Cummins adds in a bit of texture as we learn about potential marital issues, dodgy business dealings and a daughter who’s less-perfect than she comes across. THE DETECTIVE: DS Saul Anguish, brilliant but with a dark past, treads the narrow line between light and shade. As much as I love both characters, Him’s was something else, to get into his head as to why and talking to his demon.

A message on Riva’s dressing table mirror, written in blood, gets everyone’s attention - “MAKE THEM STOP!When Julianne gets to the house, it’s not a case of ‘what she finds’, more a case of ‘what she doesn’t find’. Nothing behind the character but surface level description, with a very dark side, unexplainable patterns of behavior which made me consider what the book even meant. It examines in depth the ‘perfect’ friendships and domestic bliss and, just like picking at scabs, it often leaves seeping wound in its wake.

Vieira quotes the artists who made these movies and the journalists and critics who wrote about them, taking readers on a year-by-year tour of the exciting nights when movies like Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, and Sunset Boulevard were sprung on an unsuspecting public. The Crime: The gilded Holden family - Piper and Gray and their two teenage children, Riva and Artie - have vanished from the house without trace. Enter, Detective DS Saul Anguish who is brilliant, with a dark and sinister past (everyone has secrets, right?

It’s initially intriguing and I wondered what became of the Holden family; but by the midpoint, we get an entirely different picture of events and this is where Cummins excels via cleverly-concealed details and timely reveals. But I think trying to force in too many secrets meant a lot of the storylines fell short of entertaining because they weren't padded out. Julianne arrives early one morning for her weekly run with Piper Holden, but there is no answer when she knocks. Esse não é um relacionamento saudável que você lê em diversos livros de romances, mas ainda assim, mesmo de um jeito doentio, eles se completam. The timeline in this book hops from before the disappearance in each chapter to after the disappearance.

I was impressed by the way she was masterfully able to bring each character to life with their own unique voice, switching effortlessly between characters and accents.

I did wish that it could have ended differently, but it really was perfect for these characters and their romance (obsessive relationship). However, if another book was published with his character I would definitely read it to see if I could gather more insight. I felt like I was missing something with Saul and Blue, as if I had stepped into the middle of a series and missed the character building necessary to make these people feel fleshed out and real. They set out to find what happened to the Holden family and why Julianne seems a bit too eager to help them. So I recognised just what effort it takes to keep a relationship going after the offspring have grown.