"A person's inner nature, that essence that made them who
they are, was a secret inscape. The man they were looking for, his
inscape was a dark and twisted wasteland."
The Newlywed is an entertaining mystery novel set in the imaginary coastal town of Seabreak, Western Australia. This is the third novel featuring Detective Veronika Pope, a likeable protagonist, and the first I've read. The setting and characters are believable, and the plot holds the reader's attention. We want to know who is behind the suspicious disappearances of two women fifteen years apart.
Willett's prose is straightforward but with poignant passages here and there, like the example posted above, and this seems to fit the setting and characters. What held me back from giving this book one more star, the elusive fifth one, was the missed opportunity to make it more challenging for the experienced armchair detective. In terms of suspense, everything was there, but I would have liked a little more mystery. I identified the culprit fairly easily, which in itself isn't necessarily a problem, but I would have preferred to catch the killer through clues carefully planted in the story rather than a mere guess. All the same, despite seeing what was coming, the climax and anticlimax were suspenseful and satisfying, in keeping with the buildup. I'm certainly interested in reading more of Anna Willett's work.
The Newlywed is an entertaining mystery novel set in the imaginary coastal town of Seabreak, Western Australia. This is the third novel featuring Detective Veronika Pope, a likeable protagonist, and the first I've read. The setting and characters are believable, and the plot holds the reader's attention. We want to know who is behind the suspicious disappearances of two women fifteen years apart.
Willett's prose is straightforward but with poignant passages here and there, like the example posted above, and this seems to fit the setting and characters. What held me back from giving this book one more star, the elusive fifth one, was the missed opportunity to make it more challenging for the experienced armchair detective. In terms of suspense, everything was there, but I would have liked a little more mystery. I identified the culprit fairly easily, which in itself isn't necessarily a problem, but I would have preferred to catch the killer through clues carefully planted in the story rather than a mere guess. All the same, despite seeing what was coming, the climax and anticlimax were suspenseful and satisfying, in keeping with the buildup. I'm certainly interested in reading more of Anna Willett's work.
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