2 Stars
Julie Prentice and her family move across the country to start over after being terrorized by a stalker after the publication of her best-selling novel, The Murder Game. Julie doesn’t know anyone in town and on her morning run, meets her neighbor from across the street, John Dunbar. They have an instant connection and Julie begins to hope that this is a new beginning for her and her family. She never thought that a simple conversation with a neighbor could set her life spinning so far off course and out of control.
After a series of misunderstandings, Julie and her family become the target of harassment that seems to be increasing in their intensity. She believes that her former stalker, Heather, has found her and is after her again. Or could this be someone new? Is someone in her neighborhood out to get her too? The tension increases and new friends turn into enemies and Julie seems to have nowhere to turn when things become dangerously out of control.
The plot was very interesting, but the writing style and the constantly switching point of view was very distracting. Not only did the point of view change constantly between Julie and John (and other lesser known characters) the time changed too. One minute you are in the present day with John, the next you are with Julie, six months previous. This really made the story hard to follow, at least for me. I found myself having to go back and re-read passages just to get the story to make sense again.
Unfortunately I hated the characters. I couldn’t identify with a single one of them. The main character was a mess. She was weak, annoying and consistently made just really stupid decisions. Her husband was just as much of a dishrag as she was. John Dunbar wasn’t much better, he was just as wishy-washy as Julie. His wife had more of a spine than he did and wasn’t afraid to use it, even if she did come off as a spiteful and vindictive brat. And the neighborhood scion, Cindy, was about as unbalanced as they come. If I had a neighborhood association like this, I would have been packing my bags and running for the hills. Why did everyone feel the need to cower before this woman?
Without giving anything away or spoiling the ending, it was unsatisfying at best. There were characters in play that really had no business being there and I can’t even come up with a rational explanation as to why they were there in the first place. It was a rushed ending that still left you with more questions than answers, and I can’t stand that, especially in a book that is listed as mystery/suspense. Read at your own risk.
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