The Book Bump

Original title: Swan Deception
First published: 2021
Author: Glede Browne Kabongo
Language: English
Genre: Psychological Thriller
My rating: 3/5

Revenge is a dish best served ice cold.

Shelby Cooper lives with her husband and 2 children in a rich suburban town outside of Boston. One day, she gets pulled over for having a broken taillight and is arrested for the murder of Alessandro Rossi, her physical therapist.

The story as a whole wasn’t bad, and it has much potential, but it lacked something to quench my thirst.

Here are a few things that really bugged me when I read the free digital copy provided by NetGalley and BrowneStar Media in March 2022.

1. I can’t see how Shelby or Jason want to remain together since they are harbouring pretty big secrets and hiding a lot from one another. To me, it is as though they are strangers. I understand Shelby had a tough upbringing, but if she believes she and Jason are mates for life, surely you would trust your partner with your past?

2. There are many subplots. Maybe too many? Most aren’t resolved to a satisfactory level. The story ends with the authors leaving a lot of unanswered questions, which is rather frustrating for me, the reader.

3. Unfortunately (maybe I read too many crime novels?), my suspicions formed pretty quickly on who the real killer was. I read the book to the end, to be sure. But I worked out who the killer was and the motives too early in the book for my liking. It takes away the pleasure of reading and the big reveal.

4. Way too many coincidences, and good luck. I understand that this is fiction, but it make the story hard to relate to. Why? Because the likelyhood of things happening the way they do in the book in real life are extremely slim.

5. I found the pacing quite slow. There are a lot of pages and chapters where the author is writing to fill pages and not to help move the story along.

The book is written from more than one POV, Shelby’s (1st person), then other secondary characters, such as the antagonist, the husband, the daughter, etc., in the 3rd person. This is the first book I’ve read written this way. And it didn’t really work for me. I would have preferred that they all be written in the same person, whether it be 1^st or 3^rd person. But that is my personal preference.

Unfortunately, there are some mistakes and typos that escaped the editors… perhaps because it was only a free digital copy. It’s not that big of a deal in most cases, but some sentences don’t make sense because they go in one direction, then the author obviously thought of a better way of saying but didn’t delete the whole of the previous sentence.