Vena Cork

I really looked forward to reading this novel. It has some great reviews and wonderful artwork on its cover, but what a disappointment. This book is supposed to be a mystery, but it's mostly a novel about the problems of raising teenagers as a single parent.

The central character is a recently widowed woman who has to face reduced financial circumstances while raising 2 teenagers on her own. The children are forced to leave their exclusive private school for the public school system, and, to make the adjustment even more difficult for them, their mother takes a job as a teacher at the same school. The teens problems and the difficulty that the mother has in dealing with their problems take up 3/4 of the book. Only in the last quarter of the book does the mystery really kick in, and then it's all sorted out in a couple of dozen pages.

The resolution to it all was really a bit of a stretch. I was very disappointed with this book, I would recommend it for fans of family dramas, but I won't be reading any more of Vena Cork's books.… (mais)

Following her husband's sudden death, Rosa Thorn and her two teenage children Anna and Danny have to go through the grieving process and adjust to their new life. Feeling the financial strain of a single parent, Rosa takes on a temporary teaching job at the local school, the same one her two children now have to attend after leaving their previous private school. To make matters worse, sinister things start happening around them, injured and dead animals on their doorstep, the dead body of a girl in the neighborhood park and Anna possibly being stalked.
I really enjoyed this suspenseful mix of family drama and mystery. Written mostly from Rosa's point of view in a very relaxed, cynical manner, it was easy to empathize with Rosa. There were snippets of other points of view throughout the book, which threw you off course, and when it came to identifying the culprit, I was utterly surprised. There were several possibilities, as everyone seemed to have something to hide, but the ending came as a total shock to me. Absolutely loved it. My only minor nag, there were so many different characters, it wasn't always easy to keep straight who they were and how they were connected to each other. Still, Thorn was a really compelling, dark mystery with the added bonus of some very perceptive psychological insights into family relationships and teenage drama, and I immediately added the author's second book featuring Rosa Thorn to my wish list.
Thanks to Endeavour Press for providing me with a copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.… (mais)