Bring me Back by B A Paris

kitabikida

        I loved the author's debut novel, "Behind closed doors". Her second novel, "The Breakdown" though not as good was a decent read. So I was quite excited about the her new book. However, the quality of the novels seem to be going downhill with the author's subsequent ones.

Finn's girlfriend Layla disappears on their way back home from their vacation in France. Twelve years later, he is about to marry her sister Ellen, when clues start appearing that Layla might be alive and back. There is no depth in the characters or the story, the narration is quite boring and the book failed to keep me hooked. There is no novelty in the story, blame it on the similar books abound in the market. I could guess the suspense quite in the beginning, I struggled to finish the book and hoped that my guesswork on the suspense was wrong. But except for a slight variation, the novel turned out just as I had anticipated. I wished the execution of the story was atleast clever but there was not much substance and the characters lacked depth. The number of times the Russion Dolls kept appearing at different places, the repetitive guesswork of the culprits involved, the trying hard to establish Finn as the Stocks Market genius(!) were major turnoffs and kept getting on my nerves.

Disappointed by the book, however I have hopes from the author and will wait for a better one from her in future.

cynic

I really liked "Behind closed doors" but "The Breakdown" was disappointing. Like most authors, B A Paris seems to be sticking to the formula that works. After a while, all the plots seem familiar.

jburman

I too agree with you.
The Breakdown the plot is somewhat loose according to me and the end result became more or less clear midway in the novel.
A novel should have that edginess.