It's a Mad Mad World

After reading The Death Season, last year was I pleasantly surprised to receive The House of Eyes a while back from Piatkus. This was a book I really looked forward to reading, I just needed to get some other books done first. The story seemed interesting; A young girl goes missing and her father goes to the police to file a missing person report. But, is she really missing or did she just ditch her job at Eyecliffe Castle to go to London to become a model that she dreamed of and just not tell her parents about it? Or, has something bad happened to her? Could there be some truth in what the father says that a photographer has been stalking her before she disappeared? That's what DI Wesley Peterson has to find out.

Everything sounds interesting, and yet, I just couldn't get into the story. The intro chapter was interesting and hooked me right away with a baby being kidnapped, and then the story just fell flat for me. I couldn't for me life get pulled into the case with the missing girl. I put the book down several times reading other things instead until I finally just sat down to finish the book. And, still the case just didn't work for me. Oh, there were things here and there that worked, but that mostly was related to the past with the missing girls from the 50s and the kidnapped baby. The last 60 pages or so were where I felt the book truly become a bit better for me and I started to enjoy reading the book a bit more. The conclusion of the book was good, and I loved that the ending felt open for a future book. But, still I'm really sad that this book just didn't work out for me since the previous book was so good.

One thing that I had a problem with that definitely didn't do this book any favors was the diary notes at the beginning of each chapter. I don't like cursive fonts in books, ever! It's hard to read and frankly, I tend to just browse through the text just to get on with it.

So, despite my love for the previous book, was this just not for me. The story isn't bad, I just felt disconnected with it and the characters. Wesley's wife Pam has some personal problem for instance and I just couldn't muster any concern for her. I do think that readers will like this book, it's not badly written, it just wasn't for me.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy for an honest review.