Beatrice returns to London when her sister Tess goes missing. We find out fairly early on that Tess was murdered, and the book takes the form of a kind of diary from Beatrice to Tess, detailing the story of how Beatrice found out what happened.

This is another book in the Nicci French mould, but I found I struggled with it a bit - not sure exactly why. Perhaps it was that I was reading it in small bursts because I wasn't finding time to devote to it, but I didn't find it particularly gripping.

The structure of the book was a bit of a mix between interesting and irritating: the time jumps back and forward between Beatrice recounting a series of interviews with a solicitor who's trying to get her statement into shape for the forthcoming trial of the murderer, and flashbacks to the events that she's remembering for her statement.

Some of the story was OK and bits of it have stayed with me, but on the whole it felt a bit more style than substance. Perhaps it was a bit spoiled by the fact that I'd recently read Before I Go To Sleep, which was a similar style of book but a bit better.

Fairly early on, Beatrice exuses this structure by explaining to Tess that she has to tell the story from the beginning for it to make sense, which also serves the purpose of delaying for us the reveal of whodunnit. At the end there's a twist which sort of explains this but it felt a little disappointing.

Completed : 30-Dec-2011