For the second time, I’ve liked the premise of this author’s book more than I enjoyed the book itself, and especially the ultimate conclusion. I like the writing itself and I want to find out what happens just because I always want to find out what happens, but it felt like the big twists in this book were almost too big and random and ultimately didn’t make much sense.
Mariana Andros, a group therapist, is still in shock and mourning from her young husband’s untimely death, when she is summoned to Cambridge University by her niece Zoe whose best friend was found brutally murdered. When Mariana arrives, she is immediately suspicious of Edward Fosca, popular and charming Greek tragedy professor and Zoe’s academic advisor, who surrounds himself with a group of beautiful, wealthy students, which included the murdered girl, and she will do everything she can to make sure he’s held responsible.
The idea of this book was fine, but it was totally unrealistic for Mariana to insert herself into the investigation as she did, and while it made sense that she wanted to protect Zoe, it would have been more practical to insist that she return home with Mariana instead of trying to prove she was so much better than all the professionals who were running the investigation.
I did get excited by the nod to The Silent Patient since it was nice to be part of the inside joke/reference, and I’ll give any book set at Cambridge a chance, but otherwise, I wasn’t really rooting for any of these characters. Mariana, especially, wasn’t very believable. She supposedly graduated from Cambridge and became a successful therapist, but she just doesn’t come across as intelligent or savvy enough to make any of this realistic. And Zoe was just a strange character, as was Edward Fosca, who knew he was being accused of murder, but didn’t really take any of it too seriously, maybe because no one would actually take Mariana’s unfounded allegations seriously anyway.
Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.