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The police are also suffering from problems that would sink the most robust of marriages. Zailer and Waterhouse are forever bickering, their colleague (a married father of twins) is preparing to read at the wedding of the woman with whom he's having an affair. Meanwhile at their superior’s house, Proust's family has problems with him. As the first half ended, I just wanted to bang heads together. But then something happens…
Almost exactly half way through the book a violent occurrence changes everything. Ok, not everything – everyone is still as nasty as they ever were. However , this ceases to matter as the adventure is cranked up a notch and the mystery takes over from the arguments and domestic unbliss. Suddenly I started to care about whether Tim could or couldn't have done it. I started thinking about the other inhabitants of his odd home (a single residence housing four suitably quirky couples) and the letters that are scattered among the chapters had my rapt attention. Action and twists appeared making sense of everything afterwards, if not before.
If we are going to be presented with a plethora of dysfunctional people, this is the sort of compensation that would have made the novel a page -turner from the beginning and would easily have added an extra star to this review. For me, the heat was welcome and good but turned on a little too late to want to buy it. Having said that, to me it's a novel well worth the borrowing for a second -half that will definitely intrigue and warm a winter's evening… or you may just decide otherwise.
If you want to try some more Sophie Hannah, we recommend [[A Room Swept White by Sophie Hannah|A Room Swept White]]. If you've already been entranced by this, then we also recommend [[The Burning Air by Erin Kelly]]. We also enjoyed [[The Visitors Book by Sophie Hannah]].
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