Keep Her Safe By Sophie Hannah (A Review by Sarah Young)
Rating: 2.5/5
Keep Her Safe begins with Cara Burrows abruptly leaving England and heading to a five-star spa resort in Arizona, USA for a much needed escape from her husband and kids. However, due to a mistake by front desk she is given a key card to a room already occupied by a man and a teenage girl. The teenage girl, Cara later realizes, may have been Melody Chapa – the famous murder victim.
Unable to forget what she saw, Cara pushes away thoughts of her troubles back home and begins to investigate who could have been in the mysterious room and more importantly – how?
The blurb of this book really drew me in as it sounded like the premise of one of a great can’t-put-it-down-till-I-know-the-ending mysteries. However, I found the pace quite slow and the video transcripts and interviews unnecessarily long. There is also little character development even with the main character Cara.
That being said a highlight of the book is Tarin Fry. Tarin is a guest at the resort who befriends Cara and helps her solve the mystery. She is a fun, outspoken character who provides some great light hearted moments with her quick wit.
On reflection is seemed like the author nailed down the main parts of the mystery first (which to Hannah’s credit has some good twists) and then shaped the rest of her characters and events to fit around it. Overall it’s got a good plotline but unfortunately this wasn’t enough to keep me interested.