This is my six read by the author, which covers almost his entire oeuvre until now. It hasn’t been an even road or even an especially linear progression, after a really good first impression there were a couple of decent but mediocre ones and then it got good, like really, really good. Well above average.
And now there’s this book dragging the quality notch right back to decent but mediocre. Can’t say I’m not disappointed. Mind you, it still entertains. The pacing, the writing…all perfectly good. But the plotting is a let down. Not only is it fairly trite (that in itself is somewhat forgivable given the genre’s popularity and possibly limited amount of who killed whom and why variations), but it’s nowhere near all that clever or challenging or exciting. It essentially recycles the genre classics but ads nothing original in. Basically it’s kind of like having soup from a can and not adding any spices or extras to it…kinda sad. Especially so, because by now Carter Wilson has proven himself to be such a talented author. Even the title (and cover to some extent) is trite and recycled when compared to his previous book. So basic (and boy is it) plot involves a Yates family, wealthy, clannish, small, withholding, secretive. Just another waspy well to do family in a small New England town loaded with them. A place Yates’ youngest girl has fled as soon as she was able to, got married, had a boy, wrote a few thrillers with a small publisher which have brought her neither money nor fame and had a fairly plain life, until…well, you know, the title. Now she’s in dire financial straits and it seems as good of a time as any to come back to daddy with her tail between her legs to accept his charity she has once so vehemently refused and maybe deal with whatever it is that hangs over the Yates girls and their daddy like a dark cloud. Meanwhile back in Milwaukee, a diligent cop, a devoted son and an expectant father to be, detective Colin Pearson gets positively obsessed with the case and decides to pursue it. Between Colin’s unflagging interest and baby Yates deciding to confess her sins through fiction after two decades of silence…the pressure is on, mistakes will be made, battles fought, etc. And you might care…but you might not. Because really, it’s a lot and in a very uneven way. The narrative is split as genre does, but it’s very unbalanced, with Colin who is by far the more interesting and likeable of the two narrators getting an uneven share of the action and an overwhelming share of personal tragedy. It’s difficult not to wish this was just a Colin story. Especially once the Yates family gets into high gear with their melodramatics. Isn’t daddy Yates just so sinister? Isn’t older sister Yates just so wicked? Don’t they just have way too much money and not enough morals? Anyway, that’s how it goes. There isn’t much in the way of surprises, except one in the very end and most of it you can easily figure out. The book reads easily enough, Wilson’s a pro by now, he can probably do this in his sleep, but this isn’t what you’d hope he’d dream up, especially following up his recent work. Even the ending underwhelms when it was probably meant to delight in its ambiguity. Don’t let this be your introduction to the author. Thanks Netgalley.
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