They All Fall Down

by Rachel Howzell Hall

[empressbrooke]

I'm a fan of Rachel Howzell Hall's Elouise Norton mystery series, so I was eagerly anticipating this stand-alone novel. Unfortunately, it's really messy. I really liked the premise, and I always enjoy an unreliable narrator, and all the bones were there of a really great thriller. However, it has an insanely melodramatic tone that just ruined it for me. It could have been creepy but it threw that out the door for pure camp - and I'm not entirely sure how intentional that was. There was also a bizarre subplot related to a Mexican drug cartel that should have been axed entirely. If I'd been the editor, I would have advised slowing down the pace and ratcheting up the dread.