Tightrope

By: Marnie Riches

Narrated by: Imogen Church

What happens when a private investigator ends up being the one uncovered?

Having lost everything after a failed marriage, Beverley Sanders now lodges in the basement flat of a house owned by her best friend Sophie and husband, Tim. With her former glittering marketing career in the gutter, she begins to do investigative work for other wronged women (gathering dirt on philanderers, bosses and exes).

Beverley takes on the case of Sophie's friend, Angela who is seeking to uncover grounds for divorce from her husband, Jerry, the shadow Science Minister, who is knee-deep in corruption, sleeping around and leeching off her money. She takes the case but soon discovers that she isn't the only one who doing the investigating, and Beverley has a secret history she doesn't want coming out....

©2019 Marnie Riches (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group

Bubblegum story, but still entertaining

This book is super bubblegum even though it’s about very dark topics (a plethora of sexually deviant activities i.e. rape, sex clubs, promiscuity and corrupt politicians, betrayal etc.) which I’m used to since I love mystery/thrillers/suspense books and these themes are often part of the plot. All the relationships in this book involve some over-powering man and a meek woman who doesn’t stick up for themselves or a relationship between some overbearing person and a passive person who doesn’t do the right thing. And the protagonist, Bev, is no exception but ultimately becomes the only person to redeem everyone wronged in the story. So, the sole reason I continued on with the book was because all the characters were so wildly pathetic that I had to see at least some redemption happen. The narration was a bit over the top with the characters, almost as if they were being mocked rather than being depicted for who they were supposed to be, but to the point that it made me abhor certain characters based on how they spoke which was in an extremely patronizing manner. Bev, who is 30 years old pretty much lived a life of hardship and unfairness and after she had enough, she tries to turn her life around, but not without monumental struggle. Most of the characters, except maybe 2 people, were not very likable. I was entertained by the book because I just took it for what it was without further expectation of shrewdness or intricacy of an advanced mystery/thriller, and I only finished it because as I mentioned, I had to see at least some redemption for Bev and all the weak characters and their unfortunate circumstances that were really underscored. Everything Bev did was done with haste, impulsivity and little thought, which is likely supposed to be part of her personality but it made most incidents implausible, clumsy, and the main contributor to the bubblegum feel of the book. Overall, I wasn’t impressed with the character development and the characters themselves, or even the narration, but I’m sure there are many readers or listeners out there who might be able to overlook this and enjoy the book more than I did.

Not Bad

Poor editing and narration. She kept changing the last name of two main characters. Fitzwilliam and then Fitzgerald, back and forth.