HarperCollins | 2 February 2023 | 336 pgs
Source: Library
Isabelle Drake's world has turned upside down ever since her young son, Mason, disappeared from his bedroom a year ago. With no clue and evidence, the police have stopped looking and even her husband, Ben, wants her to move on and keep herself together. Isabelle has a tendency of sleepwalking during her childhood days and while the issue seems to have stopped as she gets older, she couldn't help but to think if she's responsible for Mason's disappearance. After all, she has a traumatic past after the passing of her younger sister and she's not sure if she has fully healed from that unfortunate incident.
Despite everything, she has not given up on searching for Mason so she decided to take things into her own hands by holding talks and eventually allowing herself to be interviewed by a true crime podcaster named Waylon Spencer even though she isn't keen of this idea in the beginning. But Waylon had solved a cold case before and Isabelle is interested to see how he could assist her if they decided to work together. However, Waylon seems to have motives of his own and as Isabelle continues to be troubled by her insomnia in connection to her past, she isn't sure what and who to trust anymore, including herself.
I enjoyed the twisty ending, but the journey to the end was long and a slow one. Don't get me wrong, I love a slowburn thriller, but there wasn't much to hold my attention in the first three quarters of the book and truth be told, I wasn't enamoured by Isabelle’s constant whining and her reckless behaviours (e.g. why did she invite Waylon to stay with her? He may be her working partner, but she's all alone at home and he was still an outsider after all.) The writing was great but too wordy and poetic for a suspense thriller (perhaps it's only me). That said, many Goodread readers loved this book so please do not let my opinions deter you from reading it.
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Melody, I read this one earlier this year and went back to see what I shared about it. I notice that I did a summary of the story, but didn't say much about my personal thoughts. Actually, I think they were similar to yours. I liked it and I think this author is quite talented, but....still waiting for a book of hers to totally blow me away. I bet it's coming. LOL
The beginning of this one sounds a bit too slow for me. At least you liked the twisty ending. :-)
Kay - I've heard that her other book, A Flicker in the Dark, is good. Maybe I'll try reading that one day.
Lark - I'm glad I continued reading or else I'd have missed the ending. :) Hopefully her next book will be a more pacey one.
Hi Melody, This sounds like an author I'd been willing to try. How have you been?I'm sure I've missed plenty on your blog these last months but, I can see again - Thank Goodness . I finally did a blog post with an update and some summer picks; have a good summer.https://bibliophilebythesea.blogspot.com/2023/05/its-been-while-bit-of-life-and-books.html
Diane - Hi Diane! I'm so happy to hear from you! I just commented on your latest blog post and learned about your eye condition. I'm glad that your vision has restored. Well, you take care and I look forward to reading more of your posts! :)