T.M. Logan is the bestselling author of the standalone thrillers “Lies” and “29 Seconds”. Having enjoyed the latter novel, I was very much looking forward to reading this, his latest publication “The Holiday”.
Although this is far from fast paced and a definite cliched ‘slow burn’ it did open with some beautifully atmospheric descriptions that pulled me into the French setting perfectly.
I liked how the chapters were told through the different characters with the main voice being the female protagonist Kate. I did however, have some issues with the characters, Kate in particular. She didn’t suit her occupation of a crime scene investigator and felt that she was rather (for want of a better term) a wet blanket. Having discovered texts on her husband Sean’s phone, causing her to believe he was having an affair with one of her three best friends they were currently on holiday with, she is stunned to believe he could be so deceitful. To continue playing happy families with her husband and keep up social niceties with her friends, just didn’t ring true. I’m not sure many people would handle the situation in the same way but it did allow for the story to develop enough suspicions to keep the reader intrigued and focus on trust within friendships and relationships. Generally all the adult characters were uninspiring, unlikeable and odd, though I felt (through personal parental experience) the teenagers to be very true and realistic - moody, secretive and surly, generally due to the current world of communicating with peers, involving the internet and social media! It’s possible that due to the author being male and writing emotions for female characters, that was why the women seemed off kilter but I did sadly struggle to endear to any of them at all.
I wasn’t sold either on the whole big twist and reason for Sean’s secrecy but I undoubtedly wanted to follow the story to the end and was intrigued enough by who it was having the affair with him to see it though.
The story begs the question, can we ever trust our best friends, even those we’ve known for many years and explores many other issues, including how far would a parent go to protect their own offspring.
Not earth shattering by any standard but a nice quick ‘holiday’ read that, if you like slow burn mysteries, you should enjoy and I was entertained enough to read more again by this author in the future.
3 stars
Although this is far from fast paced and a definite cliched ‘slow burn’ it did open with some beautifully atmospheric descriptions that pulled me into the French setting perfectly.
I liked how the chapters were told through the different characters with the main voice being the female protagonist Kate. I did however, have some issues with the characters, Kate in particular. She didn’t suit her occupation of a crime scene investigator and felt that she was rather (for want of a better term) a wet blanket. Having discovered texts on her husband Sean’s phone, causing her to believe he was having an affair with one of her three best friends they were currently on holiday with, she is stunned to believe he could be so deceitful. To continue playing happy families with her husband and keep up social niceties with her friends, just didn’t ring true. I’m not sure many people would handle the situation in the same way but it did allow for the story to develop enough suspicions to keep the reader intrigued and focus on trust within friendships and relationships. Generally all the adult characters were uninspiring, unlikeable and odd, though I felt (through personal parental experience) the teenagers to be very true and realistic - moody, secretive and surly, generally due to the current world of communicating with peers, involving the internet and social media! It’s possible that due to the author being male and writing emotions for female characters, that was why the women seemed off kilter but I did sadly struggle to endear to any of them at all.
I wasn’t sold either on the whole big twist and reason for Sean’s secrecy but I undoubtedly wanted to follow the story to the end and was intrigued enough by who it was having the affair with him to see it though.
The story begs the question, can we ever trust our best friends, even those we’ve known for many years and explores many other issues, including how far would a parent go to protect their own offspring.
Not earth shattering by any standard but a nice quick ‘holiday’ read that, if you like slow burn mysteries, you should enjoy and I was entertained enough to read more again by this author in the future.
3 stars