Thursday 9 July 2015

Review: Somebody I Use to Know by David J. Bell

The breakout author of The Forgotten Girl and Cemetery Girl, “one of the brightest and best crime fiction writers of our time” (Suspense Magazine) delivers a new novel about a man who is haunted by a face from his past....

When Nick Hansen sees the young woman at the grocery store, his heart stops. She is the spitting image of his college girlfriend, Marissa Minor, who died in a campus house fire twenty years earlier. But when Nick tries to speak to her, she acts skittish and rushes off.

The next morning the police arrive at Nick’s house and show him a photo of the woman from the store. She’s been found dead, murdered in a local motel, with Nick’s name and address on a piece of paper in her pocket.

Convinced there's a connection between the two women, Nick enlists the help of his college friend Laurel Davidson to investigate the events leading up to the night of Marissa’s death. But the young woman’s murder is only the beginning...and the truths Nick uncovers may make him wish he never doubted the lies.



Kindle Edition, 448 pages
Published July 7th 2015 by NAL 
Genre: Mystery/Suspense

Kristine's Thoughts:

** I received an advanced readers copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!**

This book was definitely filled with a lot of twists and turns and although it was over 400 pages it read more like a 200 page book. I was able to get through it quickly and easily.

There were many things that I liked about this book. I liked the fact that it wasn't cut and dry and no amount of guess work could easily solve the mystery for the reader. There were however, some aspects that were easy to figure out such as who made the 911 call and who started the fire. For the most part the story was believable and realistic with only a few hard to imagine areas.

I also liked the characters in the book. They all seemed to be your average, everyday people that readers could relate to. Nick was just a run of the mill guy who was unlucky in love and life in the context of this story. With all of the characters I do have to say that Riley was my absolute favourite. He may have been of the canine variety but I just adored him.

I had a slight moral problem with the outcome for one of the characters in the book. I don't want to give anything away but I do feel like this character never had the proper consequences for their actions which seemed too easy for the story and a whole lot wrong. In fact, there were a few characters where this was the case but one particular one stood out to me. You'll understand it when you read it.

Over all I thought this was an enjoyable mystery that kept me guessing and kept me interested.


 

About the Author
David Bell is a bestselling and award-winning author whose work has been translated into six languages. He’s an associate professor of English at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He received an MA in creative writing from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and a PhD in American literature and creative writing from the University of Cincinnati.

Connect with David
 

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