I read this book because it got starred reviews from both Booklist and Publisher’s Weekly, but after reading it I can’t help wondering at those accolades. The prose is not particularly poetic, the characters (though likeable enough) are not compelling, and the plot is not that engaging. I had no trouble setting it aside when it was time to go to bed, and I’m the type of person who is easily and thoroughly absorbed by a good story.

I wonder whether the reviewers at Booklist and Publishers Weekly were old fogeys, because there’s something a bit old-fashioned about the writing. Maybe it’s the leisurely pace or the sometimes-extraneous dialogue, but it’s not as brisk as we’re accustomed to seeing in ‘younger’ writing. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, but be advised that if you’re looking for intensity you won’t find it here.

As some other reviewers have mentioned, the guilty party’s actions at the end weren’t terribly believable, but I could have looked past that. What I found most disconcerting were the series of small details that gave me pause—one of them on its own wouldn’t be problematic, but you can’t get lost in a story when unlikely details keep jarring you out of your state of suspended disbelief.

*****Spoiler Alert*****

For example (some of these are minor—it’s the cumulative effect):

-I’ve never heard of anyone wearing rubber gloves to muck out stalls, especially in the heat of mid-afternoon, and it’s even less likely on a ranch that is doubtless littered with leather gloves. And mucking out stalls—particularly those bedded with straw—is hard, heavy, dirty work. It seems highly unlikely that a woman in her 70’s would be doing it, even in an emergency. And it wasn’t an emergency, because the horses were already turned out to pasture.

-Does caller ID really work from a cell phone to a landline when the person’s never called before? It doesn’t, in my experience. The author could have avoided raising that doubt and just written, “Collin called”.

-Neither a blue heeler nor a Husky are hunting dogs (they are working breeds; the blue heeler, in particular, is a very fine cattle herder). Red, as a cowboy, would have known that.

-After the main character finds the dead body of her recent lover she calls someone she barely knows, in a motel in another town, rather than warning her own family, who are in grave danger a stone’s throw away. I personally thought that bordered on the ridiculous.

-The declaration of love near did not ring true to me. The author has led us to believe that, although they’ve lived in the same small town all their lives, these characters have shared about five minutes of actual conversation. Based on this, the man states ‘I’ve always loved you’? I can’t see it. Infatuation, yes. Wild attraction, certainly. But love? This is a 30-year-old lawyer we’re talking about, not a hormonal 16-year-old.

-Finding the bolo tie suddenly makes a wife of 20-odd years suspect her husband, and immediately connect his guilt with the hidden box? Which he hasn't gotten around to destroying in the intervening 23 years? That strains credulity.

You get the idea. Perhaps I would have enjoyed the book more if I’d known less about it, but this is a critically acclaimed novel by an award-winning writer. Frankly, I expected more.