Book reviews

Book review: After All I’ve Done by Mina Hardy


Title: After All I’ve Done

Author: Mina Hardy

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Publication date: 10th November 2020

My rating: ★ ★ ★ 

Summary:

She’s lost her best friend, her husband–and possibly, her mind.

Five months ago, an accident left Diana Sparrow badly injured and missing a few months of her memory. As if that’s not enough, she’s started having recurring nightmares about the night of the accident. Dreams that feel so real, she’s left questioning: maybe she didn’t just slide off the road into a ditch. Maybe, just maybe, she hit something. Or someone.

She can’t turn to her former best friend Val, who’s been sleeping with Diana’s husband Jonathan for months, but she might find some comfort in newcomer Cole Pelham. Yet the closer they become, the more Diana begins to wonder what really happened that night–and how Cole might be connected. Worse, it seems everyone else could be involved, too.

Who was with her that night? What really happened? As her life unravels thread by thread and the dreams become too real to ignore, Diana will have to face the unthinkable–and do the unforgivable.

My review:

After All I’ve Done starts with a lot of promise. Although the memory loss plot has been incorporated many times before in Thrillers, there were extra layers of mystery and doubt right from the first chapter which carried through to the end. The book was always filled with tension and suspicion which led to a very cryptic mystery, forcing the reader to anticipate the characters’ intentions from the little background that is disclosed on the main character, Diana.

Thrillers often feature either too many characters or so few that the plot is watered down however After All I’ve Done stars the right number of characters and a perfect balance between character development and plot. I couldn’t connect with Diana as I felt that she was too untrustworthy and sometimes too dull for a main character. However, the other minor characters such as the mother-in-law and best friend dipped in and out of each chapter with ease and encouraged me to speculate on their motive which I always enjoy.

My main concern with this book at the beginning was the possible predictable twist and ending. I believed that my theory was too farfetched despite the multiple hints throughout the book and especially given how twisted and wrong such an outcome would be but unfortunately my guesses were right. I finished this book feeling somewhat shocked and unsettled however I applaud the author for bravely analysing twisted family relationships and for not being afraid to push boundaries to the extreme. Although I didn’t entirely like the direction it took, the added suspense and mystery surrounding Diana’s accident kept me invested until the end.

After All I’ve Done is out to buy now!

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a free advanced reader’s copy in exchange for my honest review.

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