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Try this book:

• If you casually like mysteries or want to dip your toe into the mystery genre without going back in history. (Agatha Christie is a great mystery writer, arguably one of the best, but if you prefer books set in a more present day, this is a good choice.)
• For a nice balance of plot and character development, or you’re just looking for an interesting story.
• For the characters! There are lots of reviews of people who didn’t love the plot, but did love the characters. So if you don’t care too much about plot, this could be a great choice for you, though I felt like there was enough plot (and it was good!)

 

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Avoid this book

• If you need your plot twists to be crazy dramatic. Some plot twists will never be enough for people, and with any mystery, if you figure things out easily (I never do), this one could be too obvious for you. I’m not great at rating that, but it is one of the bigger complaints.
  • Sub-point: If you’re really familiar with crime fiction and mystery, this may not be a good fit for you. Lots of readers who loved this genre actually did not like the execution in this one. (No pun intended?)
• Gory/creepy killer stuff is not for you. This book is tame, but it’s the first part of a series, so this bullet point is more for the series as a whole. This could be a good standalone book, but if you think you’ll get sucked into the series, the 2nd one is creepy and made me shudder a lot, and the third… well… I read 2 sentences and I had to stop.
• You don’t like books with a ton of cursing.
• If you’re just reading it because you loved Harry Potter. (Robert Galbraith IS JK Rowling) This does not work for everyone who loved HP and she does write differently for an adult audience.

 

My review/thoughts: I don’t remember if I read this before or after I heard it was JK Rowling. I believe I read it before? I don’t think I read it knowing it was her, and I’m not sure if I would have. Maybe I did, I don’t know. My point is that she wrote another book before she wrote this one (after HP) called The Casual Vacancy that I truly believe is one of the worst books I’ve ever read and it made me a little sad. I like Rowling’s writing in HP. I really hated it in The Casual Vacancy. So I wasn’t 100% sure I could trust any other “adult” novels she wrote.

However, I did really enjoy this! I wouldn’t say this is my favorite author for the writing, and I’m not sure I would recommend this book because it’s extremely well written. But I like the story that was told, and I do think it was told in an engaging and interesting way. I’m not big into the mystery genre. I like a mystery book every now and then, but it is definitely not my go-to genre. I think because of that, I was able to enjoy this more than your average mystery-genre reader. I know I’ve mentioned this, but I don’t guess plot twists easily, so I’m easily surprised and enjoy a good twist. This had a good twist.

I remember enjoying the story and reading it fairly quickly and would recommend it to people just looking for a good story. I wouldn’t say this book is a favorite, but I definitely recommend it to people because I think it can be liked by people who enjoy a variety of genres.

If you’ve read this one, let me know if you liked it or if it’s going on your TBR list!