This one didn’t quite work for me. Part of it had to do with expectation management, because the synopsis appended to this book is misleading. What I had read about it made it seem like an Agatha Christie with a contemporary setting, but this is not so. It took me quite a while to get oriented and at all invested in the dual narratives, and by the time I was expecting the tension to ramp up further, it fizzled into a lackluster ending. I felt like I was reading at a great remove from both stories, unable to really feel involved. And as a matter of personal preference, the references to the pandemic and summer 2020 protests felt jarring and just did not sit well.

Okay, as I type this review, which started as a 3-star, I keep coming up with things I disliked and have talked myself down to 2 stars. So I’m going to stop.