For me it’s a bit hit and miss whether I’ll like this kind of murder mystery thriller novel, and this one was very much a hit (no wonder it won all kinds of awards!).
The two main protagonists, the policeman, Chief Walker, or ‘Walk’, who has lived in the same small town all his life and is very invested in all the players in the mystery, and the daughter of the murder victim, Duchess Day Radley, are both brilliantly written with such depth and interesting fleshed out characters. Duchess is feisty and bold, but also noble and optimistic, whereas Walk, though also noble and well meaning, is clouded with guilt and regret from his past.
The mystery was complex enough to keep me guessing and I saw some but not all of the twists (I’ve said before that I think that’s the ideal outcome – I can feel clever that I worked some of it out, but not annoyed that nothing surprised me) and I felt genuinely invested in the characters and moved by what happened to them.
I liked the narrator as well (even though some of the reviewers on audible didn’t) I thought he brought the words to life in a believable way and had a nice voice.
Sarah Wray Writer 