I read the first book in the series and did not like it. However, I thought that there was some promise for a sequel especially now that Drew Devlin’s POV is removed. Unfortunately, this book was even worse than the previous one.

The new main character in this book is Greg, known to Fern as “Roger.” Greg was a “casual friend” of Drew’s and suspects that Drew’s wife, Fern, is actually responsible for his murder. His suspicion is based on one single piece of evidence: Drew told him years ago about an incident where Fern become extremely angry and jealous when she suspected that Drew was cheating. His reasoning is totally absurd because it’s a huge leap from a jealous wife to a murderer. For the first half of the book, Greg does not find a single additional piece of evidence to implicate Fern but somehow only becomes more convinced of Fern’s guilt. Greg comes across as extremely weird and obsessive even when the narrative constantly tries to portray him as a hero.

At least the first book created some tension as we follow Drew’s growing lies and subterfuge while Fern schemes against her husband. This book doesn’t even attempt that since everything has already been laid out in the first few chapters. Greg explains his plan to seduce Fern, get her drunk, and record her murder confession or find evidence implicating her in the murder of Drew. For the next 80% of the book, it plays out exactly as he wanted. Fern remains totally oblivious to Greg’s plan for most of the book so her POVs are totally uninteresting. In fact, most of Fern’s POV chapters basically just recount her interactions with Greg which we already see in his POV chapters so they’re not only boring but also narratively useless.

Alice’s POV is even more unnecessary since she’s in prison the whole time and does not do anything that affects the story at all. Her POV chapters exist solely to set up a third book in the series. This book is already pretty short but is comprised mostly of filler material. 

Apart from the nonsensical plot and characters, the writing is also cringe-inducing. Every chapter ends with a bit of heavy-handed foreshadowing that quickly became extremely annoying. Greg’s POV chapters end with him wondering if his life is in danger from Fern. Literally, a child could guess what is about to happen to Greg.

In fact, all of the characters seem to have a child’s understanding of adult life. In the first book, it made sense to some extent that Drew’s profession as a doctor would be a major component of the story. However, in this book, the fact that Drew was a doctor and Fern was a doctor’s wife is mentioned constantly in a really forced way, completely randomly. Fern constantly mentions how Drew’s profession meant they had amazing social lives and were always attending “decadent dinner parties” and “glitzy galas.” Drew was a general practitioner, not a surgeon or specialist! He’s not a multi-millionaire and his life insurance would not have made Fern one either. I have no idea how you can write a book series about a doctor and his wife without even doing basic research or attempting to have any semblance of reality.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.