The Bone House by Brian Freeman

The publisher’s blurb says: "Hilary and Mark Bradley are trapped in a web of suspicion. Last year, accusations of a torrid affair with a student cost Mark his teaching job and made the young couple into outcasts in their remote island town off the Lake Michigan coast. Now another teenage girl is found dead on a deserted beach. . . and once again, Mark faces a hostile town convinced of his guilt."

I love crime thrillers where the suspect is the underdog that no one is rooting for. Throw in his supportive wife, and a justice seeking detective and the recipe is foolproof.

This was a well-written, racy pacy book that had me turning the pages. I cannot say I didn’t enjoy it. And yet…compared to other recent reads, it missed the mark somewhat. It is quite difficult to say why.

It may have been the characters – although they were fairly well-developed, some of them did things that felt wrong. I hate it when I start to question these things. I prefer to be so engrossed and committed that I don’t even think to question. And then I started feeling that the people were being manipulated to fit the plot, rather than the other way around.

Or maybe it was me? I have read some excellent thrillers this year. And this was good, just not great. I will try more Brian Freeman novels though, it had enough action and interest to get me out of my real life for a while.

3 out of 5 stars

ISBN: 9780312562830

You may also enjoy Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton or Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter.

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