Talk about a freaky read. This quick novella story captivated me for three consecutive hours as I walked around the house, shaking my head at it all. What a great thriller and an interesting plot!

When widowed mother Clara is taken to jail for the murder of her Lavender Valley neighbor, Rachel Stapleton, her son Sebastien immediately calls an old family friend and detective, Simon. They left Simon behind in Hartford after the loss of Clara’s husband, and an investigation that left the family permanently marred when it unfolded. Clara isn’t thrilled about the detective’s presence, but Simon is determined to prove Clara’s innocence, and begins an investigation into the incident and the town itself. Their presence in Lavender Valley simply doesn’t feel right to Simon.

I just grabbed this one on a whim on Audible, as I think I get a free Audible Original once a month? I have no idea what I even pay for, if it’s not painfully obvious. I originally thought it was a true crime (doesn’t the cover kind of look like one?) but it became pretty obvious at the start that it’s not; it’s written with quite a bit of emotion and in the first person, so it doesn’t have that clinical true crime vibe to it either. Definitely, firmly in the mysteries and thrillers category.

This short little novella packs a punch. The plotting and character development in such a short span is nothing short of impressive, and makes for a terribly fun read. Everything unfolds *perfectly*, even in such a short amount of time, and it holds all the elements of a full length thriller.

Everything ties together really nicely in the end, but I liked that everything felt sort of off right from the start. I didn’t really pick up on the actual ~guilty party~ until it was pretty much revealed to me as the reader, but it adds up, so points for everything making sense. In fact, much of what made me suspect my number one choice was directly related to the relationship to the actual guilty party – if you can wrap your head around that unfortunate word vomit story. Basically, what I’m trying to get at here is that the author did a great job throwing me off the truth trail and I thought that was pretty dang cool, for such a short book.

Highly recommend this one; it’ll only take you a few hours to listen and the narrators were great. Happy reading!