Ok so I actually really enjoyed this book, not that it was what I was expecting. The book has been billed as the new Girl with a Dragon Tattoo; it's really really not. If you go into this, as I did, expecting dark European noir then you won't get it here. In fact this is much more like a French Dan Brown. On the surface of it this is a good basic story, a mystery about the identity of the only survivor from a plane crash. There is a ridiculously convoluted plot line, a collection of crazy and rather stereotypical characters (the haughty religious grand dame, the crazed psycho, and the perfect golden girl), we have plots within plots, as well as a somewhat bizarre obsession with minor details of the case; all set against a blatant ignoring of the facts that have been used to set up the whole plot. This all combines to create the same feel as you get from a reading one of Dan Brown's books. It's an enjoyable ride so long as you take it 100% at face value and don't choose to look too deeply at the glaring inconsistencies. The fact that everything is neatly tied off, with seemingly few consequences for anyone is both amusing and annoying in equal parts.
Here there are some very silly moments indeed, the interaction between several of the characters is idiotic in the extreme, the big reveal is obvious from about a third of the way in and you are left continuing to read mainly just to confirm that you are indeed correct in your assumption.
So all very silly, rather predictable, full of plot holes, but at the same time a really entertaining bit of 'thriller fluff'.
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