It’s exciting to watch Jack do what she does best: inveigle her way into places she doesn’t belong, escape at the last moment in panic mixed with exhilaration. But her mission is jeopardized by her stubborn insistence to carry on despite dire injuries she refuses to get treated. Readers willing to follow tunnel-visioned Jack through near-suicidal lapses of common sense, though, will be rewarded with a satisfying and surprising denouement.
Ware has a knack for creating female protagonists worth rooting for and Jack... is no exception. It’s the plot that gets in the way ... There’s not enough interaction with other characters to make it feel more propulsive and up the sense of danger ... The best scenes are near the end, when Jack finally gives herself more than a moment to grieve.
Action-packed ... Ware creates escalating tension while immersing readers in Jack’s tumultuous emotions and instinctive decision-making. She layers her story with fascinating details about Jack’s unusual profession while offering an implicit (and clearly well-researched) warning about the vagaries of technology. The book’s focus on the impact of intense grief is balanced by glimmers of hope among the devastation.
Will not disappoint ... he action and tension are relentless from the opening to the conclusion, which will astonish, but certainly not dismay, readers, who will be captivated by this very original and very real protagonist. It has been said that in Ruth Ware’s books the pages just turn themselves. She has been heralded as 'the new Agatha Christie' for good reason.
Jack is a strong and fearless heroine, and Ware is always a master of setting and atmosphere, but the great reveal makes one wonder: Was it all worth it? Or more accurately, couldn’t Jack have figured this out much faster? Did it all have to come down to the poetic moment when she has nothing left? Lots of adrenaline-driven action, a departure from Ware’s usual wire-taut mysteries.
