A Bad, Bad Thing by V.J. Chambers

2.5 Stars

Danae and Athena may be sisters but they could not be more different.  Whilst both are hard workers that is about the only thing that connects, indeed since their mother died they rarely see or talk to each other and they are happy with that.  When tragedy strikes Athena she calls on Danae to help, literally, hide the body.  Cue a series of rather peculiar occurences and flashbacks to their childhoods, strange encounters with a mysterious man who beguiles both sisters and a suspicious detective.

The thing that I really, really struggled with was how much the plot relied on nobody really giving two hoots about Athena's missing husband.  Barely a ripple is made in the supposed search for him when he goes "missing".  Then you have Danae, our main narrator, who seems to be able to fob the detective off sufficiently to keep herself from being arrested whilst clearly having some sort of breakdown through the stress and horror of it all.  honestly, nothing adds up at all about either the characters or the plot.

The best things I can say about this are that the main character, Danae, has a great voice on the page.  Her mental dissolution is well wrought and the way she hops from thought to thought is very realistic.  I also liked how things would pop in to her mind that seemed both random and innocuous at the time but would then prove to be rather important in another 30 pages.  Very strong characterisation ruined by a flimsy plot with more holes than emmental.

The author also does a great job in exposing the inner workings of a family and I did find myself wishing that there had been far more of that than the tale I did get.  Although brought up in the same home with the same parents the experience for Danae and Athena could not have been more different.  It is clear that their mother had "issues" to say the least but it was interesting to see how Danae found that her mother's behaviour clouded her perceptions of Athena.

I think that is what annoyed me so much about this book, there are some really interesting themes here that are only partially explored and done so well that they could have a carried a book on their own without all the ridiculousness.  The thriller aspects of the murder/accident, the missing body and the beguiling man (I genuinely can't remember his name - I want to say Darren but who knows?) are thin and, for this reader, did not hold water at all.