Rewind by Catherine Ryan Howard

          3.5 Stars

As is now a fairly standard trope the story starts with a murder and then works in a timeline of events to get to it.  Although there is an awful lot of jumping around within the story between pre and post the cataclysmic event and this actually works to the tale's detriment.  It all gets very confused, very quickly and the vast cast of characters don't help.

Unfortunately, as soon as one particular is introduced you know exactly who murdered the ill-fated Natalie Marie O'Connor Kerr and you even know why.  As this happens about a third of the way through the book it sort of ruins the rest of it a little.  The huge cast doesn't help matters, especially as they all seem to get to have their point of view immortalised on the page.  I can see how this was intended to disperse and then build tension but it just wasn't taut enough to achieve this - a firmer editorial hand was required methinks.

None of the characters is particularly strong and there are A LOT of characters to get to grips with.  Some of them serve a genuine story purpose, others are there merely as padding (or so it seemed to this reader) and others are clearly there to act as red herrings.  Unfortunately, none of them really managed to capture my imagination or even break out of their two dimensional paper prison.  The nearest one was Andrew but even he became a series of cliches rather than a real person.

Focused around the disappearance of Instagram Influencer Natalie O'Connor and fledgling journalist Audrey Coghlan's attempts to investigate the reader is taken from a vibrant Dublin to the bleak coastal town of Shanamore.  The difference between the two locations is stark and does work quite well.  The settings are probably the best bit of the book and have a life that the characters simply don't have.

Ultimately, this was a somewhat disappointing read that didn't really conceal any surprises.  It does try to raise topical themes (such as The Dark Web and Influencers) but in a fairly superficial way that leave the story stranded at that Shanamore high tide line.

THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK SUPPLIED BY READERS FIRST.