I had never heard of this author and when I saw this book on the "new books" shelf of our towne library, I decided to check it out. It was quite good! It's a thriller and super fast paced....also an easy read but with a mature theme. The author has written historical fiction but this is her debut thriller.
STORY SUMMARY
Rebecca (Becca) Kalos is a single mom, co-parenting her twin children Maggie and Davis, with her ex-husband who has the 9 year olds just once a week for one overnight. She works full time for an advertising agency and is in charge of a team of people working on a big project. Her life is rather uncomplicated.
Until the day she discovers her best friend, Jenn, drowned in the bathtub. Becca had been babysitting for Jenn's 5 month old baby girl Ivy but when it was time for Jenn to pick up the baby, Jenn didn't arrive. Becca tries texting, calling and finally decides to go over to the house which is just down the street, to find out if Jenn is ok.
That is when she discovers that Jenn's husband Rick is not at home (even though they were supposed to leave for a boating trip at noon) and Jenn's dead corpse is in the bathtub.
When the sudden trauma begins to subside there are lingering questions: was this an accident? suicide? murder? Becca begins to unravel the secrets that Jenn kept in life....one of which was a very troubling marriage to Rick and his questionable past.
The more Becca learns, the more she is determined to get justice for Jenn's death. The details of this death are not adding up.
Meanwhile, Jenn had done some investigating of her own in the months leading up to her drowning. This was spurred on by the sudden odd behavior from her husband. Jenn, a skilled librarian and researcher, begins to dig into Rick's past.......only to discover that not only was he married twice before (he only told her about the first marriage) but both women died. Of Drowning. She also discovers that he isn't who he says he is. He has a different name for each wife......a version of the name his parents gave him. And his parents died from drowning in the ocean when Rick was just 10 years old and they were all on a boating excursion. Those deaths were determined to be accidental. But were they???
Rick is not the caring, gentle man that Jenn has been led to believe. Is he really capable of violence??
How does Becca finally solve this case? and what will happen with baby Ivy??
MY THOUGHTS
This is a good plot and fast paced story. The character development is rich and very believable.
What bugged me about this story, though, and this is the child development experience/teacher of early childhood education coming out in me, is that the author has Ivy being only 5 months old at the beginning of the book. Most of the book takes place during Jenn's pregnancy for Ivy and shortly after Ivy's birth until the drowning when Ivy is 5 months old. The author has the baby waving bye bye (very unusual at that stage....some babies will wave bye bye at 9 months...most are about 12 months when this milestone occurs. She also has Ivy pulling her self up onto a kitchen chair and cruising in Becca's house just the month after Jenn dies....again.....5 month olds cannot stand up independently until about 1 year of age although some can at 10 months. Those are details that might get overlooked by your average reader but it's those details I find bug me when they're inaccurate.
(yes babies will "stand" on your lap if you pull them up and hold onto their arms).
The main themes in this book are: friendship, marriage/divorce; single parenthood; betrayal; manipulation; motherhood; death.
I loved that each chapter was either the voice of Becca or the voice of Jenn. It's very well done seeing the present vs what led up to the drowning.
There's an interesting twist to this plot and although it made for a poignant moment between 3 of the characters, it really surprised me even though I felt like it was going to go that way. I was hoping I was wrong!
This would make a good beach read. There are several editing errors and I'm finding this to be the case in many current novels. WHY???? That automatically lowers my rating score. I find that if you hire an editor, they should be catching these mistakes. And one was in the chapter title!
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this an 8.
1 comment:
I've never seen this book. My oldest was way ahead developmentally so maybe the author also had experience with a child in her life that was ahead and wrote from that?
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