Review - What Have We Done by Alex Finlay
I received a free galley of this book through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
What Have We Done is a thriller by Alex Finlay (side note: I’ve also read Every Last Fear and gave that one 5 stars). This new book follows a group of teens who met in a group home, went their separate ways, and grew up into very different people with a shared past. Now someone is after them all.
We have Jenna, a suburban stepmom with a secret; Donnie, a washed-up rockstar; Nico, a gambling addict turned television professional; Ben, a successful federal judge; and Arty, a wealthy tech head. And they’re all being targeted by the same assassin, who seems to be able to be in two places at once. Once they figure out that all of them were targeted, they begin to work together to figure out who is responsible.
Just like in his previous books, Finlay offers an intriguing mystery and a twisty tale. This one kept me turning pages, and I read it quickly. The author has interwoven memories into the present storyline very well. The reader uncovers things gradually, along with the characters. The characterization was very well done—each of the targets is unique, but believable.
Despite these things, in the end, I found myself unsatisfied with the book as a whole. I felt that the plot was trying to be too intricate. It was difficult to parse out which details were important for the mystery and which weren’t. Perhaps that was intentional on the author’s part, but I found it distracting. Too many red herrings along the way made the actual solution to the mystery underwhelming. And a tacked-on ending felt unnecessary.
Overall, I thought this was a good mystery, but not a great one. If you’re in the mood for a quick read, a thriller with an intricate plot and a good variety of characters, this book could fit the bill. Sensitive readers should know this novel contains violence, mentions of sexual assault, child abuse, and drug references.
What Have We Done is available now!
