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MY REVIEW

The whole premise was intriguing one about a mother going in search for her daughter in the college town nearly two years after she went missing when an old diary had been unearthed.

The concept was great, I loved the tenacity if the mother, the sheer desperation to dig deep into facts which she had been unaware of right up to this point. I had to give it to her that some of the facts about her daughter were downright shocking, yet the mother didn’t care. She only wanted to know what happened to her on that night.

The story went into the underbelly of the town where traditions were upheld, covering the darkness underneath. There were many twists; I was completely caught in the web. But…

My niggles too caught up with me. The mother was abrasive. From her mannerisms I wouldn’t say she was a doctor, let alone a grieving mother. Characters in the book did tell me that she looked like a woman whom grief had eaten away the insides. But I didn’t get that vibe. She was quite crass at times, forgetting the basic idiom – you catch more bees with honey. And she was pure vinegar.

Some characters could be so abrasive to the point that the skin felt raw, but they had the determination of a bull dog. I was pulled into that one quality of hers. Rest of all the characters were icky and horrible.

The ending was explosive, and many, many culprits of many, many crimes came to the surface. Now that I reflected on the story, I had to admit, all the characters in the book had committed a crime in one way or the other.

I would say, time for some cosy read after this book.

MY RATING