Three wives meet under unusual circumstances and form a life changing trauma bond that loosely reminds me of the Golden Girls if they were playing real life Clue.
As my first murder mystery Elizabeth Arnott has done a fabulous job of introducing me into the genre that reminds me of all the fun I had playing Clue. She has a way of making you feel like you are ten steps ahead when in reality you are no better at guessing who the killer is than Beverly, Margot or Elsie, the three women this book follows.
They learn to cope with the fact that their husbands were serial killers and none of them had a clue. Meanwhile another one is on the loose and right under their nose. Can these three put their trauma to the test and find the killer before the cops or will more bodies start to stack?
My absolute favorite thing with Arnott’s writing is how she captures the twists and turns, the flashbacks through their memories and the changes of point of views without making it overly complex and confusing. It is like you are walking with these women as they try to locate the killer.
Each woman has their own personality. Beverly is the warm, loving mother who is overly trusting until it comes to her children. Margot is strong, fierce and acts like she has it all together while Elsie acts small and timid until she is pushed too far then her voice shines through and you can feel her strength. I could connect to each character in some way and that, to me, makes an amazing read.
One of my favorite quotes in the book was ” Oh, quit it, Elsie. I see you. I know you know you’re more important than that. You’re just diminishing yourself because you think people won’t accept your brilliance because of what happened to you.”
As a sexual assault survivor this spoke volumes to me and was just one more reason why I fell in love with this story and Elsie entirely.
However, because I am a survivor my biggest complaint with this book is that there was not a trigger warning at the beginning of the book. As this was my first murder mystery, I wasn’t expecting the talk of sex trafficking and rape. Even though it wasn’t graphic it was a little overwhelming to have that spring up on me. Sometimes it is good to be mentally prepared for what you may read in a book so that you can determine if the book is right for you.
This book did have me hooked from beginning to end and even writing out my own version of clue who done it note cards to help me guess who the killer was.
I never imagined myself loving the murder mystery scene so much. I am rating this book four out of five stars, because while it had me hooked, I still felt like it was missing a certain spark to it.
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