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wordsofclover 's review for:
All the Hidden Truths
by Claire Askew
I received this book from the author/publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
When a lone gunman enters his college in Edinburgh and shoots dead 13 young women, before killing himself, he leaves behind him a trail of destruction, grief and questions. DI Birch attempts to lead the police force dealing with the traumatic aftermath, the questions of why Ryan Summers would do such a thing, and attempting to shield his family left behind from terrible threats. Ishbel and Moira, two grieving mothers find their lives changed forever.
This is a slow paced crime novel follow three different people left behind after a terrible tragedy. The first 20% or so of this book deals with the day before, of and after the shooting, and while we don't get any perspectives of the shooting while it happened, readers so get an idea of the scenes from a policeman who entered the building right after the attack and a media run through of the event.
I enjoyed the exploration of each characters' shock and grief following the shooting, as well as the difficult relationship they both had with their children. Moira's POV in particular was, both terribly sad and intriguing as she had to figure how to process her grief over her son while all too aware of the grief he had caused others because of his terrible act of violence.
The book does have that trope of a lead detective who has something in their past that seems to have given them a personal stake in the case. I don't always like this and it was okay in this book - I liked that the DI didn't let her history completely cloud her judgement and I do feel like her not having that backstory wouldn't actually have affected the story that much.
I did have some issues with the portrayal of media in this story, once again, like most thrillers/crime books I read. There was a lot of immoral, tabloid-esque stories published about the shooting and one journalist who basically went against any kind of newsroom rules ever. I'm not a fan of the terrible journalist and inaccurate/immoral reporting and sensationalist media due to us living in a world now where there is such distrust in legitimate media and 'fake news' is thrown about.
I did accept the storyline with the journalist as it became more a part of the plot and i liked how it all resolved.
When a lone gunman enters his college in Edinburgh and shoots dead 13 young women, before killing himself, he leaves behind him a trail of destruction, grief and questions. DI Birch attempts to lead the police force dealing with the traumatic aftermath, the questions of why Ryan Summers would do such a thing, and attempting to shield his family left behind from terrible threats. Ishbel and Moira, two grieving mothers find their lives changed forever.
This is a slow paced crime novel follow three different people left behind after a terrible tragedy. The first 20% or so of this book deals with the day before, of and after the shooting, and while we don't get any perspectives of the shooting while it happened, readers so get an idea of the scenes from a policeman who entered the building right after the attack and a media run through of the event.
I enjoyed the exploration of each characters' shock and grief following the shooting, as well as the difficult relationship they both had with their children. Moira's POV in particular was, both terribly sad and intriguing as she had to figure how to process her grief over her son while all too aware of the grief he had caused others because of his terrible act of violence.
The book does have that trope of a lead detective who has something in their past that seems to have given them a personal stake in the case. I don't always like this and it was okay in this book - I liked that the DI didn't let her history completely cloud her judgement and I do feel like her not having that backstory wouldn't actually have affected the story that much.
I did have some issues with the portrayal of media in this story, once again, like most thrillers/crime books I read. There was a lot of immoral, tabloid-esque stories published about the shooting and one journalist who basically went against any kind of newsroom rules ever. I'm not a fan of the terrible journalist and inaccurate/immoral reporting and sensationalist media due to us living in a world now where there is such distrust in legitimate media and 'fake news' is thrown about.
I did accept the storyline with the journalist as it became more a part of the plot and i liked how it all resolved.