First, “Dead to Her” badly needed an editor. At nearly 400 pages it was 100-150 pages too long. The middle dragged terribly with very little happening to forward the story. Just more of the same over and over..

This wasn’t a thriller. There was nothing thrilling about it.

ALL the men in this story were portrayed as liars, cheats or just stupid. And the women characters reinforced this. That felt forced.

As soon as William was discovered to have been poisoned I knew immediately “who done it.” (And I’m usually the last to know.) But OF COURSE, the butler did it (or the PA, in this case the same thing). The few herrings presented were pink, not red.

Characters were so undeveloped (and with 400 pages that shouldn’t have been an issue).

In her acknowledgements the author [sort of] apologizes to the city of Savannah for not having had enough time to get to know the town before writing her book. And it showed. If the story didn’t constantly flog the fact it was taking place in Savannah, it would be just another town with a southern accent. And frankly, that disturbed me. For an English author to undertake setting her plot in an American city, especially one with unique cultural aspects, and not do it well is bad form and feels appropriating.

But … other than all that … it was great (LOL)!

Goodreads is a sham as so few publish reviews of books they didn’t like.

It mostly just felt really dated to me. I was obviously very disappointed.

I also thought the affair was over the top and shoe horned in to make things “scandalous”. I actually would really love to see a thriller with an authentic relationship like that (trying to be vague). This was just corny.