2008-09-22 Starts out well but then starts to drag a bit ...

I love the books Nicci writes with her husband Sean French and I really enjoyed her other solo books as well - especially 'Solace' which is one of my favourite books ever. However I was slightly disappointed in this one. As others have noted it starts out really well but for me it lost it's way somewhere towards the middle once the secret is revealed. Everything is just a little too easily resolved and the ending is just too cosy. It is also full of filler chapters - such as the one where Connor is comforted by a bag lady and another where Ethan meets another friendly stranger who offers him words of wisdom, when he is obsessing over his friend's girlfriend, at which point I just started to skip ahead to get on with the real story. Worst of all the most interesting issue in the book - what led two seemingly loyal and reliable characters to betray their wife/best friend/partner is just glossed over. I kept expecting a flashback to explain what happened but it never came. With another writer I would have given this a four but this just isn't up to the standard of Gerrard's best work ...