The bill for lies told decades earlier comes due for Kate Cranbrook, the complex narrator of Buhmann’s superior debut. In 1986, while Kate was a college student at Sweet Briar in western Virginia, she was raped and witnessed a murder. Kate’s eyewitness testimony convicts a man who’s released more than 20 years later based on DNA evidence. The development isn’t a complete surprise to Kate, who has lived with the knowledge that she perjured herself. Her life since the trial has been a disappointment, and her social life is limited by her possessive and creepy father, Pop, who keeps her on a tight leash. That constraint becomes even more difficult to bear when Kate, who works as a landscaper, falls for a gardener, Tony, and hopes she has found the love of her life. Things don’t go smoothly, and more blood is shed along the way to a jaw-dropping, but logical, climax that will make veteran mystery readers eager for more of Buhmann’s work. (BookLife)
This book haunted me long after I finished it. Throughout the read, I kept trying to form an opinion of the main character - was she a victim? a villain? - but couldn't puzzle out exactly how I felt about her actions. She kept me intrigued and frustrated (in a good way)as her life and the book unfolded. By the end, I was shocked by what was revealed - and how clever the writer was in laying it all out. I can't stop thinking about this book - and about what an amazing dark movie it would make. LOVED it.
What an Ending! I read this book on vacation and almost dropped my Kindle in the ocean when I got to the end. For me, it surprised me the way The Sixth Sense or The Usual Suspects did: all the signs were there, but I didn't see it coming. I thought the entire premise was brilliant. Buhmann's writing flows gracefully and is almost lyrical in its cadence. I love how close we are to Kate, in her thoughts and yet, she keeps us at arms length with her secrets. It's a feat to pull off the unreliable narrator, but to do it in first person point-of-view takes real skill. The plot is intricately stitched, all the threads that seem to be unrelated weave tightly together at the end. I can't wait to read more by Elizabeth Buhmann!
Buhmann does a superb job of letting Kate peel away layer after layer of the façade she's spent her lifetime creating...The last twenty pages of the book have more twists than a bag of pretzels. The true appeal of the book, though, is in witnessing the disintegration of an obsessive personality...like the train wreck you can't help but watch. In that regard, Buhmann's storytelling is in a class with Lolita.
