An action packed thriller that was enjoyable, with a couple little nitpicks. This was my Kindle First pick for February. I'll be honest, I wasn't that excited going into it, but I thought it sounded the most interesting out of what was being offered. I don't regret picking it up at all! Kept my attention from page one to the very last page.

It starts off quickly and doesn't let up until the killer is revealed at the end. A few twists and turns here and there. I had a small inkling of who the killer might be, but was still surprised at the end. Lots of action and very few (if any) slow scenes.

Even though I didn't find our hero to be particularly endearing (but I don't think he was meant to be) and not very likeable, he was written very realistically. I didn't agree with everything he did, but being in the same situation, I think I would have done the same thing, and I understood why he did what he did. We don't learn too much about other characters, other than our hero and a little bit about the young woman who goes on the run with him. Also enjoyed the chapters about our hero's past, and while I didn't think there was too much of a point to them, it did flesh out his character a little more and explained his actions.

There was one other part I didn't quite understand, when he meets two Eastern European men. Without revealing any spoilers, the situation felt unresolved at the end, and left me scratching my head as to what the point of those scenes were. Thought it would lead somewhere, but it didn't.

Other than that, I enjoyed the book and Mr. Croft's writing. I would pick up this author's other, and future works. ( )

I hate Dan. He is the reason his wife is dead, yet he gets off scot-free. Yeah, he didn't kill her technically, but the reason Lisa is dead is because he's a cheating bastard. That poor woman. Also, the way Jess acted in the beginning was a huge clue that she was the killer. Who does that? Ugh. ( )

Book source ~ Kindle First

Dan Cooper sets up lighting rigging for movie sets. He travels quite a bit, so he gets to sleep around on his wife. A lot. He doesn’t even feel bad about it. Until one day his wife shows up in his hotel bathtub, 70 miles from their home. Oh, and she’s deader than a doornail. All signs point to Dan as her murderer, so he panics, packs up, and flees the scene. The hotel receptionist that he’s been banging this trip goes with him. What a weirdo. Anyway, they flee England for France then Switzerland. Blah, blah, blah.

This story is awful. No, really. Dan spends the ENTIRE book whining about how his wife is dead and someone is framing him. Because he may be a shitty husband but he doesn’t deserve to be framed for murder. And who is framing him? Well, let’s run hundreds of miles and several countries away, so we can figure that out, shall we? Omg. No. Stop. I should have just tossed in the towel on this one. But I was genuinely curious as to who framed this stupid fucking whiny cheating asshole. Whatever. It was not worth the aggravation of listening to Dan. Interspersed with Whiny Dan in present tense there’s Young Dan in past tense describing how he grew up. That was a much better story by far than the current day one, even as fucked up as Dan’s childhood was. In any case, I recommend this book to no one except the people I don’t like. There are much better mystery/thrillers out there and I’m moving on to find them. ( )

Daniel Cooper is working in Herne Bay and has an affair with the hotel receptionist, then one night returning from dinner he finds his wife dead in the bath of his hotel room. This promising plot start is sadly undermined by a series of more and more unbelievable plot twists as Daniel attempts to understand who has attempted to frame him for his wife's murder. There are also odd chapters devoted to Daniel's childhood which don't add anything to the plot and barely anything to understanding his personality or motivation. Disappointing. ( )