Review: There Should Have Been Eight

While some of y'all count down the days for a new Nalini Singh paranormal release, I'm over here wishing she wrote more suspense novels. Two years after her last suspense release, she drops There Should Have Been Eight, and what has become apparent to me with this third stand-alone suspense title is that Singh writes what I call slow burn suspense - and that it's by design.

They were a group of eight friends who grew up together, continued to live in each others' pockets through college, when the suicide of the group's bright light sent them scattering into the wind.  Now, nine years later, they've agreed to come back together for a reunion.  Luna, who makes her living as a photographer, agrees to go, despite a devastating health diagnosis she hasn't told her friends about (she's going blind thanks to a genetic condition) and she's still angry that Darcie had her sister, Bea, cremated. No funeral. No chance for any of the friends to say goodbye.  

Darcie is now married to Ash, who once upon a time was desperately in love with her sister Bea.  There's Luna's best friend, Vansi, a nurse, and her husband, Phoenix, a doctor. Kaea is the playboy of the bunch, now a successful lawyer and then there's Aaron, who's dream it is to open his own restaurant, and his fiancée, Grace - a newcomer that Luna will be meeting for the first time. They agree to come together in a remote manor owned now solely by Darcie, the rest of her family now gone. The manor comes complete with breathtaking views, isolation, secret passages, a burned out wing thanks to a mentally ill ancestor, oh and impending bad weather.  I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

Turns out, quite a bit. However it takes some time to happen. It starts with creepy pranks, someone leaving Bea's childhood doll for Darcie to find, then moves into suspicious accident territory, until finally someone ends up dead.  This book, while similar to Singh's two previous suspense novels in some ways, has one important difference - this one is actually more claustrophobic.  Instead of a small town or upscale cul-de-sac, Singh leans all in on Gothic with this book isolating the action to this group of eight people, the memory of Bea (who casts a long shadow), and a creepy house. The story is told exclusively from Luna's point of view.  Luna, always documenting with her camera. Luna, slowly going blind and incandescently angry with Darcie that she was robbed of saying goodbye to Bea. Her special, precious Bea. 

When I say this is a slow burn, I mean it. It takes a while for the action to come in and Singh focuses on building the Gothic atmosphere and tension.  And naturally, Darcie's ancestors, the previous owners of the manor, come into play as Luna tries to unravel what's exactly happening.  The world-building is evocative and extremely well done.  

That said, I wasn't in love with this as much as Singh's previous suspense novels. The twists didn't work quite as well for me and to be honest, I disliked most of these people. There's also events and choices made at the end of the story that just left me with a slight deflated feeling.  Like the one person that I didn't totally hate, I'm not sure I like all that much anymore?  If that makes any sense.

However, what is done well is the overall theme of this story - that of obsession.  This isn't a story about friendship or even love. Nope, it's obsession all day long and twice and Sunday. And naturally Bea is at the center of it all. 

I'm left slightly conflicted. This didn't work as well for me as Singh's other suspense novels, but there's still bits to admire here.  The Gothic atmosphere, the world-building, and how obsession runs through the story - but I never entirely got wrapped up in it. In some ways it felt too cool, remote, almost distant. Like looking through the lens of Luna's camera - which I suspect might have been the point.

Final Grade = B-

Review: Quiet In Her Bones

I was about halfway through A Madness of Sunshine when I knew I was going to have to pick up Quiet in Her Bones immediately after. Both books are stand alones, featuring very different characters, and yet there are comparisons to be drawn between both books.  Namely that Singh once again creates a world with a large cast of characters all of whom have secrets - although this time out it's an exclusive, upscale cul-de-sac neighborhood.

Ten years ago Nina Rai stormed out of the home she shared with her husband and teenage son never to be heard from again. Also missing? $250,000. Her disappearance has haunted her son, Aarav, who heard her scream, right before the front door slammed...twice.  Or did he? Aarav, now a success thanks to his debut novel catching fire, is recovering from a bad car accident. So bad that when he's released from the hospital he's under doctor's orders to not be alone.  So he goes home to stay with his father, stepmother and half-sister. He's suffering from terrible migraines and there are gaps in his memory - problems only exacerbated when the police show up and announce that they've found Nina Rai.  Her car slid off the road into the bush and has been hidden for the past decade. Mommy Dearest is now nothing but bones....bones found in the passenger seat of the Jaguar.

Now Aarav knows for sure. His mother didn't just leave him. Her marriage was a disaster, her relationship with his father extremely volatile - but she never, ever would have left her only child voluntarily.  She's been dead since the night Aarav heard the scream.  Determined to know the truth he starts his own investigation.  The exclusive cul-de-sac where he was raised and where his father still lives is full of neighbors, all of whom have secrets. Then there's Dear Old Dad. The front door slammed twice that night.

Terrible car accident, migraines, drugs, gaps in his memory - buckle in kiddies it's Unreliable Narrator time!  Aarav doesn't know what memories he can trust and then there are the gaps thanks to the car accident and the prescription drugs.  He's under the care of a neurologist and a shrink.  Oh, and he fully acknowledges he's a sociopath.  Warm and cuddly our boy ain't.

I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of this trope in suspense.  Blame it on The Girl on the Train and cutting my reading teeth on the likes of Kinsey Millhone, but I dig competency porn in mystery/suspense.  There was a trend for a while of female unreliable narrators gorked out of their skull on alcohol or drugs running off half-cocked and basically I wanted to throat punch all of them.  Singh at least has the good sense to give me something different - our unreliable narrator is a dude.  A sociopathic dude who is a mess but is very good at wearing the appropriate mask for whatever the occasion demands.

Aarav's instability ramps up over the course of the story as he turns over rocks and ugly things begin slithering out.  As much as the unreliable narrator stuff wore on me after a while, by this point I was so invested in the cul-de-sac, the secretive residents, and the mystery of what happened to Nina Rai - our protagonist's escalating manic behavior was only a minor quibble, one derived solely from personal reader preference.

Like A Madness of Sunshine I had portions of the mystery figured out before the denouement but not all of it; although as the pages dwindled I did worry for a hot minute that Singh would leave a thread dangling.  Good news, she did not.

I didn't like this quite as much as A Madness of Sunshine (again, personal preference talking here) but this is actually the better executed book.  It felt tighter to me, although it lacks a strong romantic element thread that the previous book had.  That might be a deal breaker for romance fans, but not really a concern for someone coming to this book wanting suspense.  

Now I'm left with only one question.  When is Singh going to give me another suspense novel? Tick tock, tick tock...

Final Grade = B

Review: A Madness of Sunshine

If you've been kicking around this blog for a while you'll have noticed I read next to zero paranormal anything. Nothing against it, it's just really, really not my jam. All this to say that A Madness of Sunshine is the first book I've ever read by Nalini Singh.  Probably terribly shocking to some of you, but it's my way of saying that I walked into this book with no preconceived notions or set of expectations whatsoever. And honestly, I think that was a good thing. I had quibbles, but truly this was an engrossing read and I loved every moment of it.

She returned home two hundred and seventeen days after burying her husband while his pregnant mistress sobbed so hard that she made herself sick.

Growing up in tiny, claustrophobic Golden Cove, New Zealand Anahera's sole dream was getting the hell out of town - which she did. A celebrated pianist, she fell in love with Edward, a celebrated playwright, and settled in London living a glamorous, cosmopolitan lifestyle with an equally glamorous and cosmopolitan social circle.  Until a tragedy strained their marriage and eventually Edward died unexpectedly bringing a pregnant mistress to Ana's front door.  Finding refuge in her music? Not happening. Staying in London? Really not an option. All she can think of is escape and what better place than to go home, living in her mother's isolated, abandoned cabin.  Even if there are nothing but ghosts there.

She's in town for a hot second when she meets the lone cop on the beat, Will.  Famous in his own right, having solved some very difficult cases, Will is basically banished to Golden Cove after a domestic violence case goes horribly wrong.  Golden Cove is his penance. A quiet job in the middle of nowhere.  He rubs Ana the wrong way, mostly because she's on guard and prickly - but they soon find themselves drawn together when pretty, vivacious, 19-year-old Miriama goes missing. Without a trace.  And everybody in town is apparently hiding secrets.

This is basically a domestic thriller that uses an entire small town as a backdrop.  Golden Cove is a tourist destination (mostly hikers and outdoorsy types) but it is largely a backwater burg with clear class and ethnic lines (White and Maori). The disappearance of Miriama rocks the small town - namely because she was a smart, bright girl who respected the rugged landscape (Getting swept out to sea or lost in the bush is unthinkable for someone like her) but she was breathtakingly gorgeous. She's dating the town doctor but seriously every dude in this town is a lecher hot for Miriama, even before she was legal.  Will's been in town for a while, but he's still a newcomer and there are things the locals are not going to tell him. But they will tell Anahera, one of their own even if she did run off to London.  Miriama's disappearance also stirs up memories from years before.  When Anahera was a girl, three young, beautiful backpackers disappeared in the bush, never to be seen again. 

I ended up listening to this on audio and I'm glad I did - this is a slow burn thriller. There's zero fast-paced thrills and chills as it quietly unfolds and Singh peels back the layers of this isolated town and it's secretive residents.  There are a lot of secondary characters and the search for Miriama takes up a good chunk of the story - with most of the intensity coming into play in the final third of the book. 

To be honest, I'm not sure I would have liked this one quite as much as I did had I read it. Singh spends a lot of time setting up her town, introducing her secondary character, and laying the groundwork on Anahera's and Will's emotionally messy baggage.  Also, fair warning that this one has all the trigger warnings for domestic violence. Nothing on page, but a good chunk of Ana's past was shaped by her abusive alcoholic father and her mother's accidental death some years after she left him.

This wasn't an "OMG I cannot put this down!" sort of read but it was hypnotically engrossing, with deeply drawn characters and a really well put together romantic storyline between Anahera and Will.  I've been reading suspense for a long time, and while I've read darker, this one is still pretty dark - with haunted characters, plenty of secrets, and a creepy methodical Big Bad.  Will I ever read Singh's paranormal romances? Probably not. But I immediately downloaded her second thriller after finishing this one.

Final Grade = B+