4M

Any other thoughts, comments or questions about the book?

It was not my cup of tea until the fourth and final reading. Too Busy for me, great tying everything together at the end.

>2 JohnDBurke: Would totally agree, and was not the best example in the series. Enjoyed other books in the series more. Quite over complex at times and throwing in too many red herrings. I felt quite lacking on character development too. I also felt some of the detecting was weak, the detective missed key points and didn’t make links which I was SHOUTING at them! Hefernan seemed different in this book and quite weak as a detective and leader of the group, and Rachel who has come across well in other books was annoying me and very weak in the detecting role.
Can’t say I liked any of the secondary characters either, and took too long to get going in my opinion.

So overall could have been better.

I kinda liked the book but you have to read it carefully and keep a character list to keep the characters straight for sure. I liked how she tied everything together but she didn't really tell us everything until the end of the book.

>4 EadieB: Very Ann Cleeves like with how much information was held back, and by slowness of team following up information and leads.

>5 Andrew-theQM: Yes you’re right! Very much like Ann Cleeves!

I’ll agree with the above, too complex to enjoy really. I had to look to Eadie’s superb character list on several occasions.

On another subject, I’ve always said Rachel is hoping in vain for something from Wesley, but now I’m not so sure. He seems to be wavering, giving her thoughtful looks… Too many for comfort, as far as I’m concerned. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think he’ll leave Pam for her, but I think he might be tempted into a regretful one-night-stand, or maybe a short fling. (Or maybe Pam will run off with Neil?)

>7 Sergeirocks: Unfortunately I do agree about Wesley and Rachel, and possibly Pam too.

Maybe I enjoyed this more than some members because it was new to me. I liked Kate Ellis's writing style and was prepared to take the over complex plotting in my stride.
However I did find that a lot of characters were underdeveloped. Examples include Sunita and Amy. There were possibly too many characters for the author to draw effectively. She also set up situations that then petered out such as the guy who had the car accident- Toby?
The investigation was very flawed- the police all over the place as was this reader a lot of the time. And yet- I did enjoy the book despite the flaws and am encouraged by comments that others are better.
I also very much enjoyed reading all the comments and look forward to my next group read with you all.

>9 Maura49: Looking forward to reading again with you! Thanks for joining in!

Though I generally like Kate Ellis' writing, this series is always a bit slow for me and I especially struggled to get through this particular book. I think it was so convoluted that it became a chore to read as it didn't seem to be progressing. Every time I picked it up to do the reading, I got distracted.

>11 bhabeck: I agree it did become a bit of a chore to read this one.