/5, rounded up.
