The Night We Lost Him
Ratings25
Average rating3.5
Added to listLibrary Book Clubwith 2 books.
Added to listFictionwith 91 books.
Added to listMysterywith 38 books.
I refuse to give this the thriller tag, because it's not all that thrilling.
Nora is a neuroarchitect (yeah, I had to look that up too) living in Brooklyn with boyfriend Jack. She's...not exactly estranged from her family, but near enough to it. Her father, Liam, dies suddenly from falling off a cliff at his California home. Whoops. Brother Sam contacts Nora, suspicious about the cause of death being ruled an accident, and whisks Nora away to do some whirlwind investigating in California. What's covered in this book is the complicated history of this family, Nora's reluctance to form attachments with anyone around her, and everyone's extensive backstory which doesn't usually play a part in the eventual resolution of their father's death.
This was way more of a family drama than it was either a mystery or a thriller. The plot moves at a glacial pace, so if you're here for the 'what happened to Liam' portion of this story, settle in for the long haul. I feel like the author tried to do too much with this story, and should have leaned into either a total family drama and left the murder mystery out of it, or a total murder mystery and left the rest of the family baggage out. As it is, we bounce between ideas a lot during the bulk of this story, and it takes forever for any one of the ideas to reach something close to a conclusion.
I also kind of didn't like Nora as a character either. She has commitment issues, and large parts of this book are her mental thoughts about how she should call boyfriend Jack to check in, continues to not do so, actively ignore his texts, and generally treats what seems like a great guy terribly. The relationship drama included in this book felt entirely unnecessary.
Kind of a miss with me. It's short though!
I refuse to give this the thriller tag, because it's not all that thrilling.
Nora is a neuroarchitect (yeah, I had to look that up too) living in Brooklyn with boyfriend Jack. She's...not exactly estranged from her family, but near enough to it. Her father, Liam, dies suddenly from falling off a cliff at his California home. Whoops. Brother Sam contacts Nora, suspicious about the cause of death being ruled an accident, and whisks Nora away to do some whirlwind investigating in California. What's covered in this book is the complicated history of this family, Nora's reluctance to form attachments with anyone around her, and everyone's extensive backstory which doesn't usually play a part in the eventual resolution of their father's death.
This was way more of a family drama than it was either a mystery or a thriller. The plot moves at a glacial pace, so if you're here for the 'what happened to Liam' portion of this story, settle in for the long haul. I feel like the author tried to do too much with this story, and should have leaned into either a total family drama and left the murder mystery out of it, or a total murder mystery and left the rest of the family baggage out. As it is, we bounce between ideas a lot during the bulk of this story, and it takes forever for any one of the ideas to reach something close to a conclusion.
I also kind of didn't like Nora as a character either. She has commitment issues, and large parts of this book are her mental thoughts about how she should call boyfriend Jack to check in, continues to not do so, actively ignore his texts, and generally treats what seems like a great guy terribly. The relationship drama included in this book felt entirely unnecessary.
Kind of a miss with me. It's short though!
I really wanted to like this book, but it was quite flat. I would’ve enjoyed it more if the story was just Liam and Cory’s relationship. All this extra bouncing around with his kids felt like an odd way to tell Liam’s story. It didn’t give us enough time to understand Liam and Cory, but their story was the center of it all.
It’s a quick read, so I couldn’t help but finish it. Predictable. I would have liked a little more time with the side characters- Sam, Tommy, Jack. The main characters were just frustrating. Why are they making these same decisions year after year?!
I really wanted to like this book, but it was quite flat. I would’ve enjoyed it more if the story was just Liam and Cory’s relationship. All this extra bouncing around with his kids felt like an odd way to tell Liam’s story. It didn’t give us enough time to understand Liam and Cory, but their story was the center of it all.
It’s a quick read, so I couldn’t help but finish it. Predictable. I would have liked a little more time with the side characters- Sam, Tommy, Jack. The main characters were just frustrating. Why are they making these same decisions year after year?!
I really wanted to like this book, but it was quite flat. I would’ve enjoyed it more if the story was just Liam and Cory’s relationship. All this extra bouncing around with his kids felt like an odd way to tell Liam’s story. It didn’t give us enough time to understand Liam and Cory, but their story was the center of it all.
It’s a quick read, so I couldn’t help but finish it. Predictable. I would have liked a little more time with the side characters- Sam, Tommy, Jack. The main characters were just frustrating. Why are they making these same decisions year after year?!
I really wanted to like this book, but it was quite flat. I would’ve enjoyed it more if the story was just Liam and Cory’s relationship. All this extra bouncing around with his kids felt like an odd way to tell Liam’s story. It didn’t give us enough time to understand Liam and Cory, but their story was the center of it all.
It’s a quick read, so I couldn’t help but finish it. Predictable. I would have liked a little more time with the side characters- Sam, Tommy, Jack. The main characters were just frustrating. Why are they making these same decisions year after year?!