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Oct 13, 2018SuzeParker rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
This book has a slow build. The pacing seemed patterned after the classic black-and-white psychological thrillers liberally referenced throughout the book. Considering the main character, Anna Fox, is a former child psychologist and a current agoraphobic who has little else to do inside her house all day than ply herself with pills and Merlot, watch those old black-and-white thrillers, play chess online and spy on her neighbors, it took some doing to keep the book moving at all, so points to the author for that. When no action is happening (pill-counting, anyone?), the pages drag by. When there's action, though, the book pulled me in and got really interesting. Anna is an unreliable narrator, to be sure. She is deeply depressed and isn't even sure she can trust herself or her own eyes. And she certainly doesn't know what to believe - at least at first - when the police find no evidence of the murder she claims to have witnessed. Adding to the disquiet is that the other characters in the book are rarely what they seem at first to be. While I guessed the first big twist long before it was revealed, the ending caught me by surprise. All in all, a decent debut - and one I could easily see made into a movie with a black-and-white feel.