Review: An Insulting Ending
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 5, 2011
I received this book as a complimentary copy for review. This is the first I have read of Rebecca Forster's works. I have nothing to compare with her other writings. It was difficult to put the book down once the first twenty pages hooked your attention. The weave of characters and story lines forces the reader to want to move to the next page. What little change in character arc is made up by the rise and fall of tension, not unexpected from this genre. The story, pending changes, could be a candidate for a screenplay. That being said, I found the end a disappointment. SPOILER ALERT: The reader has been led to believe throughout the novel that one of the characters is alive only to discover at the end, she's not only dead, but been dead since early-on in the novel. However, Forster gives us stories and adventures of the woman -- in italics -- that causes us to believe she is alive. Even the protagonist character, Dove, receives impressions the woman is living. (Dove's intuitiveness is explained in general terms in the story and never in depth, an opportunity the author missed enlightening us with some backstory details about the protagonist.) By the end of the book, I felt insulted. If the author wanted this character dead, she could have arranged that at the end of the book, sending Dove on the trail of a new murder suspect in a sequel instead of attempting to mystify the finale.