Grace Neville's daughter, Tara, was stabbed to death in a seedy hotel and the man responsible is behind bars. It's over, time to move on -- except that convicted Jordan Dukes' father, Allan, appears at Grace's door claiming that his son -- Tara's boyfriend -- is not the one who murdered Tara. It appears that both Grace and Allan are "victims of their children's bad choices" and soon they are both caught up in trying to figure out who really killed Tara, and why.
This was a very convoluted mystery involving many red herrings as "Tara's dirty secret" is finally discovered and outed. There are many characters, some more believable and complicated than others, and the revelations were a bit of a let down and somewhat "out there" as the narrative winds down at the conclusion. Definitely a domestic drama more than a suspense thriller, it held my interest well enough and I think it would be hard for anyone to make a good guess about the whodunit. Grace is, of course, completely undone by the death of her daughter and Grace's ex, Archie, who left her for another woman, is sorta creepy and doesn't follow along with Grace's conviction that the wrong man is in prison. The police are not portrayed very well.
In all, this was not pulse pounding but kept me guessing. It always comes back to the truth, we do not really know ANYONE - despite our firmly held idea that we should know our own children inside and out. I did like some of the quotes in the book well enough to cite another: "There are so many countless ways that Fate can snap its fingers...all those desperately sad yet banal and everyday packages of pain that life has in store for the unwary."
Thank you to NetGalley and Midnight Ink for this e-book ARC to review.
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