Richard Burke (1) (1963–)

Mystery/thriller about a man and his best friend, Verity, with whom he’s been in love (unrequited) for years. The story goes back and forth from their childhood and young adulthood to the present time where Verity has fallen from a cliff and crushed her skull—an apparent attempted suicide—and is now in a vegetative state with no hope of recovery, according to the medical staff. Harry can’t believe that Verity would kill herself and is determined to root out the truth. While the story is a compelling one, I figured out the solution to the mystery very early on—although that seems to happen about 90% of the time these days so that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I ultimately found Harry’s character to be quite depressing. I kept wanting to slap him upside the head; I guess I just found it hard to empathize with anyone whose self-esteem is low enough to put up with the stuff that Harry put up with over the years from his so-called ‘friends.’ The writing style was smooth and easy to read, and the author’s way of putting you right in the midst of the scene with vivid descriptions really captured and kept my attention—I now want to find that hornbeam tree and live in a treehouse there! I’ll definitely read more from this author.… (meer)