On a Mystery novel kick. This book was recommended by a coworker, and they did not disappoint. Triptych by Karin Slaughter is a solid, well written, book. That’s the headline.Spoilers ahead.
This book actually took me for a ride, as it utilizes something I don’t really see in mystery novels very often, which is telling the story from multiple view points. But then it does a second unique thing, which is, not let you in on the full thoughts of the first person view.
This book also does a good deal of switching between time lines and perspectives. If I didn’t know who the MC was going into it, I would’ve been thrown.
The mystery is kinda plainly obvious throughout the entire thing. This is less of a whodunnit and closer to a howcatchem.
There are some, I hesitate to call it, bad writing choices? But I can’t figure out if they are choices, or mistakes. For example (spoilers) in the first few chapters, you have Michael go over to Cynthia’s and sleep with her, and then when she dies you learn her age. I actually had to do a double take and flip back because at no point in the first interaction did they mention that Cynthia was 15. I checked.
It’s also a really hard thing to do, write a book where the murderer is 1) someone you did a viewpoint from 2) a cop and 3) involved in the case. Those kind of, Dexter-esque things we usually see from the Dexter side of things.
Things I liked: Spent part 1 from the murderers view point. Supporting cast (including one shot characters) are well written. All the Chekov guns get shot.
Things I didn’t like: Constantly rechecking to see if I missed something, or if it wasn’t there in the first place (see, 15yo).
Things I will do: Read the other 10 books in this series (Will Trent makes a fun compelling detective to follow) and also watch the TV show which I learned is still ongoing.