**Many thanks to BookishFirst, Minotaur, and Alex Finlay for an ARC of this book!**
Stunning, compelling, and absolutely addictive!
First off, any book that starts with a line like "They found the bodies on a Tuesday."?
IMMEDIATELY has my undivided attention.
Finlay wastes no time plunging the reader into the middle of this scintillating mystery: the bodies of the entire Pine family have been found in a hotel room in Mexico...the entire family, that is, save for son Matt who is off at college. And then of course, there's older brother Danny: in prison for the murder of his former sweetheart Charlotte. The Pine family's story is far from private, as a Netflix documentary has thrust father Evan, mother Olivia, daughter Maggie, and even youngest son Tommy into the national spotlight. Evan Pine is desperate to clear his son's name, and will stop at nothing to exonerate him. Clever and determined Maggie is all-too-willing to help her father bring this justice to light, and mother Olivia is on guard, although she's been left in the dark by these two. In the aftermath of the murders, FBI agent Sarah Keller gets assigned to the case and informs Matt he needs to go to Mexico in order for the bodies to be released. But although Matt is as anxious to get to the bottom of the mystery as the authorities, he is keeping a few secrets of his own about the night of Charlotte's murder...like the vision of a man who looked suspiciously like his brother with a wheelbarrow across the way that he probably wasn't supposed to see. Was the perpetrator's intent to take out the rest of the Pine family in one fell swoop connected to that terrible night so many months ago? Can Matt and Agent Keller simultaneously work through the clues and tease out the connection between the crimes before Matt before the case reaches even deadlier heights?
There are so many components that take a thriller from good to outstanding, and this book had all of them in spades:
*Fantastic characters and character development : It takes a special writer to make EVERY character interesting, and Finlay is incredibly gifted in this sense. Everyone from our cast of Pines to special agent Keller to Matt's cadre of college friends and strangers he encountered in Mexico, every individual was fully fleshed out, real, and intriguing in so many ways. This only helped to enhance the narrative as a whole and allowed for multiple POVs to feel smooth, interconnected, and balanced. I loved hearing from absolutely everyone, and that is entirely rare. Not a page is wasted here!
*Multiple POVs, done right: See above. If you're going to use this device, make it worth it, and Finlay does. I was invested in absolutely EVERYONE in this story, to the extent that I almost want a sequel just because I didn't want to let these characters go!
*Eyebrow raising moments: Okay, so normally they are jaw dropping rather than eyebrow raising for me, but I counted at least FOUR times that this happened to me while reading, so I really wish I'd had the reaction cam on for that! This is the sort of thriller where the entire world falls away while you're reading it, and there is absolutely nothing I enjoy more. Some of these moments were twists, others were red herrings, but they were all brilliantly plotted and kept me desperately flipping the pages.
*Quick, punchy chapters: One of my favorite psychological thriller devices when done well, and the pacing here was perfect. Little excerpts of screenplay from the documentary are tossed in at just the right moments and there are no long expository passages here, no narrative filler. Just action, intrigue, plot, and surprisingly, a lot of heart!
*Adaptation potential: Although this isn't a necessity, the fact that this book is ripe for adaptation on either the small screen or the silver screen is a huge bonus. I could see it playing out beautifully in either format and would be first in line to see these characters fully realized and real, since I feel like I know them already!
This is the sort of thriller that actually makes you tense because of all of the adrenaline coursing through your body at any given moment, and honestly, I couldn't get enough! This was an absolute stunner of a debut, and if this is only the beginning for Finlay, the sky is the limit. I haven't given a book 5 stars since October of last year (!) and I can't think of a more deserving book than this one for my first 5 star read of 2021.
5 spectacular, shiny stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Stunning, compelling, and absolutely addictive!
First off, any book that starts with a line like "They found the bodies on a Tuesday."?
IMMEDIATELY has my undivided attention.
Finlay wastes no time plunging the reader into the middle of this scintillating mystery: the bodies of the entire Pine family have been found in a hotel room in Mexico...the entire family, that is, save for son Matt who is off at college. And then of course, there's older brother Danny: in prison for the murder of his former sweetheart Charlotte. The Pine family's story is far from private, as a Netflix documentary has thrust father Evan, mother Olivia, daughter Maggie, and even youngest son Tommy into the national spotlight. Evan Pine is desperate to clear his son's name, and will stop at nothing to exonerate him. Clever and determined Maggie is all-too-willing to help her father bring this justice to light, and mother Olivia is on guard, although she's been left in the dark by these two. In the aftermath of the murders, FBI agent Sarah Keller gets assigned to the case and informs Matt he needs to go to Mexico in order for the bodies to be released. But although Matt is as anxious to get to the bottom of the mystery as the authorities, he is keeping a few secrets of his own about the night of Charlotte's murder...like the vision of a man who looked suspiciously like his brother with a wheelbarrow across the way that he probably wasn't supposed to see. Was the perpetrator's intent to take out the rest of the Pine family in one fell swoop connected to that terrible night so many months ago? Can Matt and Agent Keller simultaneously work through the clues and tease out the connection between the crimes before Matt before the case reaches even deadlier heights?
There are so many components that take a thriller from good to outstanding, and this book had all of them in spades:
*Fantastic characters and character development : It takes a special writer to make EVERY character interesting, and Finlay is incredibly gifted in this sense. Everyone from our cast of Pines to special agent Keller to Matt's cadre of college friends and strangers he encountered in Mexico, every individual was fully fleshed out, real, and intriguing in so many ways. This only helped to enhance the narrative as a whole and allowed for multiple POVs to feel smooth, interconnected, and balanced. I loved hearing from absolutely everyone, and that is entirely rare. Not a page is wasted here!
*Multiple POVs, done right: See above. If you're going to use this device, make it worth it, and Finlay does. I was invested in absolutely EVERYONE in this story, to the extent that I almost want a sequel just because I didn't want to let these characters go!
*Eyebrow raising moments: Okay, so normally they are jaw dropping rather than eyebrow raising for me, but I counted at least FOUR times that this happened to me while reading, so I really wish I'd had the reaction cam on for that! This is the sort of thriller where the entire world falls away while you're reading it, and there is absolutely nothing I enjoy more. Some of these moments were twists, others were red herrings, but they were all brilliantly plotted and kept me desperately flipping the pages.
*Quick, punchy chapters: One of my favorite psychological thriller devices when done well, and the pacing here was perfect. Little excerpts of screenplay from the documentary are tossed in at just the right moments and there are no long expository passages here, no narrative filler. Just action, intrigue, plot, and surprisingly, a lot of heart!
*Adaptation potential: Although this isn't a necessity, the fact that this book is ripe for adaptation on either the small screen or the silver screen is a huge bonus. I could see it playing out beautifully in either format and would be first in line to see these characters fully realized and real, since I feel like I know them already!
This is the sort of thriller that actually makes you tense because of all of the adrenaline coursing through your body at any given moment, and honestly, I couldn't get enough! This was an absolute stunner of a debut, and if this is only the beginning for Finlay, the sky is the limit. I haven't given a book 5 stars since October of last year (!) and I can't think of a more deserving book than this one for my first 5 star read of 2021.
5 spectacular, shiny stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐