Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: free space.
Ok I will get to my thoughts about this book in a second. But…
It’s probably been talked about before by folks in other spaces but I find it notable that so many female-written thrillers are based around a woman running away from her past. Could be because of an abusive ex or parents but it is often — as it is here — about a traumatic event that occurred when they were younger.
I’m not trying to pander; we live in better times for women. But it’s still a man’s world more often than not. And so I wonder if this frequent trope in crime fiction is sort of a subconscious raising of women who wish they had different circumstances OR worked hard so they would not fall into the familiar circumstances of breadwinner husband, raising the kids, etc. Also, women do experience an obscene amount of trauma at the hands of men so it could be that as well.
At any rate, this is a cut above your standard issue “Soon to be a Netflix thriller!” adaptation. I had read Louisa Luna’s Two Girls Down during the pandemic and found it to be absolutely fine. I liked her writing and I figured she’d improve with each book. She does here; this is an entertaining suspense read that I mostly enjoyed.
If I had one beef with it: I liked two of the POVs but could have done without the third. I think the third delves too much into Caroline’s backstory and telegraphs twists that could have been otherwise seeded through the perspective of the unreliable narrator. I would’ve loved the third POV being the lead detective trying to solve the case and sussing out what she knows about Caroline, which is more than Caroline thinks.
But other than that, this was fun and it shows that Louisa Luna is really earning her place in popular crime fiction.