** 3.75 stars **
I enjoyed this mystery/crime story quite a bit.
First and foremost, it’s set in Ireland 😃 Though it’s not quite Scotland, I just love this rough island with its friendly people.
But now, to the story. As this is a plot that relies heavily on the characters this was right up my alley.
This might be a bit spoilery, depending on where you draw the line, so read this next paragraph at your own risk - otherwise jump this one 😉
I love, love, love how mostly every character mentioned is there for a reason. Nothing’s by chance. Sure, you have your typical side characters, that help shape the other characters. But most of them are so very relevant to the plot - loved it! Especially when everything started to unravel and being revealed.
The fact that I had very strong feelings about some of the characters added to my enjoyment. I’m not too sure how I feel about the fact that these grown men seemingly never outgrew their bullying stage from highschool (this type of behaviour just really grinds my gears) but I guess it’s still authentic, as I’m sure there are (and I’ve met) some people this age like this in real life.
An honorable mention goes to Jules who’s very unpleasant too. There are a few explanations but they don’t hold up to her still choosing to be this self-absorbed and self-declared boss-babe. No, don’t like her.
Since I love slowburns (not just in romance novels) this gearing up of the story was just right. Though at the end, I do think that it was a tad too long. Since we need to understand how everyone relates to everyone for it to all make sense in the end there needs to be a build up, granted.
The author brings the different strands together very neatly in the end. Though I wished for some more discussion at the end. To have it a bit more looked at and joined the other characters in their dealing with the matter. So, maybe the book wasn’t too long but there could have been some fewer pages in between that, in turn, could have been used at the end.
All in all, this was a pleasant read, and I’ll definitely check out some more of the author’s work.
