Hmmm, I’ve read enough Candlish now to expect the unexpected, know that there’s a huge plot twist coming and to distrust anything and everything anyone says in the book. Which didn’t quite ruin the book for me, but I found the intense thrillerness of it too much really. It is very well written, I love the conversational chatty style of the narrator and the characters are great. It was just all a bit much for me. I feel kind of guilty only giving it three stars, but I want to remind future-me that this isn’t really my kind of book, though I suspect future-me will probably ignore that and come back for another wild ride anyhow.

One thing that did seem very bizarre, but the author couldn’t have foreseen, was that the book takes place during 2019 and then has several epilogue-like chapters that go into 2020. In any other year that would have worked well, but it was odd seeing a version of 2020 where the pandemic doesn’t get a mention.

All in all, I do think it was a pretty good book, it just all got a bit over the top for me.