Saturday, August 15, 2009

Best Intentions by Emily Listfield

I lie in bed watching the numbers on the digital alarm clock click in slow motin to 6:00 a.m., 6:01. My right hand, curled tightly beneath my head, is cramped, but I don't want to risk moving it.

Title: Best Intentions
Author: Emily Listfield
ISBN: 9781416576716
Publisher: Atris/2009
Pages: 338

I had won Best Intentions in The First Mystery Readathon and read it for The Second Mystery Readathon.

Lisa Barkley 39, is happily married to Sam and they have two beautiful daughters. They also seem to be moving in the right circles. But with the economic slide down, everything seems to change. Her job is in jeopardy and after listening to a voicemail in Sam's cellphone, she thinks that her husband might be having an affair. Her world is crashing all around her and she can't do anything about it. However, Deirdre, her best friend of long time is supportive of her. When Lisa tells Deirdre that Sam might be having an affair, her best friends tells her, it can't be.

Meanwhile, Deirdre is having an torrid affair with a photographer Ben, and both don't wish for any kind of long lasting relationship. When Deidre's old flame Jack turns up, everything seems to go topsy turvy for all involved. Lisa is forced to acknowledge some unpleasant truths about her husband. And she can't even trust Deirdre now. Before she can confront either, Deirdre is murdered. There are four suspects: Sam, Ben, Jack and Lisa.

As a women's fiction, this book works well. Lisa and Deirdre are really good friends, who meet almost every week for breakfast. Sam is not too fond of Deirdre but he doesn't come in the way of their friendship. Jack had wanted to marry Deirdre long time back but she had refused. Now he was married but still wants her. Ben has a complex relationship with her although Deirdre has no complaints about that. Lisa does have reasons to kill Deirdre.

I started it, thinking of it as suspense/mystery as the way it is pegged by the author. However, the murder happens too late and I could truly guess the murderer. Therefore, there was no surprise. I felt the book is a big let down for suspense and gets repetitive too after 3/4 mark. As a mystery it fails completely. It definitely is not a book for diehard Suspense/Mystery/Crime fiction readers.

I must say, if I had not read it assuming it as Suspense/Mystery, I might have liked this book.


bermudaonion said...

Hmm - it's interesting how they marketed this book. If I ever read it, I'll have to remember your review.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes they really do mess up the genreand it does affect your enjoyment of the book. If I'm in the mood for a good mystery I do not want to read women's fiction. Too bad you didn't like it better.

kay - Infinite Shelf said...

I think it is marketed as a mystery because all the first part is what leads to the last part, where the mystery happens. But I agree that it's a lot more women fiction than mystery! I don't know why they market it this way, they'll just risk putting this book in the end of people who will be disappointed, while people who could love it wouldn't notice it.

Beth F said...

YOur review may allow me to enjoy the book more than you did, because I'm warned about it not being much of a mystery.