Hello everyone!
I'm back with another review, One Small Sacrifice by Hilary Davidson. Thanks so much to Thomas Allen and Son for sending me a copy of this book for an honest review, as always, all opinions are my own.
This book follows a number of different perspectives, although the two prominent ones are Alex Traynor, a war-zone photographer whose fiancée, Emily, has gone missing and Detective Sheryn Sterling, who is convinced that Alex is not only responsible for his Emily's disappearance but also the death of Alex's friend, Cori, last year. He got off last time, but this time, Sheryn is convinced she can connect him to Emily's disappearance and put him away for good. However, there are a lot of moving pieces, many of which neither Alex, nor Sheryn is aware of, and in the end, all anyone really wants to do is find Emily before it's too late.
Going into this book, I was worried that it was going to be the usual formulaic thriller where there is a bit of back and forth, but in the end, it was the boyfriend/fiancé. I'm not going to give away the ending, but I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by the way Davidson handled the mystery. There were a number of suspects and a number of times where I was convinced I knew who was responsible, and really, until the end, didn't know for sure.
There were also a number of layered themes and components to this book, from relief camps overseas and the opioid crisis to discussions of the PTSD Alex suffered as a result of his time in war-ridden countries. Sheryn makes a lot of assumptions about the case based on her own personal experiences of people with PTSD and while they are perhaps not necessarily accurate in the case of Alex, the discussion of PTSD was really interesting and important in this book.
I did end up reading this book in one sitting, though I'm not sure it was because I was particularly enthralled in it. I liked it because it was unique and generally a good mystery, although I wouldn't call it a new favourite.
Overall, I enjoyed this one and if you are looking for something a little more refreshing in the thriller genre, I'd give it a go!