Slow, intense build-up

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This has been one of my most anticipated 2020 releases for quite a while! The cover is what first drew me in, but the blurb is what hooked me. I was very excited to see that Bookish First has a sneak peek for us to read and review, even if it’s just the first chapter.

Set entirely before the current day events I’m assuming we’ll get immediately following this chapter, we meet Alison, Claire and their parents on their family vacation in 1995. You get a good feel for the family dynamics and the mood of the trip and location at the time. Going through their holiday primarily from a young Claire’s perspective gives a competent overview of major characters, a workable timeline and leaves enough out for you to keep reading and want to fill in the blanks.

I hope this turns out to be at least in part the murder mystery that it appears. Of course there’s going to be a lot of difficult family dynamics and coping with trauma, but I do want some kind of resolution. So much of this is reminiscent of the Natalee Holloway case—missing 18 year-old American girl, one white & two non-white suspects, Caribbean island vacation—but there’s one huge difference so far: a body. I think there’s a lot of complications where Alison’s investigation can echo the real-life counterpart, but I do wish for there to be more than the Aruban shoulder shrug we got in regards to Natalee.