I was sent a copy of this by Bianca and it was one of the first books I read on my holiday.
The story starts with the murder of Tracey. She gets killed whilst out jogging, and her body is discovered a few days later. She leaves behind her husband, her film maker sister Sondra, and her parents. The story follows Sondra a year after her sister’s death. She is still trying to come to terms with it and decides to make a documentary about the differences between the way black and white woman are treated when reported missing. This leads her to start to uncover what actually happend to Tracey in the months leading up to her death.
The other side of this story follows couple Philip and Paula. They are an odd couple, and you soon get the feeling that something is not right. Philip is hugely controlling, and Paula keeps herself to herself, not even mixing with the neighbours. However its not long before the cracks show and things start to get out of hand.
This was a really good book. What starts out as being a simple murder mystery and seemingly a bit run of the mill soon becomes a cross between ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ and an superb murder mystery. This was a story that kept me turning the pages to the end (well pressing the arrow button as it was on my kindle) The first part of the mystery is actually solved pretty early on in the book, however at every step just as you think things are beginning to tidy themselves up something else will happen.
The story is well written and with hindsight you can see that despite all the numerous twists and turns everything is tied up at the end which I do like in a story. I did find the main character a little annoying and wooden right at the start, however this didn’t last long and I was soon urging her to keep digging around.
I thoroughly enjoyed Bianca Sloane’s debut novel and look forward to reading her next one.
A crime readers blog 