Domestic drama that features an obsessed woman, Alice, trying to find out who murdered the woman who used to live in the house that Alice and Leo now occupy. Everyone in the gated community, known as The Circle, comes under her scrutiny and suspicion. The story goes that Oliver killed his wife, Nina, because of an affair. The neighbors all believe it but Alice is convinced that things aren't adding up especially when she finds that Oliver committed suicide. When she's contacted by a private investigator hired by Oliver's ailing sister, she steps up her amateur sleuthing (snooping) and finds she can trust no one in the neighborhood.
Oh wow, what a total disappointment this was as it bordered mostly on the completely ridiculous. Alice was unlikable as the protagonist and much of the narrative drones on about her banal interactions with all those people she knows. The plot seemed to go nowhere for the majority of the book and didn't really pick up until near the end when a massive twist is meant to bring the tale to a satisfying conclusion. As predictable as this was, in retrospect, the whole novel was a struggle to get through because of my feelings about Alice's emotions and activities. At several points while reading, I had to scoff out loud at how ludicrous Alice acted about Leo's transgressions when she was such a secretive liar herself. I forced myself to finish but I certainly wouldn't recommend this to my friends.
I am not sure why I picked this up because, after I looked over my previous reviews of books by this author, I have found them pretty unspectacular after "Behind Closed Doors". I think I'm done.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for granting access to this title for review.
This is a standalone and is not part of any series.
Genre - domestic drama
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