A Goodreads user asked:

So, if she did it, then she WAS the "guy" in disguise on the bus? It was kind of a disappointing ending for me. The author did a really good job in court showing how she didn't do it - that by the time it came around to the ending it seemed so unbelievable.

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7 years ago
66 answers

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Bre kozak

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Tanya

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Cynthia

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Staci I loved the book. I think the ending was perfect. Kya was so connected to nature that her instincts were powered by nature. I loved that not only was she a successful and renowned biologist and author but she was also secretly the gifted local poet. Just an incredible woman. She was just so deeply connected to nature and the laws of the marsh and its inhabitants.

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Lori Michael Johnson

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Trish I loved the book. I thought that Tate had killed Chase and was so surprised by the ending. I love the ending because it proved once again (like I needed any more reminders) how amazingly strong and courageous Kya really was. I thought of her as a survivor most of the book, she was that but so very much more.

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Milie2112 Also, you must remember that she witnessed her mother's abuse at the hands of her father. When Chase was trying to rape her, she gathered strength by thinking what her mother went through She knew what the outcome would be and she was not going to let it happen to her. I think there was another time when after the attempted rape he came looking for her and she hid. The disguise was most likely provided by Jumpin. She was like a daughter to him. The court case showed that she would not have had enough time to do the crime and go back to Greenville . but she could outrun anyone. i really liked the end.

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J.C. Ahmed

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Elizabeth

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Anna I totally thought it was Jumpin since he insisted on knowing when she would be out of town and knew about the attempted rape. Tate's father was the fisherman who testified right? I wonder if he lied to protect her.

I think Kya had a real fear that Chase would continue to come back to rape her and she felt she couldn't press charges so I think she felt this was her only option.

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Bahareh Mostafazadeh

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Sally I agree! I had a hard time with the ending. I also had a hard time believing a 7 year old could live alone and support herself--I was almost over that by the end of the book but then the ending...

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Phil Neely

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Kumari de Silva yup, she WAS the guy on the bus. . . and the good lawyer got her off. The tip off is when she decides a life of loneliness is acceptable but a life of fear is not. That's when I figured we know she did it

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Amanda

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Melanie

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Kara Roche

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Lisa

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Joan I honestly thought it was Jumpin, who did it to protect her. I expected that she would be found guilty and then he would speak up and finally be the only man who protected her. But I was wrong. I loved the ending.

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jhst kmil

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Karen

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Erika Patterson

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Beth Snider

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Cathy

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Brittni

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Mary Lloyd

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Anthony Murphy

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Zaineb I loved this book so much. And as I discovered when I finished it, the poems actually acted as clues. If you look back in the final few chapters, you can see how the poems actually reveal that Kya did do it... super interesting and so well put together by the author

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Terri

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Steve I'm with you 100% especially as the entire book painted a picture of an intelligent but extremely unsophisticated person when it came to her understanding of the modern 'civilized' world. For her to suddenly employ a sophisticated counter-intelligence caper of that caliber with a through understanding and anticipation of how the criminal investigation would be conducted was silly, frankly.

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MsWhiskey Although, I loved the ending concept, I just thought it was disappointingly and scantly told. I want to read it in Kya's perspective, every detail of how she'd done it.

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Sammie Yes I totally agree! I felt like the narration was very inconsistent throughout the entire book.

The author may have included some beautiful descriptions of nature and excerpts of poems scattered throughout the novel, but the story changes pace far too many times, causing the novel to feel inauthentic and unrealistic as a whole; at times it felt like I was reading books written by 3 completely different authors!

The story ended abruptly and it felt like the author ran out of ideas, shoving everything together “neatly” in the last few pages. And whilst the solution to the key murder mystery in the novel was revealed to us in a brilliant way, I agree that it didn’t seem very believable.

I’m personally just glad to be onto another book!!

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Kaytness Same here. Figured Chase’s death was an accident since they left it open ended until the very end. Was surprised and unsure what to make of how it ended. But I guess it makes a sort of sense because she did have such a preoccupation with insects killing their mates.

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George Spoilers follow--but if you've read the question, you're already spoiled.

I've read about half the answers and their comments here, and responded to several. I'm posting here what I've got left over.

As many others have said, the trial did NOT do a good job of showing how she didn't do it, but only that it could not be certain that she did. In Scottish law there's what the rest of the UK calls "the Scots verdict", viz. "Not Proven". Which the cynical translate as "Not guilty, but don't you dare do it again." That's all that the trial led to, not proof of innocence.

Readers who had any doubt that when the trial ended there was more to know about the murder are not mystery readers. Investigators in such novels commonly tell each other that there are always loose ends--but that's before their false theory is disproved and they reach the truth. And the absence of the necklace--which could only have been taken away by the killer, whether as a trophy or a penalty--was a loose end that flapped loudly in the slightest breeze.

Finally, I think two difficulties solve each other. If Chase was the sort of jerk who could wear the necklace despite everything--including his marriage--then he was also the sort who could be tricked by a message to "Meet me at the top of the tower at midnight. If you love me as I do you, you will await me."

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IvanOpinion I think it worked well. The sheriff and prosecutor did a great job of showing that Kya could have done it, despite her going to great lengths to hide what she did. But they completely failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that she did do it. She committed a close to perfect crime (in my view, for good reasons).

I certainly thought this was a possible explanation, along with Tate and Jumpin doing it. I also had a more outlandish theory that Kya's father did it. That is, that he returned and found out what Chase did and decided he could make recompense for his past actions by protecting his daughter.

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Lee at ReadWriteWish I think I found it a bit disappointing in the fact that the only way a woman can deal with a [potential] rapist and physically abusive man is to kill them. Other than that, I found it all very obvious.

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Caryn

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Danielle She had no choice? She murdered someone in cold blood. She plotted it out and killed him. And she got away with it. My issue is the author creating so much sympathy for this character and then dropping that on the reader in the final page. I feel dirty. I loved Kya, but what she did was terrible. I felt so bad for her, stuck in that awful jail for 2 months. I wanted her to get off because I thought she was innocent (still wondering about that hat until the last page though). Now, knowing that she was guilty, I feel so uncomfortable.

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Karen

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Lyn Ryan

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Patricia Zube

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Deanna G

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Joani

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Julie Regan

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Alice I loved the book and thought it was incredibly written. I don't think it seemed unbelievable, and I liked how she kept you second guessing your judgement until the very end, I thought she had done it the whole time but I kept questioning whether I was right or not, found myself thinking "maybe it was Tate, maybe Jumpin did it for her, maybe Jumpin did it and she knew he was going to so she went back to cover up his tracks so he wouldn't be caught" I liked how it wasn't clear whether or not she had done it until the very end.

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Michael Bustamante

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Wilkensbane

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Vicki Tate gave her his hat after she had been hit by Chase, right? So, Tate might have been mad enough to go after him but the hat fibers had to be left between that time and the death.

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Mauri Baumann

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Karen It was so ironic that the sheriff and prosecutor actually figured out who did it and how she did it. But it seemed implausible, because the timing was tight and why didn't the hotel clerk see her come and go? But I kept wondering about that red cap that was given to her by Tate not long before Chase's death. The author left lots of hints when talking about insects like the firefly. And, of course, the missing shell necklace. Taking that was one mistake Kya made, since it shifted interest towards her. But for me, Amanda Hamilton's identity was the bigger surprise. Kya may have committed a crime, but, in her mind, it was self-defense. After what she witnessed with her father's abuse, it's understandable.

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Hermione The most unbelievable thing for me was not what she did, it's that she didn't get caught. She was such a sheltered individual, with little knowledge of how the real world works (especially invastigations/police procedures) that it seemed far fetched that she didn't mess up with the disguise, fingertips etc or accidentally reveal herself through the process. It was as if she knew exactly how everything worked.

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Pam Rasmussen She says, "Insects know how to deal with their lovers."

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Susan

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Esther Clark remember the red hat. that was the giveaway.

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Minty

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Kim Yes, it seems Kya was disguised as the guy on the bus. At first, I didn't think it was believable that she would kill Chase, but then I thought of her father, she had more in common with him than she thought.

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Omar AbdelFattah

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Alexander

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Nico

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Kathy P Yes, she was the disguised person on the bus, likely wearing clothing provided by Jumpin. The timeline is a bit hard to swallow, but I can get past that. (The whole time, I was expecting the killer to be her father).

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Gayle I think the book tried to make two things very clear during the court case:
1. Kya's lawyer was simply very skilled and better than Chase's lawyer, end of story.
2. Kya COULD have done it--explanations are found for every step of her plan--but in a case as serious as a first degree murder, the mere possibility isn't enough. There had to be evidence and Kya left none.

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