Cry to Me by J.A. Schneider
Liddy Bell shot her husband—or did she? Liddy's sister Kim, a true crime writer, struggles to prove her sister innocent - and avoid falling for a man who might be dangerous. When the police declare the crime a failed murder-suicide attempt and Liddy as their suspect, Kim insists it's a setup. With a hurricane approaching, the police put their investigation on hold, and those closest find themselves all under one roof.
Krysten’s Review
Cry to Me by J.A. Schneider is an exciting, fast-paced, twisty mystery with a touch of romance. Filled with red herrings, unreliable characters, and plenty of suspects, you are never really sure who you can trust, and impending doom in the form of a hurricane really upped the ante. I plowed through the entire book within the space of two days.
This was an ARC, so I was a little surprised, to see that the book has been published for more than a year, as I found quite a few repetitive phrases, missed words, strange punctuation, and fragments that didn’t feel intentional. The use of italics was excessive, and it seemed like the author was basically saying, “Hey, pay attention to this, it’s important!” I also found the narrative difficult to follow in places, as it felt disjointed and skipped around without warning. (For example, in one scene, the characters are in the kitchen, and suddenly Kim tells us that David is working on the electric lamps, and by the way, he had just come back to the room, after having left to go look for more—but the actual action was left out, added only as an afterthought.)
This is my first book by J.A. Schneider, so perhaps part of this is just the author’s writing style. Or perhaps she was trying to convey the characters’ unbalanced mental state at the time. Still, I think the book could stand another editing pass to clean this up.
I also found the switching perspectives to be jarring, as there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the switches; the majority of the book is told first person from Kim’s perspective, with maybe half a dozen scenes from the perspectives of David, Winnie, and Liddy. Though there were some clues dropped in those scenes, the same information is shared from Kim’s perspective, so I wasn’t really sure what those added to the story, except frustrate me by taking me out of the main storyline.
By about 2/3 of the way through, I had an idea who the killer was, so when it was revealed, it wasn’t a huge surprise. But the second twist left me shocked — not only because I totally didn’t see it coming (in retrospect, the clues were there; I knew the details had to be important, but I didn’t put it together), but also because the way the information is delivered felt a bit rushed.
All that said, it was a compelling novel that I stayed up way too late reading, and I would definitely pick up another J.E. Schneider book in the future.
**Thanks to BookSiren and J.A. Schneider for an ARC of this book.**
Purchase on: Amazon
3.9Overall Score
Cry to Me by J.A. Schneider
Liddy Bell shot her husband—or did she? Her sister Kim, a true crime writer, struggles to prove her sister innocent—and avoid falling for a man who might be dangerous.