What’s the story?:
A true-crime podcast sets a housewife’s present life on a collision course with her secret past.
The day Anna McDonald’s quiet, respectable life explodes starts off like all the days before: packing up the kids for school, making breakfast, listening to yet another true crime podcast. Then her husband comes downstairs with an announcement, and Anna is suddenly, shockingly alone.
Reeling and desperate for distraction, Anna returns to the podcast. Other people’s problems are much better than one’s own–a sunken yacht, a murdered family, a hint of international conspiracy, but this case actually is Anna’s problem. She knows one of the victims from an earlier life, a life she’s taken great pains to leave behind, and she is convinced that she knows what really happened.
Then an unexpected visitor arrives on her front stoop; a meddling neighbor intervenes; and life as Anna knows it is well and truly over. The devils of her past are awakened–and in hot pursuit. Convinced she has no other options, she goes on the run, and in pursuit of the truth, with a washed-up musician at her side and the podcast as her guide.
Review:
This book was a selection from my book stylist from Book Riots TBR box. It is a subscription box that gives you three hardcovers a month, or emails you a list of recommendations based on a quiz that you take. It is essentially Stitch Fix for book lovers. I go a subscription so I could see what it was all about and this was one of the books in my box. I had never heard of this author before and was curious to read this book because the description sounded really interesting. I was excited to start this one. I read it over the holiday season and was not disappointed.
The language that Denise Mina used was very descriptive and I found myself wanting to highlight certain lines because of the beauty of the words. She could paint a very vivid picture of what was going on and the scenery around the characters. This leads me to my next point, which is I LOVED the characters in this book. I didn’t think they were all good people, but they were very well developed. You felt their emotions and you understood their motives.
I loved the puzzle aspect of this book. I reminded me a lot of the formula of National Treasure. You had to go from one location to another, collecting information that built the story. I did not figure out the real ending until it was presented to me and I loved that I couldn’t figure it out. It is based in the UK, because the author is Scottish and again I loved that so much.
I will definitely be checking out her other books.
Rating: 