Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes
I am always for the next favorite murder/mystery author. This is a debut, so I was excited about that, as you never know what to expect!
Not a bad effort for a first book, as I did finish it despite my lack of attention / time / energy right now (33w today!) but I think there are some room for improvements.
1) The prologue gave too much away, probably can do without
2) The beginning was a little confusing since the timeline jumped all over the place, with different people. Though once you get into it, it's mainly between 2003/2004 and 2007, and you get a better sense of who the people were.
3) At almost 400 pages long (ARC copy anyway), it dragged on a bit too much and some editing would probably make the story moved faster
4) The characters were okay, not really memorable [SPOILER] - with Cathrine's OCD, I was surprised at how fast she recovered once she started seeing the psychiatrist Alastair? I mean, she went from not wanting to go out and having panic attacks with just the thought of Lee, to totally almost confronting him after just a couple of sessions?! Also, I kept waiting for Stuart to be a bad guy... he just seemed to good to be true? [/SPOILER]
5) The ending almost seemed a bit anti-climatic...
The story did make you want to keep reading to find out what happened, to see who's telling the truth, so that's always a great start :)
3 Stars out of 5.
Note - An ARC was given to me by HarperCollins, in exchange for an unbiased review.
All reviews and posts are copyrighted by Christa @ Mental Foodie. Please do not use or reprint them without written permission.
Posts
Sounds like a good try for sure, overall better execution but the mystery element seemed to have worked.
ReplyDeleteI'm always on the lookout for new authors too and love to try debut novels. It's like you can jump on the bandwagon from the very beginning :)
ReplyDelete