Release date: January 10, 2023
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Synopsis:
A Knives Out-style whodunnit with a twist of Taylor Jenkins Reid, You Must Remember This is an immersive Gothic mystery, with a long-ago love affair, icy death, and a rich family gone bad, from Kat Rosenfield, the acclaimed author of No One Will Miss Her.
On Christmas Eve, eighty-five-year-old Miriam Gardiner walks onto the vast frozen river behind her home. As a younger woman, she used to steal out on winter nights to meet her lover, walking straight across the ice to their secret meeting place. She knows the way—but not the year. Miriam, her mind clouded by dementia, doesn’t hear the snap of thin ice until it’s too late.
Was it an accident? Suicide? Or worse: did someone urge the old woman onto the frozen river on purpose?
There are plenty of suspects; Miriam’s fractured and complicated family has gathered in their Bar Harbor mansion to celebrate what they already thought would likely be the matriarch’s last Christmas. The guests include Delphine, Miriam’s granddaughter, a frightened and insecure young woman who adored her grandmother, and Miriam’s live-in nurse, Adam, a handsome man from a working-class background, whom Delphine has been secretly dating. Then there’s Miriam’s children: Nicole, who hated being thrust into the role of caretaker; Diana, whose deadbeat husband has long been a family joke; and Richard, who always said they’d all be better off if Mother would just hurry up and die. But it’s Delphine who comes in for the greatest scrutiny when they learn the shocking news that Miriam’s will cut off her children, and left the entire estate to Delphine only.
As her relatives obsess over getting the will thrown out, Delphine begins to notice inconsistencies in their stories and is emboldened to start investigating…until the trail seems to lead her onto thin ice as well.
Review:
I really wanted and actually expected to love this one after really enjoying the authors last book, No One Will Miss Her but sadly, I found this one to be lacking. For me it was missing the intensity of a mystery/thriller and read more like women’s fiction with a small side of suspense. I’ll admit I was intrigued in the beginning it had a strong opening that piqued my interest but as things went on I was a little bored. What kept me reading was the atmosphere of a bitter winter and the wide variety of suspects as to whodunnit. I did know who it would be early on but I kept reading and hoping I was wrong but sadly the author went with the predictable route. So in the end this was just ok for me, if you want to read one of the authors books the one I mentioned earlier was better! I would definitely read more by her in the future though just to see if she could capture that spark that NWMH had for me.
Overall rating: 3/5
Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.
Novelgossip 