The Queen of Poisons

Title: The Queen of Poisons
Author: Robert Thorogood
Published: June 4, 2024 by Poisoned Pen Press
Format: Kindle, Paperback, 272 Pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: The Marlow Murder Club #3

First Sentence: Suzie Harris was on a mission.

Blurb: The Marlow Murder Club is on the hunt for a killer... Geoffrey Lushington, Mayor of Marlow, dies suddenly during a town council meeting. When traces of aconite―also known as the queen of poisons―are found in his coffee cup, the police realize he was murdered. But who did it? And why?

My Opinion: I was disappointed with this third book in the series. I have enjoyed the previous two books, but this book was boring, flat, and linear. Anyone who is a usual reader of mysteries knows who was responsible early on. You might not know the why, but you know the who, and it is a trudge to get to the end.

I would have preferred the subplot of Becks conflict with her mother-in-law being plumped-up since the main storyline was boring. Their conflict was the spark this book could have used more of. Truthfully, I like Becks more than Judith and Suzie and would love to see more of her.

Fans of Robert Thorogood will persevere, but if this is your first visit to Marlow, I suggest you start at the beginning of the series and get to know this trio of crime-solving ladies.

Telltale Hearts: A Public Health Doctor, His Patients, and the Power of Story

Title: Telltale Hearts: A Public Health Doctor, His Patients, and the Power of Story
Author: Dean-David Schillinger
Published: July 16, 2024 by PublicAffairs
Format: Kindle, Hardcover 368 Pages
Genre: Medical History
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

First Sentence: Prologue: At the peak of my career as a physician, modern medicine nearly killed me.

Blurb: A doctor's powerful meditation on what his patients taught him and what they can teach us about health, empathy and healing. For over four decades, Dr. Dean-David Schillinger has been a witness to the evolution of public health in America. From his days as a young, bright eyed resident to the Chief of Internal Medicine at one of the country's largest public hospitals, Schillinger has seen thousands of patients and observed how our healthcare system can both work for and against them. Yet, it wasn't insurance or improved medical tests that mattered most; it was simply listening to his patients. In Telltale Hearts, Schillinger takes readers into the exam rooms of a public hospital as he recounts his various experiences with patients and how listening to their stories, their backgrounds and more, revolutionized his own approach to medicine. In a hospital that serves mostly low income and marginalized populations, it was never just the injury or ailment that was the whole story but rather the social, political and racial circumstances that led patients to the hospital in the first place. A woman who refuses to take her pills actually cannot swallow them to begin with while another who seems to be skipping her insulin injections has a family member who is stealing them. A patient with Type 2 diabetes doesn't just suffer from high blood sugar but has consistently lived in a food desert where sugary beverages and unhealthy food were the only options. With each story and each patient, Schillinger urges us to look at how listening to patients not only can lead to better care in a hospital, but a more empathetic approach to public health in general. Written with compassion and introspection, Telltale Hearts is a moving portrait of modern medicine and an urgent call for change in how we, as a society, take care of our own. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: This book constantly went off the rails. I was expecting a narrative epidemiology to literally be the stories of the patients. Those that have been in the trenches of a bad health care system that kept them fighting for any scrap of help. Burdened by a public health care system that tries to make up for the larger well insured populace and hospitals with their shiny floors and new equipment; Dean-David Schillinger tries to tell the stories of those most effected by a myopic system.

When the author can stay focused and not branching off on his narcissistic “I” narratives, there are fascinating stories being told. The people and what their environments subject them to, tell a shocking, but then again, the reader shouldn’t be shocked, accounts of how poverty, skin color, lack of education, drug abuse, food deserts, and held captive at the whims of big business, dictate their lives.

Schillinger tried to put too many books into this one novel. Tell the public health story, tell the big business story, tell the holocaust story, just don’t tell them all within the same book all the while peppering the reader with your self-aggrandizing side stories.

Starter Villain

Title: Starter Villain
Author: John Scalzi
Published: September 19, 2023 by Tor Books
Format: Hardcover, 264 pages
Genre: Science Fiction

First Sentence: I learned about the death of my uncle Jake in a deeply unexpected way, which was from the CNBC Squawk Box morning show.

Blurb: Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place.

Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: I am not usually a science fiction fan, but I love it in a satirical format. Charlie Fitzer isn’t anyone’s idea of a superhero, but John Scalzi brings in all the villainy tropes to make him a much-loved character. A thirty-ish divorced, near penniless, substitute teacher who suddenly inherits, or so it seems his estranged uncle’s legacy. Not to mention the ire of Uncle Jake’s competitors.

It turns out that the bequeathed business includes more than just a billion-dollar parking structure. Now Charlie’s life and that of his cats, Hera and Persephone, have been turned upside down. He is at war with supervillains backed by soulless corporations and venture capitalists.

From the first pages, this novel is infused with humor and chaos. I picked up the book, knowing that science fiction was not my cup of tea, but the cover caught my attention, and I wondered if it would be reminiscent of Archer’s Cat O’Nine Tales. It isn’t, but I did not put it down until the end.

Money, power, and morality – the usual supervillain stuff – drive the pages, but Charlie’s good nature, wit, and go-with-the-flow attitude will make this book a shelf-keeper.

Westport

Title: Westport
Author: James Comey
Published: May 21, 2024 by Mysterious Press
Format: Kindle, Hardcover 351 Pages
Genre: Thriller
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Nora Carleton (#2)

First Sentence: Prologue: The sun was now fully above the horizon and Ernie Sosa could see the outline of Long Island across the Sound, which meant the best part of his day was finished.

Blurb: A red canoe sits abandoned on Seymour Rock, right where the Saugatuck River hits the Long Island Sound. The elegantly dressed corpse of a woman lies inside….

It’s been two years since Nora Carleton left the job she loved at the US Attorney’s Office to become lead counsel at Saugatuck Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund. The career change also meant a change of scenery, relocating her to Westport, Connecticut, fifty miles north of New York City. But it was worth it to get her daughter, Sophie, away from the city. Plus, she likes the people she works with. Especially Helen, who recruited Nora because of her skills as an investigator.

Then Nora's new life falls apart when a coworker is murdered and she becomes the lead suspect. Nora calls in her old colleagues from the US Attorney’s Office, Mafia investigator Benny Dugan and attorney Carmen Garcia. To clear Nora’s name, Benny and Carmen hunt for the true killer's motive, but it seems nearly everyone at Saugatuck has secrets worth killing for. As Benny sets out to interrogate her colleagues, Nora examines her history with the company to determine who set her up to take the fall. (Amazon)

My Opinion: This book grabbed me from the beginning. Finance, espionage, and murder, what more could a person ask for?

The second book in the series has Nora Carleton working at Saugatuck Associates in Westport, Connecticut, where honesty is paramount within the company. The only problem is that everyone is lying, backstabbing, and stealing. It is the reader's job to figure out the worst of the worst.

Of course, one of the players is found dead, and it looks like Nora is being set up. In comes Benny -- the best part of this series. His humor and perspective make this an enjoyable read.

When it comes to the killer, you must remember what Agatha Christie taught us -- to look hardest at the most unlikely suspect. That is who will be on your radar from the beginning, but getting to the end is a lot of who-else-could-it-be fun.

Comey weaves a lot into his books and I enjoy the ride every time.

The Witless Protection Program

Title: The Witless Protection Program
Author: Maria DiRico
Published: March 26, 2024 by Kensington
Format: Kindle, Paperback 304 Pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Catering Hall Mystery #5

First Sentence: Tavern on the Green was as lush and elegant as Mia always dreamed it would be.

Blurb: Mia Carina has steered her Italian-American family’s Astoria, Queens, catering hall, Belle View Banquet Manor, into becoming the borough’s premiere party site, and nothing could make her happier—except her boyfriend proposing. There’s just one presumed-dead obstacle in the way.

A strong, independent woman and respected entrepreneur, Mia never imagined she’d pine for a marriage proposal. Yet lately, with her beloved Shane, she’s on tenterhooks. It’s especially surprising, considering Mia’s first husband, Adam, was a philandering grifter, assumed lost-at-sea after a boating disaster. But everyone knows what happens when you assume . . .

While working a huge wedding expo in Manhattan, Mia is shocked to spot the man who nearly destroyed her life. The one who’s supposed to be sleeping with the fishes. But she loses him in the crowd. And when it happens again the next day, it’s time for an emergency meeting with the family—and the Family . Because if Adam is alive, Mia is still married . . .

Everyone wants Adam dead. Everyone except Mia. She’s dealt with enough police for a lifetime. Mia needs to be a divorcée, not a widow. But someone out there disagrees, and if Mia doesn’t discover who, she may never be free to marry Shane—or anyone else

My Opinion: “The Witless Protection Program” by Maria DiRico, the fifth and final book in the series, promised a blend of humor and mystery; unfortunately, that was not delivered. The dead body of an ex-husband, wedding planning, and a strange recluse living across the street should have rounded out the book, but by the midway point, I could not care about anyone or the escapades they found themselves in.

Just as Mia Carina gets her life back in order and a shiny new engagement ring on her finger, her supposedly deceased ex-husband, Adam Grosso, makes a sudden reappearance. No one liked Adam and what he did to Mia, and since she has ties to the Family, she is considered a suspect when Adam’s corpse is found in the alley near her home.

This book reads as though Maria DiRico seems to have gotten bored and turned her characters into cardboard characters so she could get to the end. Not much has changed about them since the first book in the Catering Hall Mysteries. While the subplots promise some interest, they often lead to redundant dead ends. Since this is the last book in the series, DiRico went overboard in tying up all the characters in an overused style.

The premise of this series drew me in; the final book, “The Witless Protection Program,” started with an engaging plot that fizzled out quickly with an absurd ending. It’s a disappointment for those who have invested in this five-book series.

Happiness Falls

Title: Happiness Falls
Author: Angie Kim
Published: August 29, 2023 by Hogarth
Format: Hardcover, 387 Pages
Genre: Fiction

First Sentence: We didn’t call the police right away.

Blurb: Those are the first words of this extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean-American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing.

Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything--which is why she isn't initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don't return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia's brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak.

What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance. Full of shocking twists and fascinating questions of love, language, race, and human connection, Happiness Falls is a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. With all the powerful storytelling she brought to her award-winning debut Miracle Creek, Angie Kim turns the missing person story into something wholly original, creating an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: This novel does not fit into one simple genre. Part mystery and then diving deeper into family dynamics, then pushes the reader into science and math all in the name of pursuing happiness.

Adam Parsons disappeared while out with his son. What complicates the finding of Adam is that his son, Eugene, does not speak and has been diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome. This might be a new term for some and like me, will open a rabbit trail on Google.

Mia, the twenty-year-old daughter, and narrator, guides the reader through the choices made -- in a bossy, snooty, and eye-rolling way -- to both protect Eugene, and to apply an hyper-analytical tone. This approach might turn off some readers who do not appreciate science, math, and footnotes in their fiction reading, or know it all characters, but combined, became surprisingly informative. The first chapter and a half may feel like you are stumbling along, but once you find your way, the complexity shines through.

Angie Kim drops subtle hints throughout the book, keeping readers on their toes. These little comments about future revelations create a much needed anticipatory quality, encouraging readers to think ahead and piece together the puzzle.

“Happiness Falls” strength lies in its first three-quarters of the book. However, some readers may find the later portions long and redundant. The narrative introduces and then skips over certain elements, leaving readers both intrigued and frustrated. It’s not a straightforward missing person story; it’s about what’s missing within the family.

The novel starts strong, blending mystery, family drama, and intellectual study. However, it may not fully satisfy everyone by the final pages.

Murder by Candlelight

Title: Murder by Candlelight
Author: Faith Martin
Published: January 4, 2024 by HQ Digital
Format: Kindle, 291 Pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

First Sentence: “Oh, hello, Mr. Swift, might I just have a quick word with you about my ghost?”

Blurb: England, 1924. After writing The Gentleman’s Guide to Ghost-Hunting for a bet, no one was more surprised to see it become a bestseller than author Arbie Swift. But when, during a ghost-hunt in the local manor house, the lady of the house is found dead, he finds it’s not a spectre he’s hunting anymore—it’s a killer… The Cotswolds, 1924. At the Old Forge in the quiet village of Maybury-in-the-Marsh a cry of anguish rings lady of the house Amy Phelps has been discovered dead. But with all the windows and doors to her room locked from inside, how – and by whom – was she killed? Arbuthnot ‘Arbie’ Swift finds himself in the unlikely position of detective. The celebrated author of The Gentleman’s Guide to Ghost-Hunting is staying at the Old Forge to investigate a suspected spectre, but now the more pressing matter of Amy’s murder falls to him too. With old friend Val, he soon uncovers a sorry tale of altered wills, secret love affairs and tragic losses – and plenty of motives for murder. When events take another sinister turn, Arbie must find the killer, fast. And to do so will mean cracking a most perfectly plotted crime. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: A cozy murder mystery set in the Cotswolds during the summer of 1924.

A forgettable closed-door mystery that had me checking page counts so I would know when this laborious slog would be over.

Arbie Swift is dared to go on a ghost-hunting mission for the local aristocrats, following the success of his book "The Gentleman's Guide to Ghost-Hunting." After the death of Amy Phelps, and the greed of her family, Arbie and Val, the daughter of the local cleric, set out to amateur sleuth their way to the end.

Involving altered wills, secret love affairs, and tragic losses -- while navigating the intricacies of village life -- Faith Martin does her best in weaving a tale that is only saved by the occasional witty banter.

The Truth About The Devlins

Title: The Truth About The Devlins
Author: Lisa Scottoline
Published: March 26, 2024 by G.P. Putnam's Sons
Format: Kindle, Hardcover 384 Pages
Genre: Thriller
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

First Sentence: At first I thought I heard him wrong.

Blurb: TJ Devlin is the charming disappointment in the prominent Devlin family, all of whom are lawyers at their highly successful firm—except him. After a stint in prison and rehab for alcoholism, TJ can’t get hired anywhere except at the firm, in a make-work job with the title of investigator.

But one night, TJ’s world turns upside down after his older brother John confesses that he just murdered one of the clients, an accountant he’d confronted with proof of embezzlement. It seems impossible coming from John, the firstborn son and Most Valuable Devlin.

TJ plunges into the investigation, seizing the chance to prove his worth and save his brother. But in no time, TJ and John find themselves entangled in a lethal web of deception and murder. TJ will fight to save his family, but what he learns might break them first.

My Opinion: It might be because I am also watching the show Succession, but there is a lot of similarity between brothers John and TJ Devlin, and Roman and Kendell Roy. The curious part is that John and TJ are meshing Roman and Kendell and switching back and forth between who is good and who is bad. Then, by the midway point, I wondered if TJ is an unreliable narrator since dear old tyrannical dad wants to put doubt into everyone’s mind, even though he does switch that up out of the blue, or if this is a giant gaslighting fever dream. Midway through the book, I was all over the place.

And then there was the Scottoline twist. A dual twist. Nope, I didn’t see that coming. It was a bit of the throw everything at the reader at once ending -- but looking back -- it was there the whole time.

The Night I Died

Title: The Night I Died
Author: Anne Frasier
Published: October 24, 2023 by Thomas & Mercer
Format: Kindle, 283 Pages
Genre: Psychological Fiction
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

First Sentence: Private investigator Olivia Welles had died five times so far in her life.

Blurb: A mother’s unthinkable crime and an investigator’s forgotten past collide in a shocking novel of suspense by Anne Frasier, the New York Times bestselling author of The Body Reader . Private detective Olivia Welles hasn’t been to her hometown since childhood, not since the night she died. She has no memory of the world before the car crash, or of coming back to life in the morgue. But now, years later, when fellow survivor Bonnie Ray calls from a Kansas jail begging for help, Olivia feels the tug of a dark and unremembered past. Bonnie looks guilty of murdering her young son—the third child to die under suspicious circumstances. Intrigued and seeking closure, Olivia agrees to investigate. Back in the foreboding town where her heart stopped and started again, Olivia finds an unexpected ally in Will LaFever, a journalist with his own motives for uncovering the truth. Together they unearth more than they expect about Bonnie, her traumatized family, and the crime. You’re lucky you don’t remember any of it, Olivia’s father used to say. But Olivia’s luck is running out. This time, escaping Finney County with her life might be impossible. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: I do not know why this book sat on my shelf for so long since I have enjoyed her Inland Empire series and knew this book would be a must-read. Frasier avoids unnecessary fillers and shines in hitting the best parts of storytelling.

The characters are broken yet resilient, fighting through their inner damage with compassion, a sense of justice, and hope. The book takes emotional twists and turns, leaving readers gasping and turning pages as quickly as possible. There were a few times I thought the book reached a logical conclusion, only to realize there was so much more to this story.

Despite a slight dip in the middle, the wild ride ultimately leads to a fabulous conclusion. If you enjoy Anne Frasier’s work or are brand new to this author, this one won’t disappoint.

Absolution

Title: Absolution
Author: Alice McDermott
Published: October 31, 2023 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Format: Hardcover, 324 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

First Sentence: There were so many cocktail parties in those days.

Blurb: In Saigon in 1963, two young American wives form a wary alliance. Tricia is a starry-eyed newlywed, married to a rising oil engineer “on loan” to US Navy Intelligence. Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse and mother of three, a talented hostess and determined altruist, on a mission to relieve the “wretchedness” she sees all around her.

When Tricia miscarries, Charlene sweeps her into a cabal of well-dressed do-gooder American wives. Armed with baskets filled with candy and toys, they descend on hospitals, orphanages, and a leper colony on the coast, determined to relieve suffering, no matter the cost.

Sixty years later, Charlene’s daughter reaches out to Tricia, now widowed and living in Washington. As the two relive their shared experience in Saigon, they are forced to come to terms with the ways their own lives have been shaped and stunted by Charlene’s pursuit of “inconsequential good.”

My Opinion: I am not a usual reader of literary fiction, but I was drawn to this book. What I found was an amalgamation of naiveté, privilege, recollection, and circumstance that will linger with me for a long while.

1960s Saigon, Patricia, an expat wife, joins a circle of women led by domineering Charlene, a force of nature that quickly scoops up all in her path and into her latest money-making scheme of charitable work. By the end of the book, I couldn’t tell if Charlene meant well or was a sociopath.

The writing is absorbing. Not in a can’t look away feel, but in an all-encompassing power dynamic and the singular focus of Charlene to save the Vietnamese people from themselves and be the Queen Bee to her blinded followers.

Told in an epistolary format, Patricia echoes her past in letters with Charlene’s daughter, Rainey. This allows the reader insight into the limitations that a woman of the ’60s faced. It will also leave you uncomfortable with the way the entitled woman acted, and after years of reflection, you can see Patricia seeking absolution.

The brilliance of this book lies in how Alice McDermott can make the reader feel both empathy and discomfort. I’m not going to say this is a quick read since I found myself putting the book down and reflecting. Quoting. Being transported to the time and place. Then trying to put myself in Patricia’s shoes and wondered what choices I would have made in the stifling times.

Three Fudges and a Baby

Title: Three Fudges and a Baby
Author: Nancy Coco
Published: March 26, 2024 by Kensington
Format: Kindle, Paperback, 336 Pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Candy-Coated Mysteries #12

First Sentence: Don't tell my boyfriend, Officer Rex Manning, but Mackinac Island might just be the love of my life.

Blurb: April is not only the start of “fudgie” season on picturesque Mackinac Island, it’s when Allie’s BFF Jenn Carpenter is due. Jenn wants to have her baby on the island, so she’s lined up a midwife and a doula. But she’s two weeks overdue—and if one more person tells her she looks ready to pop, she’s going to go bananas.

If there was a list of what not to expect when you’re expecting, right at the top would be coming upon your doula holding a gun over the body of her fiance. Clearly in shock, Hannah Riversbend claims not to have shot him. Jenn asks Ally to prove the doula’s innocence before her special delivery arrives. The clock is ticking as Ally races to solve the murder in time for Jenn’s bun to come out of the oven.

My Opinion: This cozy mystery left me feeling lukewarm. While the premise promised intrigue and fudge-filled escapades, the execution fell short of my expectations.

Allie’s knack for stumbling into murder investigations on Mackinac Island has become the centering focus of this series. This time, Jen’s doula, Hannah Riversbend, is accused of killing her boyfriend, park ranger Matthew Jones. Compounding the situation, Allie’s mother arrives, hoping to rekindle an old romance between Allie and high school sweetheart Brett Summers. With Jenn in labor and Hannah in jail, the clock is running out for Allie to prove Hannah’s innocence. When she is not sleuthing, Allie must decide if she wants to marry Rex Manning since he is becoming bossy and only mentions marriage when another man shows interest in her.

This series depends on amateur sleuthing and fudge recipes. Unfortunately, this outing felt off and is missing twists and turns. Twelve books in, and the characters read tired. Anyone coming into the series would feel a lack of interest to continue with the character’s lives. “Three Fudges and a Baby” left me wanting more complexity, surprises, and depth.

The 24th Hour

Title: The 24th Hour
Author: James Patterson, Maxine Paetro
Published: May 6, 2024 by Penguin
Format: Kindle, Hardcover 368 Pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Women's Murder Club #24

First Sentence: Six Months Earlier: I was late getting back from the men’s jail in San Bruno.

Blurb: Sergeant Lindsay Boxer, Medical Examiner Claire Washburn, Assistant District Attorney Yuki Castellano, and crime writer Cindy Thomas are celebrating at San Francisco's finest restaurant.

But before they can raise their glasses to both a birthday and a wedding, a violent assault interrupts their festivities.

Claire examines the victim. Lindsay makes an arrest. Yuki takes the case. Cindy covers it.

The case is complicated by the plaintiff's unreliable version of events - and the shocking reason behind her ever-changing memory.

As Yuki argues the toughest case of her career, Lindsay chases down a high-society killer whose target practice may leave the Women's Murder Club short a bridesmaid or two. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: The 24th Hour is a quick, easy read, lacking depth or intricate plot development, combining separate storylines—an assault (anti-climactic), ransomware (pointless), and three murders (duh). Each idea seems superficial as if they were put together just to meet page requirements and a deadline.

The conveniences within the narrative do not hold up. For instance, why would someone seeking a restroom be directed to an employee’s locker room via a staircase in a restaurant? The use of dissociative identity disorder (DID) or multiple personality disorder as a plotline feels overused and outdated. The hacker subplot ends abruptly, leaving readers unsatisfied. Similarly, the murder mystery lacks suspense—the shooter’s identity is evident early on, and the victim's backstories reveal predictable motives.

By the end of the book, I stopped caring about any of the characters. Even the members of the murder club are reading a little too singularly dimensioned and the wedding was downright boring. I'm not sure where the writing duo will head next, but it is time to step up their game.