Book Review: Keep Her Safe
Keep Her Safe
by: Sophie Hannah
Finished on: September 10, 2017
Publisher: William Morrow
I received a free Advanced Reader's Copy of Keep Her Safe from William Morrow Books in return for my honest review. Synopsis, review and comments below reflect my honest opinions about the book.
Synopsis:
Cara Burrows flees from her English home and checks herself into an expensive, five-star spa in Phoenix. When she opens her hotel room door, she finds that she was given the wrong key - her room is already being used by a man and a teenaged girl. Cara soon works this out with the front desk and is upgraded to her own casita. Its not until the next day when she overhears other resort guests talking, that she becomes aware the the girl she saw was a famous murder victim in the United States. But she is dead, right? Keep Her Safe shows Cara (and the reader) learning more and more about the murder while questioning what she can believe. Will this trip be what Cara needs to find her way back to her family or will she even make it home?
My review:
I went in to my reading of Keep Her Safe with no knowledge about the novel except for the cover passage ("She's the most famous murder victim in America. What if she's not dead?"). That was enough for me to want to check out this book after the publisher so generously sent me a box of Advanced Reader's Copies (thank you!!). I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Keep Her Safe was going to take place in Phoenix, which is where I live. I will admit that this probably made me like the book even that much more, as I love reading books that take place in Phoenix or in the cities that I am traveling to.
Keep Her Safe read as a mixture of today's culture's obsession with true crime (i.e. Casey Anthony) with some additional suspense thrown in. The synopsis is unlikely, but not altogether impossible and has the readers questioning all of those murders where the victim's body was never found. It investigates all of the conspiracy theorists who question whether the victim was actually dead. I enjoyed this plot line and this carried the book for me.
I found it a bit confusing to figure out what would make Cara so selfish that she would drop a ton of family's savings in order to leave them for weeks with no means of communication. Even when the motive was revealed, it seemed childish and off-putting to me. I had a hard time finding anything in common with her character.
"That, I'm starting to think, is what loyalty means: not pretending those close to us are perfect, but ceaselessly loving and devoting your life to people you know are severely flawed, because you don't expect them not to be; you adore them anyway."
Keep Her Safe also slowly reveals many of the characters psychological motives. There were many items that caught me completely by surprise. It was a fun and twisty read. I'll definitely keep my eye out for more by Sophie Hannah. Overall, I rate this 4/5 stars.
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