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Still Lives by Maria Hummel

November 15, 2018 By Kim Kingston

I only finished this book so I could tell you not to bother with it. According to The  Book Reviewer’s Code of Ethics (that I just made up) I can’t give a book a star rating unless I’ve finished it. So I finished it, and that two and a half hours of my life I won’t be getting back.

Normally Reese Witherspoon chooses decent books for her book club but I’m not quite sure what she was thinking here. Sure, there’s some interesting points about society’s fascination with women who are violently murdered, but then this is a thriller about a woman who was violently murdered. My main objection though is the characters; there’s way too many of them and they’re not at all interesting. The most interesting among them is the artist Kim Lord, and she’s missing and then dead. The protagonist Maggie inexplicably hides evidence from the police and conducts her own investigation and guess what guess what- that puts her own life in danger. And then there’s Maggie’s ex-boyfriend Greg, who is now the boyfriend of artist Kim Lord. The day after Kim Lord goes missing, Greg knows he’s the main suspect in the police investigation but nevertheless he decides to go to a horse riding party. No wonder they arrest him.

There’s so many very average thrillers out there, and this is one of them. Seriously, don’t bother with it. If you’ve read all the thrillers in my Top Five, try these much more intelligent thrillers instead; Something In The Water by Catherine Steadman, The Mountain Story by Lori Lansens, Before The Fall by Noah Hawley or Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy.

Filed Under: Thriller

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