Someone Must Die

by Sharon Potts

Suspense

Book Description

When her six-year-old nephew vanishes from a neighborhood carnival, Aubrey Lynd’s safe, snow-globe world fractures; it shatters when the FBI’s investigation raises questions about her own family that Aubrey can’t answer.

Aubrey picks apart the inconsistencies to expose the first of many lies: a ransom note—concealed from the FBI—with a terrifying and impossible ultimatum. Aubrey doesn’t know what to believe or whom to trust. The abduction is clearly personal—but why would someone play a high-stakes game with the life of a child? The more she presses for answers, the more Aubrey is convinced that her mother is hiding something.

Desperate to save her young nephew, Aubrey must face harsh truths and choose between loyalty to her family and doing the right thing. And she’d better hurry, because vengeance sets its own schedule, and time is running out.

MY THOUGHTS: 2 OUT OF 5 FLEURS DE LIS

Someone Must Die by Sharon Potts

I haven’t read as many kidnapping/mystery/thriller type books in recent years as I used to. I believe it’s because I found the books to be getting repetitive and myself as a reader getting harder to actually surprise. This novel unfortunately had both of those aspects going on, and I struggled to finish it.

The story begins when 6 year old Ethan, who’s just recently united with his grandmother, is kidnapped while under her watch at a carnival. The grandmother, Diana, had only a few months ago made amends with her son, so losing his only child was a devastating blow to their shaky relationship. Diana’s younger daughter, Aubrey, comes back home to be there for her family and try to help the authorities in any way she can.

It took me a couple of weeks to finish this book–it just never really grabbed me. I didn’t truly feel a sense of danger or thrill conveyed through the author’s writing. I didn’t care for the style that much–the dramatic ending sentences of chapter, which I’m sure were supposed to be darkly foreshadowing, felt overdone to me. I was actually reminded of the way chapters end in the Goosebumps series of books I read about 20 years ago–not good if you’re trying to write for adults.

There are several avenues the investigation goes. Diana is involved with a man running for judge, Ethan’s other grandparents are ridiculously rich, Aubrey’s ex boyfriend is even mentioned as a possible person of interest, but it takes some digging to find out that the kidnapping is connected to a past Diana still suffers everyday. Of course, the police don’t learn this information; Aubrey investigates on her own and interrogates her mother without their help.

Many things about this book felt unrealistic and disjointed to me. The ending was also very lackluster and kind of sudden. I made myself finish this book because I started it, but I can’t say there was too much I liked about it.

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About the Author

Sharon Potts is the award-winning, critically acclaimed author of five psychological thrillers, including In Their Blood—winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award and recipient of a starred review in Publishers Weekly. A former CPA, corporate executive, and entrepreneur, Sharon has served as treasurer of the national board of Mystery Writers of America, as well as president of that organization’s Florida chapter. She has also co-chaired SleuthFest, a national writers’ conference. Sharon lives in Miami Beach with her husband and a spirited Australian shepherd named Gidget.

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