The Breakdown

Goodreads Description

If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust? Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods, on the winding rural road, in the middle of a downpour, with the woman sitting inside―the woman who was killed. She’s been trying to put the crime out of her mind; what could she have done, really? It’s a dangerous road to be on in the middle of a storm. Her husband would be furious if he knew she’d broken her promise not to take that shortcut home. And she probably would only have been hurt herself if she’d stopped. But since then, she’s been forgetting every little thing: where she left the car, if she took her pills, the alarm code, why she ordered a pram when she doesn’t have a baby. The only thing she can’t forget is that woman, the woman she might have saved, and the terrible nagging guilt.

My Review

Author B.A Paris become well known after her debut novel Behind Closed Doors became an instant hit. I really enjoyed her first book and so I was excited to read this one, her second. This is one of those easy reading psychological thrillers that hooks you within the first few pages and then develops slowly. It's the type of book that you can't wait to get home to at the end of the day and that you snuggle up with on the couch at night, dying to know what happens next.

Cass is an interesting character and although she seems fairly one dimensional at first - a 33 year old teacher who's newly married to a saint of a husband and who lives in a lovely country house - her character soon develops and becomes more fascinating. This happens when the reader learns of Cass's mother's early onset dementia and the memory lapses that Cass herself is now experiencing. This aspect gripped me instantly. We've all experienced those bizarre moments where you're looking for your sunglasses only to find them perched on top of your head, or where you can't find the house keys only to find them in the fridge where you left them while grabbing the milk carton. We all forget things now and then and that's what makes Cass such an engaging character. How far away are any of us from the type of memory loss that Cass is experiencing? And is it possible that terrible things could happen and we wouldn't even remember them?

I thought that the first and last thirds of this book were great. The middle section was a little bit weaker and tended to drag on slightly. Here we notice Cass getting more and more panicky over, well, not much actually. Her drastic reactions to the situation and to the calls she was getting seemed to be a tad dramatic and maybe a little overboard. Be that as it may, it's a small criticism in an otherwise gripping story. Unfortunately for me, I also managed to work out most of the plot or the twist if you will fairly early on, but it didn't detract much from my enjoyment of the read.

So, did this one live up to all the hype? Yes, in a way it did. Let's just say that it managed to hold its own and it was a very enjoyable read. Will it be one of my top ten of the year? No it won't be but I still really enjoyed it and was entertained by it. More often that not, I prefer to read books that I haven't heard much about but with this one, the hype was everywhere, and so it was impossible to miss. And if by some miracle you haven't heard the hype around it, then block your ears and get going with your reading. It's an easy reading, stay up late at night type of book. Fans of psychological thrillers won't be let down with this read.

My Rating: * * * *

Publication Date: March 2017

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Format: Trade paperback

Source: My own purchased copy