Rumors can kill…

The Rumor is Lesley Kara’s debut novel and tells the story about Jo, a single mother who moves back to her hometown, a small, coastal town in New England. Trying to make friends with the other school moms to help her son to be included and make friends, Jo decides to spread a rumor she heard about a convicted child murdered living in their town under a new name. The story unfolds, but who is this mysterious child killer? With all the crazy characters in the town it could be anyone, maybe even someone Jo knows. With the help of her son’s father, a freelance journalist, Jo tries to figure out who it is, but what she’s looking for might be putting her son in danger. Is listening to a rumor really worth it?

This to me was a very easy read. I was intrigued from the beginning and needed to know who this child killer really was? Was it Liz, the eccentric head of the book club? Kay, the kind, older neighbor? Karen, the sort of friend? Karen’s mother, who didn’t seem to like Jo at all? Susan, the woman whose house Jo was selling? Or maybe it was one of the other characters in this town? There were a lot of characters to keep track of in this book and honestly it could have been any of them.

That was one of my only issues with this book – the amount of characters. Sometimes I had a hard time keeping track of who was who. I think the author could have had a few key characters and not so many school moms, and the story still would have worked.

One thing that impressed me, what that I didn’t figure out who the killer actually was. I was surprised when it hit me at the same time it hit Jo. The other most shocking part of the book is the last sentence, but I won’t get that away!

Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine Books for and advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.