In a Dark, Dark Wood
Reese Witherspoon says in one of the blurbs that she bit her fingernails off during the suspenseful scenes in Ruth Ware's IN A DARK, DARK, WOOD. Maybe she said that because she bought the rights to the movie, but it just didn't affect me the same way.
Nora (Lee, Leo) Shaw is invited to her former friend Claire's “hen party” (bachelorette party). She's perplexed because they haven't spoken in ten years. We eventually learn they've known each other since elementary school, when Nora was a loner everyone else ignored, and she stuttered. But the beautiful, popular Claire sat with her and made sure she was picked for playground games and other activities.
This is quite a crew who've been invited. Flo is certainly mentally unbalanced. This is her aunt's glass house they're using for the party. She idolizes Claire, going so far as to wear the same clothes, and she's determined to organize the best “hen do” for Claire of all time. Nina is another childhood friend with a penchant for sarcasm. She's also gay, as is Tom, a playwright, a friend of James, the fiance'. Melanie needed to get out of the house as she's the new mother of a six month old. She misses her baby. They play games, including the Ouija board, which during one attempt to reach a spirit spells out “murder”. They also go skeet shooting so everybody knows how to use a shotgun, a rather lame foreshadowing device. There's also a shotgun hanging above the fireplace, which Flo's aunt used to scare rabbits away from her garden. It's supposed to be loaded with blanks.
I don't think it's giving away to much to say that Claire invited Nora to her hen party because she wanted to tell her she was marrying, James, Nora's old boyfriend whom she hasn't gotten over yet. James dumped Nora in an undignified fashion.
Ware then jumps to a scene where Nora is in the hospital. She has cuts all over her face, hands, and feet, and she has two black eyes. She can't remember how she got that way, although it gradually starts coming back.
Ruth Ware wrote the best-seller, THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10, so she obviously knows how to write a mystery, but she just can't create a believable red herring in this one. We're more worried Nora will be arrested for something she didn't do. So, that's my main objection. It's too obvious who the villain really is. If you didn't know by page fifty, you don't read many mysteries.
Nora (Lee, Leo) Shaw is invited to her former friend Claire's “hen party” (bachelorette party). She's perplexed because they haven't spoken in ten years. We eventually learn they've known each other since elementary school, when Nora was a loner everyone else ignored, and she stuttered. But the beautiful, popular Claire sat with her and made sure she was picked for playground games and other activities.
This is quite a crew who've been invited. Flo is certainly mentally unbalanced. This is her aunt's glass house they're using for the party. She idolizes Claire, going so far as to wear the same clothes, and she's determined to organize the best “hen do” for Claire of all time. Nina is another childhood friend with a penchant for sarcasm. She's also gay, as is Tom, a playwright, a friend of James, the fiance'. Melanie needed to get out of the house as she's the new mother of a six month old. She misses her baby. They play games, including the Ouija board, which during one attempt to reach a spirit spells out “murder”. They also go skeet shooting so everybody knows how to use a shotgun, a rather lame foreshadowing device. There's also a shotgun hanging above the fireplace, which Flo's aunt used to scare rabbits away from her garden. It's supposed to be loaded with blanks.
I don't think it's giving away to much to say that Claire invited Nora to her hen party because she wanted to tell her she was marrying, James, Nora's old boyfriend whom she hasn't gotten over yet. James dumped Nora in an undignified fashion.
Ware then jumps to a scene where Nora is in the hospital. She has cuts all over her face, hands, and feet, and she has two black eyes. She can't remember how she got that way, although it gradually starts coming back.
Ruth Ware wrote the best-seller, THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10, so she obviously knows how to write a mystery, but she just can't create a believable red herring in this one. We're more worried Nora will be arrested for something she didn't do. So, that's my main objection. It's too obvious who the villain really is. If you didn't know by page fifty, you don't read many mysteries.
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