Benny and Joy are best friends who host a successful podcast about surviving weird situations. When Benny arrives at Joy’s house one morning to record their show, he finds a broken window, and Joy and her husband, Xander, missing. Benny is determined to find Joy, no matter the cost, even when the police consider him a prime suspect.
I’m not sure where I heard about this book, but I put it on my library hold list, and when it finally became available, I checked it out. I was in the mood for a mystery, so this book came along at just the right time.
That being said, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. The pacing felt a bit off, and I thought it would be more suspenseful. I never really felt that sense of urgency about finding out what happened to Joy and Xander, nor was I particularly worried that Benny might actually be a suspect in their disappearance. I guessed a few of the plot points, although there were still a couple of things that surprised me.
The book is a mix of thriller, mystery, and romance, although I thought it was very light on the romance. In fact, I’m not sure I would even call it a romance – I’ve just seen other people refer to it that way. The romance was pretty lukewarm.
The story is split between the present day, where Joy and Xander have gone missing, and excerpts from the memoir Joy has been writing. The memoir fills us in on Benny and Joy’s backstory, including how they met, started their podcast, and how their relationships with each other and their respective spouses evolved. The present-day chapters focus on Benny’s search for Joy and the investigation into her disappearance.
The ending felt a bit rushed, and everything seemed to work out a little too neatly. I still don’t completely understand why some of the characters did the things they did, but oh well. I was also kind of hoping we’d find out that Joy had ended up in a survival situation like the ones they talk about on the podcast, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
This was a perfectly fine mystery, but it just didn’t have quite the suspense or urgency I was hoping for.
There is NOTHING worse than a rushed ended. Ew