Either I'm a supergenius, or Karen White severely underestimates her readers. The mystery in this book is a pretty poor excuse for a puzzle - I had the main part of it figured out less than 100 pages in. After that, it became tedious as the characters keep questioning this great mystery! it's such a puzzle! what does it mean?! And I am sitting here, rolling my eyes and banging my head against the wall and calling them idiots.

I am also not impressed with Melanie. In the first book, she had her obnoxious moments but they were few and far between. Here, she's on one big whinefest for most of the book. If she's not sniping and whining about her mother then it's about Jack. I really couldn't take the mother conflict after a while - Melanie, darling, you're 40 freaking years old. Grow up and MOVE ON. It only takes her the entire book to figure that out.

Someone else wrote a review that says Melanie acts more like she's in her 20s, and she would be charming if that were true. But then you remember she's 40, and all her moping becomes stupid and inane. And pointless.

Karen White does a good job of writing a spooky (yet clean) story, but I'm not impressed with her mysterious mysteries. However, I have now read 3 of her novels and 2 of those were at least decent, so my estimation of her as a writer has improved somewhat. Hopefully with the third book she will surprise me with harder puzzles and less whining. Please.