Natalie O'Connor suspects her husband is having an affair, so she sets off for the holiday hotel near Cork, where she has reason to believe Mike’s trysts occur. Andrew, the manager of Shanamore Cottages, watches his only guest via a hidden camera in her room. One night the unthinkable happens: a shadowy figure emerges on-screen, kills Natalie, and destroys the camera. But who is the murderer? How did they know about the camera? And how will Andrew live with himself?
Howard seeds her compelling narrative with tantalizing bits of information that eventually accumulate and converge, leading to a surprising and satisfying dénouement ... an intricate, carefully crafted book with many moving parts, all of which Howard manages with enviable skill. Her characters all come to seem like people in real life, convincing in their actions and their motivations. The real power of the novel, however, lies in its underlying obsession with causation and destiny. You'll find yourself reflecting on fate, and chance, and the so-called 'butterfly effect' of seemingly insignificant events and random actions that ultimately lead to murder and the personal upheaval that eventually ensues.
Think Psycho meets Fatal Attraction as the village’s young Garda tries to solve this murder caught on video ... Readers who enjoy books by Gillian Flynn and Ruth Ware, as well as the earlier thrillers by award-winning Irish author Howard...will find this a perfect vacation read; full of twists and turns and just the right touch of creepiness. A must for mystery and thriller collections
Howard...labels her chapters Play, Pause, Fast Forward, and Rewind, as the chronology shifts, a structure that becomes more disconcerting than helpful. That aside, this is an involving tale of obsession, blackmail, and murder, and Howard remains a writer whom thriller fans should check out.
