NetGalley provided an ARC and my review is an honest opinion and nothing was promised in return for my review other than the ARC, all opinions are my own.
I was intrigued when I first read the synopsis for The Bones of You. The perfect daughter from the perfect family is missing and later found brutally murdered. A murder mystery, a family with a terrible dark side, an innocent bystander who gets drawn into the middle after extending the branch of friendship and ends up solving not only the murder but also exposing the horrible secret behind the "perfect family".
The plot was enough to get my attention. Rosie Anderson, oldest daughter of the town's perfect family, is missing. She is found murdered and it rocks the town to its core, especially Kate McKay. She is a local gardener and horse woman who has a daughter the same age as Rosie. She believes that these types of things just don't happen here. Is there a stranger in their midst, preying on their children? Are any of them safe? Kate McKay asks herself this question as she thanks the heavens that her own daughter, Grace, is alive and well. What can only be described as survivor's guilt, Kate befriends Rosie's mother, the beautiful and fragile Joanna Anderson.
Through this friendship, Kate begins to unravel a family secret, a darkness that hides behind the dazzling façade that the Anderson's have built for themselves. The beautiful and graceful Jo, her husband and renowned journalist, Neil and their youngest daughter, Delphine. As anonymous notes arrive, Kate slowly begins to unravel the web of lies and deceit that surround Rosie's life and death, not knowing where they will lead. It will make her ask the question, is anyone really who they seem to be?
While I really did enjoy this book, I will admit that it did take awhile for me to warm up to the story and to the characters. I put it down and took it up again several times before I was able to let the story suck me in. Some of the characters were a little wooden and one dimensional. In some aspects they were barely there, but for some of these characters I think it does fit the story perfectly. There are some people who float through our lives and never seem more than just a ghostly image and I believe that is what the author has achieved here.
While I did enjoy the backstory provided by Rosie's perspective, the change in perspective was a bit jumpy at times and I think this could be smoothed out to make it more cohesive and less jarring. There were times that even though you knew it was told from Rosie's perspective, it was still hard to follow at points. There are a couple entries where the perspective is Rosie's but it's someone else who is actually speaking and this can be a little confusing at times. There were also a few shifts into Delphine's perspective and I think that these subtracted from the story instead of adding to it.
Overall, I would give this novel a solid 3 stars. It may take some time to grow on you, but I think it's worth a look if you like a book with a few twists and turns with a fairly satisfying resolution.
The Bones of You on Amazon
