One evening Lydia finds her favourite customer hanged between the shelves of the bookstore where she works. Stranger still he has a photo of her as a child in his pocket. Finding out that he has also left her his belongings leads to Lydia uncovering a series of complex clues that5 she must uncover to find the truth behind his death. In doing so, long buried secrets are revealed and a traumatic experience from her own past must be revisited.
This story started off with great promise, a crime mystery set in and around a bookstore seemed right up my alley. However, this didn’t really turn out to be the case. Although wholly readable, I felt the main protagonist Lydia to be somewhat irritating, always being very secretive and aloof. I assume this was the case to keep the reader guessing, but it was just frustrating and didn’t hinder me working out much of the plotline early on anyway.
I didn’t feel any empathy towards the characters and their situations, which I considered to be due to the lack of character development. I don’t think any of their emotions were clear therefore making them all seem rather wooden. None of the friendships or relationships were convincing, even those that were fraught.
While it may seem like I have just slated this novel from the off, it was a well-paced read and easy to follow. I felt no inclination at any time to give up on it, it just wasn’t what I have come to expect from this genre.
** Thanks to Random House UK, via NetGalley, for this ARC **