Detective Maud O’Connor is badass. She solves cases with the ease of a hot knife slicing through butter. The problem is that if she were only that good, the book would have no reason to be so long. It wouldn’t go beyond 100–150 pages. So if you were the writer, what would you put in the remaining 300-350 pages?

The first novel from the series started with hundreds of pages of detailing the victim’s circumstances. Wasn’t great. In this one, we get a another storyline, following a woman who becomes an indirect victim of the crime. She tries to help but is treated as crazy by everyone.

The story is strong. However, I can’t honestly give it five stars. The secondary storyline ends up carrying too much weight. The book is supposedly about Detective Maud O’Connor taking down the bad guys. In reality, it’s about Nancy, cooking in her own small, private hell. Hell constructed by her family and friends. Perhaps the book should have been called Is Nancy Crazy? Of course, that’s on purpose. The novel raises important questions about domestic abuse and involuntary psychiatric treatment. I’m sure the 300 pages, dedicated to Nancy, share the same purpose with John Grisham’s writing about unfair death sentences.

Overall, the book has well-developed characters, a solid plot, and a difficult-to-predict ending. I would definitely read the sequel, if there is one. It is not the easiest read, at least not until Maud O’Connor starts slicing the butter.

4/5.