Only Ever You
A Novel
کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
January 4, 2016
This adrenaline-fueled thriller from Drake (The Dead Place) lacks nuance and verisimilitude. When Jill and David Lassiter’s three-year-old daughter, Sophia, disappears from the park one afternoon, and then turns up just outside the park 40 minutes later with a mark on her arm, Jill fears foul play. David, on the other hand, believes she simply wandered off and got a bug bite. Blood tests come back clean, so Jill lets the matter drop. Three months pass and Sophia vanishes again, this time in the middle of the night from the family’s suburban Pittsburgh home. Evidence implicates the Lassiters, and the police seem disinclined to look for other suspects, so Jill launches her own investigation. Jill is a fully realized character whose grief and fear are palpable, but everyone else is a caricature; thus, little of the interpersonal conflict rings true. Drake leans too heavily on her premise’s inherent tension to drive the narrative, most of the plot twists are telegraphed or unearned, and a preposterous denouement robs the tale of impact. Agent: Rachel Eckstrom, Irene Goodman Agency.
January 15, 2016
A Pittsburgh woman finds she's the prime suspect when her daughter's kidnapped in Drake's dark psychological thriller. In July 2013, 3-year-old Sophia Lassiter disappears from a park where she's playing only to show up a short time later unharmed except for a small mark on her arm that her mother believes might have been an injection site. Frightened, Sophia's parents--professional photographer Jill and successful lawyer David--watch their child even more closely than usual. But despite their vigilance, one morning they climb out of bed and find that Sophia's once again gone missing. While the police focus more and more on the beleaguered parents, a woman named Bea Walsh has been perfecting her evil plan to steal Sophia and see that Jill and David take the fall for her disappearance and faked death; her plan seems to be working. Meanwhile, the author flashes back to a journal written by an unknown woman to an unknown man, dissecting their affair and ultimate breakup. Drake builds suspense slowly and methodically, but many readers won't stick around long enough to care: Jill's a judgmental snob, Bea's cruel and unhinged, David's a detached social climber, and even Sophia, the toddler, comes across as a brat. Additionally, the series of events surrounding Sophia's disappearance come across as contrived and implausible, with an over-the-top villain, a cop that dresses like a hooker, another cop who practically sneers his questions, and a hypercritical protagonist with a superiority complex. Unlikable people and unlikely situations redeemed by decent writing and the only truly appealing character in the book: a little dog named Cosmo.
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Starred review from February 15, 2016
A three-year-old girl named Sophia vanishes from a playground for about 45 minutes, frantically worrying her mother, Jill. Everything appears fine, and life moves on until about three months later when the child vanishes again, this time from her bed in the middle of the night. Jill immediately becomes the prime suspect in Sophia's murder, though there is no body. Frustrated by the police's lack of motivation to find the truth, Jill investigates on her own, digging into secrets that should have stayed buried. Can she prove her innocence and save her daughter? VERDICT Making her hardcover debut, Drake (The Dead Place) has written a gripping domestic thriller about a parent's worst fear. Jill's persistence and patience will resound with readers, and the payoff only adds to the overall reading experience that is a must for fans of Harlan Coben and Lisa Gardner.--Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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