She Lies In Wait (DCI Jonah Sheens #1)by Gytha Lodge
Published by Penguin
Crime, mystery, thriller
On a scorching July night in 1983, a group of teenagers goes camping in the forest. Bright and brilliant, they are destined for great things, and the youngest of the group—Aurora Jackson—is delighted to be allowed to tag along. The evening starts like any other—they drink, they dance, they fight, they kiss. Some of them slip off into the woods in pairs, others are left jealous and heartbroken. But by morning, Aurora has disappeared. Her friends claim that she was safe the last time they saw her, right before she went to sleep. An exhaustive investigation is launched, but no trace of the teenager is ever found.
Thirty years later, Aurora’s body is unearthed in a hideaway that only the six friends knew about, and Jonah Sheens is put in charge of solving the long-cold case. Back in 1983, as a young cop in their small town, he had known the teenagers—including Aurora—personally, even before taking part in the search. Now he’s determined to finally get to the truth of what happened that night. Sheens’s investigation brings the members of the camping party back to the forest, where they will be confronted once again with the events that left one of them dead, and all of them profoundly changed forever.
I don't mind a police procedural - if it's well done and has interesting investigators, it can be so good. Also, She Lies In Wait has a lot of flashbacks to 1983 when the group went to camping and Aurora died so it is part mystery thriller and part police procedural. However, here comes the biggest problem I had with this book - lack of well fleshed characters, who are engaging and interesting. There's a wide cast of characters, from the four investigators to the six friends and everyone else involved in the mystery, but none are particularly well developed. Everyone has two or three defining characteristics - Connor's from abusive home and jealous, Topaz is ashamed of her sister and craves attention, Jonah Sheens is loner and apparently brilliant. It never really dives deeper and more importantly, Sheens is rather bland and boring for a lead investigator.
The mystery is as flat as the characters. Sure, there's a pool of suspects and for a while it seems like anyone could have done it. However, there isn't that many twists and what there is, well, I could see them coming a mile away. Nothing really surprising happened and since the characters felt so distant, I didn't really care when things started to get dangerous. There's also a bit pacing problem: it's very slow for a long time and then everything happens within the last few chapters. Not to mention, the ending is disappointing. I can't go into it without spoilers, but it is a frustrating ending.
Overall, She Lies In Wait is alright. It's flat and lukewarm at best, and I struggled to be interested in it. There's certainly potential, but the characters aren't fleshed out enough and the mystery a bit too distant and unoriginal.
The mystery is as flat as the characters. Sure, there's a pool of suspects and for a while it seems like anyone could have done it. However, there isn't that many twists and what there is, well, I could see them coming a mile away. Nothing really surprising happened and since the characters felt so distant, I didn't really care when things started to get dangerous. There's also a bit pacing problem: it's very slow for a long time and then everything happens within the last few chapters. Not to mention, the ending is disappointing. I can't go into it without spoilers, but it is a frustrating ending.
Overall, She Lies In Wait is alright. It's flat and lukewarm at best, and I struggled to be interested in it. There's certainly potential, but the characters aren't fleshed out enough and the mystery a bit too distant and unoriginal.
2 of 5 stars
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