Saturday 19 September 2015

CRIME THRILLER REVIEW: The Cinderella Murder - Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke

Release Date: 13/08/15
Publisher:  Simon and Schuster

SYNOPSIS:

Television producer Laurie Moran is elated when the pilot for her reality drama Under Suspicion is a success. Even more, the program - a cold case series that revisits unsolved crimes by recreating them with those affected - is off to a fantastic start when it helps solve an infamous murder in the very first episode.

Now Laurie has the ideal case to feature in the next instalment of Under Suspicion: the Cinderella Murder. When Susan Dempsey, a beautiful and multi-talented UCLA student, was found dead, her murder left numerous questions. Why was her car parked miles from her body? Had she ever shown up for the acting audition she was due to attend at the home of an up-and-coming director? Why does Susan's boyfriend want to avoid questions about their relationship? And why was Susan missing one of her shoes when her body was discovered?

With the help of lawyer and Under Suspicion host Alex Buckley, Laurie knows the case will make a great program, especially when the former suspects include Hollywood's elite and tech billionaires. The suspense and drama are perfect for the silver screen - but is Cinderella's murderer ready for a close-up?


REVIEW:

There are times in my life when I want to break into something different and utilise my brain as I try and figure things out to use a lot of the late night bed energy and knowing Mary’s writing, its one that is challenging as well as something that has you asking questions as pieces are revealed.

Whilst this is a co-authored book I have to say that it was one that was OK and whilst not outstanding for me, it did fill the brief of what I wanted as the case is carefully unravelled before the readers eyes. The prose is OK, the pace a little slow in places and whilst there isn’t a huge amount of unnecessary information within the book felt like it was lacking something. Not necessarily the characters (as they’ve appeared in a previous title) but overall there wasn’t any growth for me which I tend to expect to help keep me interested.

As I’ve said it’s been an OK read but not anything that would make me recommend either to a specific reader leaving this as more of a middle of the road book than anything else.

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