It isn’t that I didn’t enjoy this novel. It was good and more fast paced than the previous novel. Sarah and Malloy’s relationship and personal lives were shown in more detail and it made my eyes moist and heart beat fast because of certain interactions. I loved the social commentary and the central theme of this book’s mystery. The reality of how a girl’s virtue is viewed in the society by her family/peers/neighbours and men, how they get exploited by the men around them because all the girls wanted were pretty things, how almost all men & women justified girls getting killed because they were asking for it (sadly this is still being said by so many in this day and age), wives without any protection given by law and society from their abusive husbands because marriage makes them their property. When I read historical novels, I am always left with s shuddering of how cruelly women, minorities and marginalised groups were made to live. Though we still have a long way to go to get rid of all the injustices. 

Anyway, the book was 3.5 🌟 for me because the mystery and the plot twist felt rather flat to me. The personality of the killers were something borrowed and tried and tested in many novels and they were a pretty easy guess since the second half the story. 

But it isn’t an issue. This book is not a miss. I’m still pretty excited to pick up the 3rd book.