Review - "Penance"

Penance
by Kanae Minato
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 6th April 2017
spoilers? some

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

Actual rating 3.5

Honestly, this is one of those books which I neither hated nor loved particularly much. It was a compelling mystery story, but it lacked something that meant I didn't connect with it as much as I might have.

Penance is the story of four women, 15 years on from the murder of their friend, Emily, in the village they grew up in. It's told as five separate accounts - letters or speeches or conversations - each of which provides a little bit more information about the killer. The final account is from Emily's mother, and draws the entire mystery to a close.

It's an easy and quick enough read, and the mystery itself is compelling, but there were parts which threw me, like when it turned out that Takahiro married Sae because he saw her as a human doll and he wanted to treat her as such and when it turned out Akiko's brother was sexually abusing his stepdaughter because his wife didn't want him to touch her so instead offered up her daughter and he accepted. It also felt a bit too short for me to entirely connect and sympathise with the characters (besides Yuka) . But then again, they probably weren't supposed to be entirely sympathetic.

So overall, it was a good mystery and kept me engaged enough to finish it in one night, but I never really fully connected with it.