David Bell's third thriller is certainly a page turner. I finished it in just one weekend afternoon. Unfortunately about two thirds of the way through I started to feel a bit of a disconnect in the narrative. On the one hand, it seemed as though a lot of logical conclusions and connections were being completely ignored. And yes, people are people so that would likely be the reality of the situation. But when Elizabeth first discovers the other Elizabeth is in the will and calling her mother's lawyer, she doesn't say a word about it to the police. She hears that a strange woman has visited her brother and upon questioning him and hearing him say it was "Elizabeth" assumes he's hallucinating or dreaming.
Obviously by having the characters overlook logical leads they could be thrown out later on to move the story forward. Sadly instead it came across as too simplified.
There also came a point where each new shocking reveal felt too far fetched. The false leads were easy to see beyond and the constant wishy washiness between Elizabeth and her boyfriend as a major part of the plot also started to grate on me. Had other pieces of the book fallen more into place, this actually wouldn't have bothered me at all. Instead, it became one more mark against Never Come Back.
It's not to say that there wasn't anything enjoyable or intriguing about Bell's latest. Obviously I was hooked enough to keep reading. It's simply that the bar is set a bit high when it comes to stories like these for me.
It's also a shame that Cemetery Girl actually sets the bar pretty high itself for this author's work. While not one of my favorite books, it's incredibly well written and quite disturbing. Overall a much better read than Never Come Back proved to be.
Rating: 2.5/5
1 comment:
Uh oh! I had high hopes for this one!
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