by Emily Winslow
Release Date: February 13th 2018
2018 William Morrow Paperbacks
Kindle Edition; 304 Pages
ISBN: 978-0062572585
ASIN: B071KT2S8M
Genre: Fiction / Mystery
Source: Review copy from Partners in Crime Tours
3 / 5 Stars
Summary
Just outside of Cambridge, Lilling seems like an unassuming idyllic English village, but it’s home to a dark history. In 1976, a teenage girl named Annalise Wood disappeared while riding her bike home from school. Though her body was later discovered in a shallow grave, the culprit was never found. Decades later, Annalise maintains a perverse kind of celebrity in the small town, and is still the focus of grief, speculation, and for one young woman, a disturbing, escalating jealousy.
When DNA linked to the Annalise murder unexpectedly surfaces, cold case investigator Morris Keene realizes he may now have the chance of his career. Morris and his former partner, Chloe Frohmann, hope to finally solve this perplexing mystery, and bring closure to a traumatized community. But the new evidence that should be the simple solution instead undoes the case's only certainty: the buried body that had long ago been confidently identified as Annalise may be someone else entirely, and instead of answers, the investigators face only new puzzles.
Whose body was unearthed all those years ago, and what happened to the real Annalise? Could she have had a secret child? Is someone interfering with the investigation? And is there a link to a present-day drowning with eerie connections?
My Thoughts
Look for Her is one of those books I tried really hard to like, but unfortunately, it fell a bit flat for me. It really had an interesting premise, and I was looking forward to some twists and turns as well as some interesting detective work on a cold case file.
The novel starts off in a unique way, with a transcript of a therapy session, and you really do wonder quite a bit at first what is going on, but the session also leaves you with this feeling of unease, as if something's really wrong; I really enjoyed it and thought it was a great beginning. I really did enjoy the author's writing style at the beginning as well. However, the beginning seemed to drag on and on, and when nothing really happened, it began to lose interest in the characters and the story, and there were times I actually had to re-read parts of it to keep me interested and knowledgeable. I think the author tried too hard with character development that she included too many plot twists. And while I am not opposed to plot twists, ones that don't have any bearing on the story do get annoying, especially if just thrown in to create a red herring that doesn't quite jive with the rest of the story. It really felt towards the end that while the author had a clear vision as to how she ended the novel, that vision wasn't too clear on how to get there.
I tried really hard to like the characters, but except for Frohmann and Keene, none of them really left an impression on my that was favourable. I even got annoyed with the two detectives; I have read all of the previous novels so I am familiar with their background stories, and I have to say something felt a bit off. I typically really enjoy these detectives and their stories, but found myself particularly annoyed with Keene for some reason. I know the author wrote these characters to be sketchy, and she certainly succeeded in that area as I found them to be creepy and weird. I took a particular dislike to Anna for some reason. Because the novel is told in alternating viewpoints, I couldn't wait to get back to Keene's or Frohmann's POV as they seemed the most normal of the lot; the rest just creeped me out. The different POVs certainly helped with the plot twists though, and things sort of picked up around the middle of the novel. I did however, enjoy reading the therapist's point of view as that was the most interesting. She was still dealing with her grief over her first husband even though she is remarried, and I found that story line to be quite interesting.
I do have to say that while I expected the ending, it happened in a way that was the best thing about this novel. Kudos for a great ending!!
Verdict
Look for Her had a great premise and story line that didn't unfortunately live up to itself. Sadly, the book lost its focus for me after the first few chapters, and I had a hard time refocusing on the story and the characters. What I did really find fascinating in the novel though, is the effect the media had on the murder and how it was able to keep alive the name of a girl who died for so many years. And how so many people remembered the events because of the media. I definitely thought about this as I was reading and how we remember certain people because of the media, and how others disappear into obscurity. I'm not sure if I would recommend this book to people I know who love good police procedurals, but as always, I do think you should read it for yourself and decide what you think.
As part of an ongoing series, I imagine perhaps there are times when the author's not quite up to their usual standards- or perhaps their better days are behind them. Good review.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you're saying which is why I always read the next book in the series to see what happens. As always though, the choice is up to the reader as we tend to look very differently at books - what I like, someone else may hate, what I dislike, someone else may absolutely love. You choose always choose for yourself whether to read a book.
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