Claire Douglas (2)

OK, I'm less than 10 minutes in and I'm sick of wimpy, flighty, pregnant woman already. She freaks out about stuff that is only in her imagination and of course she mostly thinks the worst, can't make decisions and seems to be afraid of life without her husband there to make them for her and deal with awful things like workmen. Oy vey. Are all people of this generation so helpless? OMG - a knock at the door has her going into paroxysms of terror and panic. What an idiot.

And speaking of idiots, Theo is no better; leaping to conclusions, whipping to extreme emotional responses within seconds, blowing everything out of proportion with very little use of logic or reason. Oy vey. Another youngster with very little grounding or sense. Not sure how much longer I can take it.

I'm also getting fed up with the writer's constant use of "but little did they know" type tactics to create tension that isn't achieved with any other tool. No one is in imminent jeopardy because the dead people are far in the past. So during those bits she drops things like "and I really wished we could stay so happy, but we couldn't" and "everything might have turned out ok except for Sean". Stuff like that drives me bonkers. It's lazy.

OK, I did push to the end and it's reasonably satisfying and upbeat with the solution and guilty parties (as well guilty deeds) are revealed throughout the book at a steady pace, so the final picture feels unrushed and graceful. I just wish the characters hadn't been so annoying as well as the awkward devices used to create suspense.… (mere)