I really enjoyed the first half of this book. Cass presented as a strong and intelligent woman who had faced some tragedy in her life but been able to move on. She had little to no emotional support from either of her parents yet still grew into a compassionate and capable woman and mother.

The problems in her marriage, although supposedly subtle at first seemed glaringly obvious to me. There was a lack of respect from her husband that to me seemed apparent from the start. He gave off a general feeling of ill will and derisiveness. An insult said with a smile is still insulting, Overriding of a woman's parental authority done with an air of fun, is still disrespectful.

Towards the halfway point of the story and beyond I just found that it strained believability. I can't say much without giving away the plot but I just found it hard to believe a woman of her intelligence would make such choices, or give out personal information so easily to people she had no reason to trust. There were also some medical and safety issues with the children that if faced with in reality a person would seek immediate help. Since Cass was a journalist I would have expected her to have better sense.


I received an advance copy for review
( )

3.5 stars.

Poison by Galt Niederhoffer is an inventive domestic mystery about a woman who is being gaslighted by her husband.

At first glance, Cass and Ryan Connor have the perfect marriage. The couple relocated to a suburb of Seattle with Cass's two children from her first marriage, seven year old Pete and ten year old Alice, along with their son, two year old Sam. The children adore Ryan, who is spontaneous and playful, but Cass finds these traits a bit annoying since he sometimes disrupts the kids' routines. Ryan is the family's main breadwinner but Cass also works outside the home as a college professor. Despite their outward happy appearance, their marriage has deep cracks that widen after Cass begins to suspect Ryan is having an affair.

Cass is an award winning journalist who sometimes yearns for the career she willingly gave up to raise her children after her marriage to Ryan. She is still strongly attracted to Ryan and even after she catches him in a lie, this never changes. Cass is stunned by the sudden changes in Ryan's behavior but even in the aftermath of a shocking threat, she remains under his spell. As the tension mounts between them and her health rapidly deteriorates, Cass gradually begins to realize she has completely ignored rather unsavory aspects of Ryan's personality.

As her marriage takes a dark turn, Cass becomes more isolated and rather helpless as she becomes a victim of both Ryan and the legal system. Her judgment is seriously skewed as she puts her trust in the wrong people then makes questionable decisions that endanger not only herself but her children. With her situation becoming increasingly dire, Cass finds herself in the crosshairs of a diabolical man who will do absolutely anything to win.

While the plot is unique, Poison is a slow-moving novel that quickly becomes bogged down in long passages of wordy narration that lacks much action or dialogue. Galt Niederhoffer brilliantly highlights societal issues regarding crimes against women and how they are often victimized as they attempt to seek justice. Readers will have to suspend disbelief as the novel wends its way to a somewhat dissatisfying and abrupt conclusion that does not completely wrap up all of the dangling threads. ( )

Hang on to your seat while reading this book! I literally was on the edge of my seat with all the suspense in this one. Definitely a great psychological thriller. The plot was well written and the characters were very complex in a good way. A must read for fans of suspense fiction. ( )

While it has been marketed as a mystery you get some serious psycho-thriller, did I read that right, vibes. Every page turned brings you both closer to the truth and further from it. Additionally, the attention to detail and accuracy that the author put into the research may make it hard to read for some. Not going to lie there were a few times I tried to skim over the scientific summaries used, that I then had to go back and read because if you don't read them you'll be lost. Actually, if you skip over anything in this novel you'll be lost. This is definitely one you need to read, word for word, and possibly in one sitting. I felt the characters were thought out, but needed some smoother execution, a few instances are hard to believe if you apply normal logic to them. And based on the ending, I need a second book. ( )

This novel was presented as a literary psychological thriller, which is an interesting mix of genres. Literary fiction is typically slower-paced and focused on character development whereas psychological thrillers are fast-paced and plot-driven. The story reads like a literary fiction in terms of the language used and the amount of detail that the author provides. It also has this weird mix of pace that I never really got a handle on; it felt like it was moving slowly because of the writing style but the events themselves were happening quite rapidly. It took me aback ... and not pleasantly. I felt the pacing was very awkward and it didn't allow me to get a good sense of any of the characters. The story is told entirely from Cass's perspective, which was not an issue in itself but I found her boring. There were a lot of events happening in the book in a very random way, just to allow the author to make the conclusions she wanted to make. The entire concept behind the story was that women's accounts are dismissed quite readily by the police and by court systems. However, I don't agree with that premise 100%, and especially not when it comes to this story; no matter your gender, you have to have evidence when making accusations. I don't think that should be considered a sign of prejudice or discrimination by gender. I also didn't really get the purpose behind the crime. Why do all of this? How did so many people get involved? The ending was also very random and seemed almost too easy after all of the other things that had occurred in the story. It just all felt like a mess, what with events happening quickly and randomly while the author continues to ramble on and focus on inconsequential details, and there being no real motive or resolution to anything. Since there wasn't a single thing I liked about this story, I'm giving this a 1/5 stars.

I received this as an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )