I am so excited to be a part of The Cutaway Blog Tour! Today, I will be sharing my review of the book, as well as the author's dream cast for the main character of the book! Make sure you check out the other blog tour stops for more content and a special prize pack!
First, I want to share my review; thank you so much to Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy of this book for an honest review, as always, all opinions are my own.
I went into this book not knowing the synopsis, I wanted to go in blind. The only thing I knew about this book was that it was a thriller.
The story follows Virginia Knightly, a news producer whose latest story is the disappearance of Evelyn Carney. Evelyn was last seen leaving a restaurant where she was having dinner with her husband. Virginia quickly becomes deeply involved in the case, following leads in her professional life and calling in old favours in her personal life. As Virginia begins to unravel this seemingly unsolvable mystery, new details emerge about those closest to the case and she begins to wonder if she can trust anyone.
I think what I enjoyed most about this book was the fact that the main character was a news producer, someone of the press. Typically, with these types of thrillers, you get the story of the police investigation. Of course, Virginia works with the police to get information, but her perspective is a lot different than that of a cop. She, of course, still has to deal with office politics and a side romance, but the way she gets her information is drastically different from that of the usual crime thriller. I found this a refreshing take in a world of thrillers bogged down by the police investigation and enjoyed the unique challenges she faced. Virginia had to worry about sources - their credibility, their information - and she had to worry about clearances and hitting road blocks of people with "no comment."
The author draws on personal experience to introduce the inner workings of the news world and I thought it worked well.
I thought the pacing of the book was well done. I find thrillers are often way too fast or drag on but this was a good in between pace. There were a couple of parts that I didn't think were super important or relevant, mainly a lot of the background info on Virginia and her visit with her father. Some of these moments made it seem like this book was a part of a series where this info could expand into a plot point later, but nothing really came of it. There were a few minor connections, but not enough to make all the questionable scenes worth it.
The reasoning behind everything was very believable and fairly intricate. I'm still not 100% sure of all the details but generally speaking, it makes sense.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it if you are looking for a fresh take on a thriller.
Next up, the dream cast. The television rights have been sold, so we may be seeing a TV adaptation in the future! I'm terrible at picturing people for roles, but Kovac has an idea for Virginia:
I hope you will pick up this novel and check out the other stops on the tour!