Have you ever seen the meme of readers begging authors not to kill off their favourites characters but the authors do it anyway with glee? As much as it does break my heart when an author does that to a beloved character, I prefer that to wishing the author would have just killed them all. My feelings weren't quite that extreme towards the characters in this book but my biggest disappointment was that none of the main characters had to pay any consequences for their actions. 75% of the book prepares the reader for some kind of fall from grace and then in the last 25% everything is tied up and the characters just go about their regular lives.

One of the main storylines is of a teacher grooming and abusing a student. It's that familiar story of a figure being in a "relationship" with a child. At first, I thought that reading this is such close succession to MY DARK VANESSA was affecting my reception and, to an extent, this is true. MDV is such an exceptional book that reading any other book upon the same theme will be difficult. But where MDV got it so right further highlighted where this book got it wrong. MDV delved into the psychology of both the abused and the victimised. Neither emerged from that interaction unscathed and those that knew and did nothing about it were also brought to task. Not so much here.

Overall, it was fine. It was a fine, perfectly well written, somewhat suspenseful story on family dynamics and reputation with a scandalous affair and murder thrown into the mix. But there was just no extra oompf to take it from fine to good.