The morning after her latest book is published, famous author Clare Collins is found dead on the beach from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Clare’s sister Eileen is shocked and doesn’t know what to think. Why would Clare kill herself? Eileen sets out to figure out why her sister would commit suicide and in the process uncovers a secret that Clare doesn’t want anyone to know.
This is Rebecca Taylor’s debut book. I found the story to be interesting but it wasn’t necessarily compelling. I’m struggling to figure out the genre of this book. I’m not sure I would call it a thriller because I never got that sense of suspense or anticipation and it never seemed like the stakes were that high. I guess you could call it women’s fiction (even though I hate those words), but I struggle with that term as well. This isn’t a romance, it’s just kind of a mystery/thriller, and I guess the ending was hopeful.
Eileen does go through a barrage of emotions and personal growth. She’s dealing with changes in her personal relationship with her husband, as well as with the death of her sister. I liked the character although I was not a fan of her actions in the first half of the novel, especially the heavy drinking to the point of blacking out/not remembering what happened the next day. I felt that it made her seem juvenile, which was not where I thought the character should be going.
That being said, I did think the second half of the novel was more interesting than the first, just because at that point, we were really digging into the characters’ lives. The story is told from the point of view of both Clare and Eileen and it skips around in time. Clare’s parts include snippets from high school up to the years leading to her death while Eileen’s parts are told in the present time after Clare has died.
There are some content warnings for this book – it touches on a lot of difficult topics including suicide, infidelity, death of a pet, and dementia. I also was left with some questions that didn’t get answered but I mainly want to know if Clare went to her high school reunion.
I enjoyed this book. I just didn’t find it especially captivating.
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