And So It Begins by Rachel Abbott

I just couldn't really click with this book and I don't know if it was the writing style, the story or what it was but it just didn't do "it" for me.  It doesn't help that it is described as being full of twists and turns and yet these are all flagged in the text so never really come as a surprise and you figure out what is going on fairly early on.  So much so I decided to disengage the old grey matter and just enjoy the story as it unfolded on the page rather than thinking about motives and what ifs.

My biggest problem is with the Stephanie King character.  She is purely there as a tool for us to reach the denouement.  I saw no value whatsoever in the asides to how she felt about the case, and certainly not in how she felt about her superior office.  It all felt a little spurious and a way to get the page count up.  Remove her from the book and you probably lose 50 or 60 pages and just have the core triumvirate of Mark, Cleo and Evie.  To be honest this arrangement would have suited me just fine.

The core story of the murder of Mark North and the reasons behind it are actually a really good idea and, on the whole, dealt with quite well.  The tension ratchets up nicely in the early chapters and you do wonder just what the truth is - for a brief moment.  Sadly it all starts to disintegrate a little bit as you realise that it really isn't that complex and your gut instinct from the prologue is correct.  I was all over this book initially and swept away with the whole what is truth thing but, I am sad to say, soon became fairly jaded and just wanted to get to the end to be proved right.

This is fairly standard fodder for the genre so it does pass the time without you feeling like you have completely wasted it.  Unfortunately it doesn't enthrall and force you to keep turning the page.

THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE