Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Under A Silent Moon

I am such a fan of this author. My favorite book will always be Into the Darkest Corner because it freaked me out and had such one liners I could remember, but this one is pretty good as well.

Under A Silent Moon - Elizabeth Haynes
Under a Silent Moon
Two women share one fate.

A suspected murder at an English Farm. A reported suicide at a local quarry.

Can DCI Louisa Smith and her team gather the evidence and discover a link between them, a link which sealed their fate one cold night, Under a Silent Moon?

A tense, compelling and unsettling novel mystery brimming with source material and evidence set over just six days, Under a Silent Moon will keep you gripped until the very last page and asks:

Can you connect the clues and name the Killer? 


In the crisp, early hours of an autumn morning, the police are called to investigate two deaths. The first is a suspected murder at a farm on the outskirts of a small village. A beautiful young woman has been found dead, her cottage drenched with blood. The second is a reported suicide at a nearby quarry. A car with a woman's body inside was found at the bottom of the pit.

As DCI Louisa Smith and her team gather evidence, they discover a shocking link between the two cases and the two deaths-a bond that sealed their terrible fates one cold night, under a silent moon.

In this first entry in a compelling new detective series, Elizabeth Haynes interweaves fictional primary source materials-police reports, phone messages, interviews-and multiple character viewpoints to create a sexy, edgy, and compulsively readable tale of murder, mystery, and unsettling suspense.


Interesting thing about this book is that not only do we switch character point of view, but we also have police reports to read. All of it weaves an intricate story, but it was just... mediocre. I hate saying this because I am such a fan of Elizabeth Haynes. I am so used to her stories being fast paced and keeping me on my toes and this just didn't do that for me. I knew who the killer was right away and piecing the story together was fun, it just took far longer than it should. It was a fairly slow story for me and maybe it's because information is repeated between story, dialogue and the police reports. 

Another thing that made it hard is that none of these characters are great. The development is good, they just don't come across as good folk, they all have issues that make them unlikeable. I will say that with her professional background, the author knows what she is doing when it comes to police investigations and the inner workings of case work. It reads very much like an episode of Law & Order. I will say Elizabeth's writing is really great 

Here is what is fascinating- there were a LOT of suspects for Polly's death. I should hope I don't have that many people who'd like to kill me all at once. Good grief. The police miss a LOT of pretty obvious clues or directions to go so it's frustrating because as a reader, I feel like I shouldn't be smarter than the police. 

Overall? I'd give it 3/5 stars. It certainly wasn't terrible, it's just not what I was expecting or what I was used to from this author. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"I should hope I don't have that many people who'd like to kill me all at once." Me too, for sure!

Thanks for being on the tour!