My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I thoroughly enjoyed this read. I was caught up in the mystery and even though I had an idea the ending would be as it was, it wasn’t a definitive guess until the end.
The characters were fantastic in their depth and mannerisms, each one of them bringing more and more to the little town of Goodwood. A few characters were so stereotypical in their portrayal I was starting to get annoyed and wonder why only a few were so overdone – but it actually served a plot purpose and so I was surprisingly happy with that nice little tie-in.
It was a well thought-out and delivered story, I even laughed out loud (which is rare for me).
The one area that bothered me was the author really, really seemed caught on the idea of a town sliding into mourning and sadness as a whole. Which is a great visual idea, but it was like the author couldn’t articulate it just right for herself – so just kept trying and trying for the first half of the book. Whenever the story lulled there would be this inevitable paragraph or two on the town being sad when it never had been. Overall though, it wasn’t annoying enough for me to start skimming – so I’m being pretty picky!
The emerging love of 17yr old Jean was a slow and lovely sub-plot that unfurled and offset the sadness around the town. I thought it was great that there were older teens doing things actual older teens do in this book!
The writing style was so easy-to-read and Australian in a way I could absolutely relate to. I found it to be a small town, country version of a Moriarty story – how could I not love that!
Ally Jane 