Category: Mystery/Thriller

Zero Days

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Author: Ruth Ware
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Pub. Date: Jun. 2023

Should I give up on Ruth Ware? She writes reliably good 3-star reads, but I can’t remember the last time she wrote something that I truly loved. I feel like maybe it’s time to part ways, but I kind of doubt I will. I’ve said this a million times, but her books are very readable. The only one I really struggled with was “The It Girl“, which I found super boring. You definitely could not say Zero Days was boring. The entire book is a high speed car wreck and it had me in a choke hold for 3 days (despite not loving it).

Zero Days is about a couple, Jack and Gabe, who do penetration testing for companies, which means that Jack attempts to physically break into the building to steal data, while Gabe attempts to hack the company. It’s all done in the name of helping companies to improve their security. Everything is good until Jack arrives home one night to find that Gabe has been killed and the police have their sights set on her as the culprit.

This evolves into an action packed police chase as Jack tries to evade the police long enough to get real answers about Gabe’s death. It’s hard to put down because Jack is constantly on the move, which I thought made it a bit more of a thriller than a mystery. The reason I didn’t like it is because the chase does get repetitive and I don’t think this book actually had a strong enough plot or mystery element to sustain it.

Jack is constantly on the run, which moves the story forward, but it doesn’t actually take her that long to develop a solid hypothesis on what happened to her husband. The problem is, she doesn’t have a shred of proof, so the book is more about her trying to get proof rather than actually solve the mystery. It created a lot of action, but it wasn’t overly compelling. Jack becomes injured early on and it’s hard to suspend disbelief that she’d be able to keep going with no bed, money, or healthcare for so long. There’s only so many ways to describe her pain and it got a bit derivative.

Add that to the fact that Jack is grieving. She has just lost her husband to a very violent death and while Ware does continuously remind us of that, it lacked any depth. I believed that Jack could keep going because she was pretty much running on pure adrenaline and avoidance from her grief, but I felt like it was a missed opportunity to look critically at grief and love. We’re constantly reminded of how much Jack loves Gabe and how shocked she is that he isn’t in her life anymore, but I feel like grief is a lot more nuanced than that I would have loved for Ware to show us.

I didn’t feel much connection to Gabe because we don’t really ever learn anything meaningful about him. Why did he go to prison? How did that impact him? How did Gabe and Jack fall in love? Has his past ever gotten in the way of that love? How did he help Jack heal from her previous abusive relationship and the loss of her parents? I feel like there was so much opportunity for meaningful flashbacks here instead of mindlessly running around avoiding the police (especially since the mystery element was so light). Show me more of their love story – make me fall in love with Jack and Gabe too because then every time the story returns to the present the reader would get this painful reminder that this man is no longer living.

I feel like all the bones were there for a really thoughtful story, but Ware only ever uses any of these elements for shock value. I felt like she was just asking, “how tragic can I make this character?” and I absolutely despise when authors use trauma for drama. Trauma and grief are relatable concepts for a lot of people and I wish authors would commit to the real lasting impact those things have on a character rather than just using it as stock filler to try and manipulate your audience into feeling bad for them.

The only thing I really liked about this book was Hel. I thought she was a great character and I liked that she’s never presented as a suspect. She’s the one reliable person in Jack’s life and I felt like this relationship was included to highlight the real importance of sisterhood rather than to try and confuse or trick the reader. I felt that Hel was a safe space and that she highlights the impact that having a reliable safe space can have on a personal’s mental health. You can’t trust anyone else, but you can trust your sister. I felt more love between these two than I did between Gabe and Jack.

Anyways, it’s a 3-star read from me. There’s no real depth here, but if you want a high paced thriller for a bit of escapism, look no further. The audiobook was pretty well done, but the repetitiveness of the writing definitely shines through in that format.

Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5
Author: Elle Cosimano
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Pub. Date: Jan. 2023

I’m a huge fan of the Finlay Donovan series. It’s an outlandish mystery series featuring a single mom turned accidental contract killer. Everything that happens is over the top and requires a certain amount of disbelief, but it’s a lot of fun and never takes itself too seriously.

The first book is definitely my favourite, but the second book was a lot of fun as well. Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun is the 3rd book in the series, but it didn’t feel as anchored as the other books and I found myself questioning at what point this mystery and the out-of-control antics will ever start to become too much?

The first book has closure and is easy to read as a standalone, whereas the third book felt like more of a direct continuation of the second book. I couldn’t remember a lot of details from the second book, but the further you read, the more convoluted the story becomes and it does finally start to enter into the territory of just not believable. Finlay and Vero really push the limits and I thought they were needlessly sloppy in this book. We do get resolution on some of the story points at the end, but we’re immediately propelled into what will form the basis for the fourth book. The longer things go with the same continuing storyline, the harder it is to suspend disbelief that they won’t get caught. It’s easy to see how mistakes can get made and evidence overlooked on one or two occasions, but Finlay is at the center of so much crime that I can only assume at some point she’s going to have a crooked cop working for her.

Which brings me to my next point – I didn’t like the setting of this book. The idea of a citizen’s police academy is just a bizarre concept for me. Is this something they actually do in America? What is the motivation? It seemed like a contrived concept for Cosimano to force all her characters into close proximity, but I couldn’t fathom why such a thing would even exist. The reasoning for Finlay and Vero attending was also weak and felt akin to lighting a cigarette at a gas station. I think the idea could have worked for a portion of the story, like Finlay and Vero attend a 1-2 day workshop with police to try and collect intel, but setting the entire story there really changes the dynamic of the book and turns it into more of a closed-door mystery, which doesn’t work for a runaway train like Finlay and Vero.

More importantly, I’m not entirely sure how comfortable I was with the narrative of policing that’s presented in this book. On the one hand, the fact that Finlay gets away with so much is a scathing indictment of the entrenched injustice in policing; that police can’t see the real perpetrator right in front of their eyes. But the narratives around hyper vigilance and gun-use reinforce the idea that policing inherently requires violence, when a lot of police work could be solved through investing in community and social services instead. In theory, a citizen’s awareness program is great, but that program should be focused on recognizing and providing support to those at risk rather than teaching a single mom how to cuff someone and use a gun. Neither are skills I want the average American perfecting or using as a common citizen and are more likely to lead to more profiling and unnecessary violence from over-enthusiastic vigilantes.

So overall, definitely some problematic elements to this book. It still has a lot of what I liked about the first two though. Mostly that it’s funny and never takes itself too seriously. Vero is easily my favourite character and I was glad to see a primary love interest finally arise for Finlay. I was definitely gunning for these two to be together, but I have to admit, despite all the antics, I didn’t see a whole lot of personal development for any of the characters. But it’s a plot driven novel and if you want something fast-paced, this is definitely it. I will keep reading the series, but I would like to see the author do something a bit different with the next one. At some point I feel like Finlay and Vero are going to have to get caught for something or it feels like there are no real stakes.

Wrong Place Wrong Time

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Author: Gillian McAllister
Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Sci-fi
Pub. Date: May 2022

This was my book club’s pick for February. We picked some duds in 2022, so we needed something fast paced to start off the new year! Wrong Place, Wrong Time is a mystery/thriller with a sci-fi element, and it certainly starts off with a bang! 

Our protagonist, Jen, is sitting at home when the clocks go back, waiting for her son to come home. When she witnesses him kill a man on the street, she falls into her worst nightmare. But when she wakes up the next day, it’s actually the day before and the murder hasn’t happened yet. Every day after, Jen wakes up further back in time, with the opportunity to solve the murder. But maybe there are more secrets in Jen’s past than she realized.

It’s a pretty explosive start and I was quickly pulled into the narrative. It’s a lot to take in at first and you hope there are simple answers, but the more Jen learns, the more confused she becomes about what actually happened and how her son was triggered to murder someone. It’s pretty gripping, but it does get a bit repetitive the further back in time you go. It’s frustrating, but the general feeling helps you to empathize with what Jen is going through. It’s a convoluted story and I thought it took a bit too long to get to the point. It drags in the middle, but eventually the narrative starts to shift and I was gripped again at the end of the story.

I don’t want to say too much about the story itself or give anything away, but I did like the way things progressed. I do think the murder that the book starts with is a bit of a stretch based on what we learn later, but I like how focus of the story changes over time as the pieces start to fit together. It was good storytelling, I just would have liked to see things tightened up a bit. There are a lot of secondary and minor characters, and I found it hard to keep track of everyone. That said, I read it as an audiobook and I don’t think that was the best way to go. If it was a bit shorter with a tighter plot, I think this would be a really great read.

Either way, I still had fun with it. I didn’t care for the epilogue, but again, mostly because I didn’t remember the connection between these particular characters, so I’m hoping my book club can explain this one to me in a couple of weeks. But overall, a fun and fast-paced read!

Killers of a Certain Age

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Author: Deanna Raybourn
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Pub. Date: Sep. 2022

Killers of a Certain Age was the perfect 3 star read. It was a lot of fun and I sped through it, but I was disappointed by the total lack of character development. I don’t think all books have to be super deep and there’s something to be said for a light, quick read, but this one had so much potential to be both and overall it was just okay, which was a letdown.

Killers of a Certain Age is a fun story about an elite group of female assassins who spent their careers stealthily removing shady drug lords and war criminals from society. They’re now in their 60’s and have recently retired. To thank them for their contributions, their company sends them on a lavish cruise to celebrate. While on the cruise, they quickly figure out that someone is trying to kill them and spend the rest of the novel on the run and trying to take out their opponents.

The book is by Deanna Raybourn, author of the much beloved Veronica Speedwell series. I’m a huge fan of Veronica and was thrilled about the concept for this book. Who doesn’t want to read about a bunch of badass old ladies that are underestimated by their competition? The humour wasn’t quite as good as Veronica Speedwell, but I still had a few good chuckles and found it to be a fast-paced, plot-driven novel. I read it as an audiobook while doing an Agatha Christie puzzle, so it was a very enjoyable experience. If you want to get lost in the chase for a few hours, than I recommend this one for you.

Sadly, overall it was still a bit of a disappointment though. The author presents us with 4 main characters, but the entire story is told from just one POV, that of Billie (one of the 4 women). I thought it was an odd choice. Billie is interesting enough, but I didn’t find anything particularly special about her and I thought it was a missed opportunity to tell a multi-POV story. This may have proved too challenging for the author though because all 4 of the women are ultimately forgettable. We’re given a few defining features for each woman, but honestly I couldn’t remember who was who by the end of the novel because they all read the exact same and had such little characterization.

There’s nothing wrong with a good plot driven novel, but I felt there was so much to unpack here about how society treats old people. There’s a lot of action, but the themes are not strong. There is a poorly developed romance and the friendships felt very surficial for 4 women who’d supposedly known each other for 40 years and trusted one another with their lives. That said, I think Raybourn may just be an action author. She relies on humour a lot and while Veronica Speedwell has more depth than this, she still tends to rely on the action to drive those novels as well. The difference is that Veronica and Stoker have real chemistry, both as friends and lovers, whereas this women in this story just didn’t have any chemistry, so I only had the plot to keep me interested. A multi-faceted story would be so much more compelling and unfortunately, this wasn’t it.

The It Girl

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Author: Ruth Ware
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Pub. Date: Jul. 2022

The title of this book has been driving me nuts ever since I saw the cover. I hate that the title is in all-caps because I can’t help but read it as The I.T. Girl every time! After having read it, I can confirm this is about an “it” girl and in fact has nothing to do with I.T. In case you also work in a technical field and were unsure, lol.

It’s no secret that I love Ruth Ware. I’ve read everything she’s ever written. In terms of storytelling, I don’t think she’s the best mystery/thriller writer ever and I actually rate most of her books very middle of the road. But I do think she is an excellent suspense writer and I find her books so compulsively readable, which is why I return to them over and over again. Even though I haven’t loved all her books, this was the first one where I actively struggled to read it.

This book is about 50-100 pages longer than all of her other books, and it felt like it. She employs the dual timeline in this book and while I think it was effective, in the first half, it only served to slow down the story. Hannah Jones is our main character and we learn from the start that her Oxford University experience came to a quick end when her roommate, April, is murdered at the end of her first year. An Oxford Porter is convicted of the crime based on Hannah’s testimony and when he dies in prison, Hannah starts questioning her memory and whether there was more to that night than she remembers.

The story is told between flashbacks to her time at Oxford and her cool group of friends that centered around “it girl” April Coutts-Cliveden, and her quiet current day life in Edinburgh. I was mildly interested in her life at Oxford – April is an interesting character. She is manipulative and makes a lot of questionable choices, but you know from the beginning that she ends up dead, so it’s hard to be overly critical of her. Hannah is more of a forgettable character, which is not aided by the fact that in her desire to forget April’s death, she is leading a very forgettable life herself – a life that is undeniably tedious and boring to read about. 

I understand why Ware uses the dual timeline and I do think it is effective later in the story, but it’s too indulgent in the early stages and it slowed down the pace. I think if the book had been shortened by about 50 pages, it would have tightened up the story a lot and made the whole book more compelling. In general, the second half of the book was executed better and I was much more invested in the story past the 50% mark. It has some classic Ruth Ware twists and I felt like we were finally getting to the grit of the story.

Overall, I think Oxford is a compelling setting for a story like this because of the whole “closed campus” intrigue. The notion of the “it girl” was interesting – April is a vibrant and outgoing character with a lot of self-confidence, yet there’s no denying that she is mean-spirited. Why do these two things often seem to go hand in hand? Do people get drunk on their popularity and privilege? Why do other people tolerate such meanness from their supposed friends? These are all interesting questions (to me anyways), that I would have loved to see Ware address to give the book more depth. Unfortunately, we don’t look at any of these themes and I was left feeling conflicted about what I was supposed to think about April. 

Overall, I think this book held a lot of promise, but unfortunately was poorly executed. Not her best.