Review Date: Monday August 12th,
2019
Star Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
“There was a stranger on the beach. He was standing in front of my house, staring
at it like he was casing it to rob.”
So recently I’ve been really digging mystery novels. Not just like picking one up every now and
again but actually actively reading almost 400 page novels in which there are
unreliable narrators, some kind of “unsolvable” situations, and characters you
absolutely love to hate. A Stranger on
the Beach gave me just the thrill I was looking for. It checks off all the quintessential boxes
for a great mystery thriller.
- The novel mostly takes place in a
beautifully built, lavish beach front property, which makes it the ideal
book to carry with you on vacation or chilling at the pool. From page one the scenery is practically
perfect.
- Unreliable
narrators. The whole story is
written under dual perspectives.
From the jump, there are two narrations you follow. One is the perspective of Caroline, the
“main” character. And the other
perspective follows, Aiden…your stranger on the beach. After you get busy reading in a few
chapters, you begin to realize there is something that just isn’t right
with one of these perspectives, the trouble is figuring out who to believe
and wrapping your mind around some of the events that take place.
- “Unsolvable”
Situations. Again, this flows right
out from the unreliable narrator spiel.
Once certain events start taking place in this book, you really
kind of have to scratch your head, but then continue on. If you believe that certain situations
happen just the way they are written…you’d better think again.
- Characters you LOVE to
HATE. Yep, I have one. The problem is, it isn’t who you are
going to think from the beginning.
For spoiler reasons, I can’t tell you much about which character I
loved to hate, but I will tell you this…it isn’t someone you are going to
be expecting.
So, without giving too much away…here’s the scenario. A woman (Caroline) and her husband just
purchased and built on beach front property.
I’m talking PRIME real estate. Of
course the husband has a rather high paying job and tends to have to go away
for work, a lot of the time, leaving the wife alone to work on her start up
home design career. In the process of
all this, a man appears in front of Caroline’s new beach front property and
stares at the home as if he has evil intentions. This person happens to be Aiden, the local
bartender, who on a number of occasions, seems to be thrown into Caroline’s life
as if by fate.
Due to some circumstances regarding her husband, an affair ensues between
the two and then with a twist that NO ONE saw coming…things turn ugly. I’m not talking “Oh I cheated and my
significant other found out” ugly, this is 100% grade A “fear for my life” kind
of ugly.
From there things get crazy and I will admit that at times I had to put the
book down and take a breather, but that by no means meant I wanted to quit the
book…I wanted answers! And boy did I get
them…
All in all, I really fell in love with A Stranger on the Beach. Yes there were plot points that I may not have agreed with and okay maybe I wasn’t sold on certain aspects of the reveal, but ultimately I gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars because it was just basically well written and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Michele Campbell really wrote quite the mystery and I am so glad I went ahead and picked it up! Her writing style really has me wanting to order her previous novels, She Was the Quiet One and It’s Always the Husband.
If you are interested in picking up any of Michele’s works, please support
your local bookstores and order from them OR if big box is more your speed,
head over to your nearest Barnes and Noble and pick up a copy there.
As always, be careful who you trust…and HAPPY READING!
No comments:
Post a Comment