I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher Faber & Faber in exchange for an honest review.
This is my first Peter Swanson book and sadly I'm left a bit wanting. Firstly, the blurb on Net Galley was slightly misleading. The one on Goodreads is clearer but there is zero ambiguity as to whether or not Hen's neighbour is a murderer. I was expecting a story centered around Hen doubting herself and trying to prove whether or not he killed someone, but instead this is predominantly about a serial killer almost befriending the one person in the world he can talk to about his murders. It is confirmed almost immediately that Matthew is a killer, and almost as quickly that Hen isn't in any danger from him.
Beyond the initial opening, there are very few thrilling things that actually happen. Rather than events, this book is squarely focused on different characters talking to each other. Normally I am into stories like that but this one was rather dull. I think ultimately the characters were too flat for it to really work for me. Hen was decent enough and I think Matthew was the best-developed out of all, but the side characters were painfully uninteresting. There was also a weird thing where practically every adult character got propositioned for extramarital sex at least once. I found it a little hard to believe that all of them had the opportunity to cheat within such a short space of time.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT THE PLOT, STOP READING NOW. PLOT STRUCTURE WILL BE REVEALED BELOW WITH NO DETAILED SPOILERS BEYOND THAT.
I am not going to go into detail with spoilers but there is something that happens near the end of this book that I 100% did not see coming and sadly, it wasn't a thing I am usually keen on. Ironically, I initially thought that something else I am not keen on was going to happen instead but for once, I thought it would have worked really well. Sadly another thriller trope I disliked turned out to be the true twist and while it did turn a mediocre book into one with a punch, I don't think it worked particularly well for the storyline. Swanson deserves kudos for genuinely surprising me in such a big way because it has been a long time since that has happened with a thriller. However, that could also be because the general plot is so straightforward that I wasn't expecting anything more from the story itself.
PLOT STRUCTURE SPOILERS OVER.
Overall, the writing for this book is strong and it could have been a lot worse than it was given how basic the driving story is. I still plan to read more from Swanson and am more hopeful for his other books, but ultimately there just wasn't enough going on here for me to love.
Overall Rating:
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