“Your character will be what you yourself choose to make it.”- John Lubbock
This book opens up with Linda sitting in Alfie’s bedroom waiting for him, to seek his help in her twin sister’s murder. It is a thriller, which for me closely resembled a Mills and Boons novel.
Linda and Samantha are twins who live with their abusive father and elder brother. They are invariably blamed for their mother’s death as she died during childbirth. Samantha is murdered gruesomely, and Linda seeks Alfie’s help in finding her murderer. Alfie and Linda share a complicated relationship as she is an escort, and he is her most dedicated client. The book follows Linda on her journey to seek revenge entailing the help of the city’s most dangerous mobster- Alfie.
This book did not resonate with me. For me, Linda seems like a headless chicken, who has no issues playing the “damsel in distress” throughout the novel, but suddenly develops a spine at the end of the book. The author tries to portray Linda as a feminist; however, she has miserably failed. The character is underdeveloped and seems to lead her life on a whim. The character development had a lot of potential, and I wish the author would have taken the efforts to portray her in a much better way.
Alfie is depicted as a strong, good at heart, and devilishly good-looking mobster. He has his heart in the right place, and there are multiple instances in the book that depict those. Alfie’s character is the only one for which I felt the author had invested time and effort. All other characters felt either random, forced into the storyline, or lacking.
The book’s end is so poorly written that it seems to have an abrupt end. The author does not justify the ending or the character’s decision sufficiently. It seems as if the author just got tired of writing and decided not to delve into the reasons. The book has 104 pages only and can be completed in a single sitting.
I will give the book 2/5 stars. It did not appeal to me, and I believe the plot had lots of potential; however, the author refused to explore that. I received a free ARC of this book and I am leaving my review voluntarily.