Gayle Curtis

The story was good, the mystery was strong, I wanted to keep reading and discover the resolution. However, it was like watching a scary movie on TV with commercials, broken up, losing the necessary tension and flow to maintain the delicious suspense. Just when I was getting into something, it would rip me out and put me somewhere else, leaving me discombobulated and frustrated. Perhaps this was the effect the author was trying to achieve, in which case, she was successful.

Gayle has a talent with description, one could easily see the dreary English landscape through the familiar gray-blue filter. The stress throughout the novel was palpable, the grief was tangible. It left you clawing for the surface, desperate for the air of your own reality. You know someone is a great writer when they affect your mood, either good or bad. Each character was laden with secrets that wove together an extremely rich and complex novel. I could relate to the mothers and their despondency over failure, vacillating between whether you were helping or harming your child by being present, if they were better off without you. There was the tiniest feeling of hope, enough to make you think that things may turn out okay.

My overall takeaway was that this story starts out good, ends well, but can become disjointed in the middle, but I look forward to reading more of Gayle’s work in the future.… (meer)

This book had the potentional to be great, following around the characters of a small town as they come to grips with the death of a child and the disapperance of another. However, most of these characters were selfish and unlikeable and I had a hard time getting into and following this book. It was hard to keep up with all the drama going on and it just became an absolute cluttered mess... who's covering what terrible secrets and who is bonking who.
The ending what absolutely horrible with no real sense of closure. I finished this book thinking "What did I just read"? Thank you NetGalley, but this one was not for me.… (meer)

Two problems with this book - it jumps back and forth over in at least three time frames with different sets of characters. I got lost trying to follow who/when/where/what.

The other problem - I couldn't accept a woman who HATES her louse of a husband staying quiet and staying with him after she figures out he's a child serial killer.

I was 25% of the way through, knew I was tired and that maybe I could figure it out in the morning, but then realized I didn't care enough to try.

Two stars because it's evident that the writing talent is there. Ms. Curtis can do 'creepy' scenes quite well, but the two problems just wouldn't let me continue.… (meer)