Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have to admit I found this one lacking. It's advertised as a thriller but it's more of a whodunnit (attempted) murder mystery. A young girl is shot during her graduation ceremony and it's up to ex-cop turned private investigator Matthew Hill to track down the culprit. Why a PI and not the police you ask? Good question. Right off the bat the police are portrayed as incompetent. It's hammered home repeatedly that this is the most high profile case the town has seen in decades, yet they assign a single Detective Inspector to the case? Then she decides it's a great idea to not bring in any other cops, but instead to hire a PI as a 'consultant' to handle things single handed. Makes no sense. To make things worse, Hill is just a dull character. He has zero charisma and is instantly forgettable. There's some hints of past traumatic events that made him leave the force which I would have loved to know more about, but in the end it really goes nowhere. The book mainly focuses on the family of the victim and all the drama that goes with them which got old really quickly for me. Unfortunately for me, the story combines two writing techniques I hate - multiple POVs and flashbacks. Every chapter is written from a different POV, and a lot of these are set before the ongoing events. It's impossible to get a good story flow going with this style - something exciting happens, I'm anxious to know more, then I'm suddenly thrown back into the past with a different character. Not a good way to keep me engaged in the story. To be fair, there's a few positives here - no profanity, no major editing issues, and a killer I couldn't predict. Sadly the writing style, bland characters, and family drama drown the good qualities out. Can't recommend.