This novel opens with a jailhouse meeting. Convicted killer Charlie Holmes, after 5 years of imprisonment for a murder he had confessed to, has decided to recant his confession, telling his attorney that it’s time the world knew the truth…
Finley O’Sullivan is an attorney, presently working as a private investigator for family friend and godfather, Jack Finnegan. A widow, after a home invasion killed her husband Derrick and left her for dead, she is determined to bring the killers to justice, in her own time and in her own way. Having just been interrogated by the local police as a witness in a convenience store robbery that went bad, she heads over to Jack’s office only to learn that no one has heard from him. Knowing of Jack’s many haunts, she heads out to find him, in hopes that he, a recovering alcoholic, hasn’t fallen off the proverbial wagon.
She discovers Jack at his wooded cabin, sober and sleeping, and upon getting him up and moving, he tells her he has a job for her. Sophia Legard has hired him to represent her twin daughters, Olivia & Cecilia. Now that Charlie Holmes has recanted his confession of killing her husband, Sophie fears that suspicion will fall upon their children. Jack, knowing well of Finley’s abilities to detect truth from lie, asks her to investigate the twins, their backgrounds and their recollections of the events surrounding their fathers death.
As Finley begins digging and meets with both girls, she quickly realizes that stories don’t add up. Olivia has long since left the area, living in California, while Cecilia remains home with her mother due to agoraphobia and doesn’t ever leave the house. Both girls refuse to be in the same room together, and both are quick to lay blame on the other, each claiming the other is out to get them. But something is way off with this family…. Was this a case of patricide, or something much more sinister?
I very much enjoyed this novel – as I do all of Debra Webb’s work – and with the unanswered questions that abound, I am presuming this is the first novel in another trilogy. Some of my many unanswered questions are seemingly insignificant, like the college roommates that were seemingly mis-documented, and the manner of death of one of the key characters still seems strange. What is with Finley’s mother, her disdain for her own daughter – and her estrangement from Jack? The big questions are clearly part of an upcoming novel, which won’t be released until March (Yep, I’ve already checked!), so the reader is left hanging a bit… But, nonetheless, an action filled, suspenseful who-dun-it that will leave you anxious for the next!!
I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from Netgalley & Thomas & Mercer in exchange for an objective review. Do you love to read?? Visit netgalley.com and start reviewing books today!!
Tropical Delusions...... 