Here’s the gist of it: Jesse the cop is about to retire and Stephanie Mailer shows up at his retirement party and says “Hey, you know that crime you solved 20 years ago… well maybe you got the wrong guy”... How can you retire when a bombshell like that gets dropped on you??? And considering it was the case that made his career, of course Jesse needs to find answers. Naturally, Stephanie then goes missing. The story is about solving her disappearance as well as finding out what actually happened 20 years ago in the small seaside town of Orphea (New York Hamptons).
I absolutely adored Joël’s first book The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair so I was eager to get my hands on a copy of this. However when it arrived I was hesitant to push it up on my reading list as I was in a good flow of books and didn’t want to get stuck into a dense crime novel. I am so glad I did. Considering it is 500+ pages this is a super fast paced follow-the-clues murder mystery which I didn’t want to put down. It’s like Nancy Drew/The Hardy Boys but more adult and on steroids.
It’s hard to put into words but whereas his first book was heavy - it sucked me in and then spat me out, it was dark and moody, heavy and suspenseful and it had my head in a spin - this new one swept me away on the wind, took me along for a bit of a whirlwind and then put me down gently. It was a fun murder mystery which I really enjoyed - especially convincing myself that I knew “whodunnit” over and over again just to be wrong every time.
— Rachel