This was also my Prime Reading First Pick for the month, and I didn’t realize I had the ARC requested until both popped up on my Kindle. I can be forgetful when it comes to books it seems, and this book is no exception. I am already beginning to forget what I read despite having just finished the book only moments ago.

I thought I was going to enjoy this book, and it did keep my attention at the start. It was once the book seemed to not ever end was when I got annoyed. This follows Detective Lew Kirby who is trying to solve the murder of an elderly woman found in an old asylum. There is a patient who still lives on the property, and the police wonder if this man could have some answers they are looking for.

The woman who was killed was actually a bad person, and it seemed as though no one liked her. All of the stories are her were terrible, and she was just a horrible person. I did not care about her death because of all the atrocities she committed. This was one of the first reasons I did not care about this book, usually when trying to solve a murder, the victim isn’t always the worst or something else in the story makes it worth sticking around for. This book lacked both of those qualities.

I kept reading because I thought the book would get better, but I was wrong. There were side stories and characters I did not care about. There is the former asylum patient who now lives on the property due to squatters rights. There is the woman whose sister died on the property, but no one really knows what happened. Also, there is a man who was killed because he knew something. But he was just a body found. His role was to move the story along, but it did not add anything for me.

This book was not enjoyable for me. I normally like thrillers and the ones from the UK are even better. Hence why I was so excited about this one, but I just felt like the delivery for this book falls flat. I found it hard to care about the characters, their lives, and motivations. The reveal of the killer and all of the background information just was okay because I had given up really caring by the point when I reached the reveal. I didn’t want to stop reading this book, but I was skimming the last 30% because it was not valuable to me.

There is also extra information given about Lew Kirby and his life. Clearly it is meant to carry over to the next books and be something that looms over his head. It is the set up for the series, but I thought it was absurd and just thrown in to make the book interesting. He even has a girlfriend, but she is shown a few times and just doesn’t really seem to be important. After reading this book, I do not plan to keep on with this series nor am I sure I would read anything else by this author.

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK For the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.