Title: Flowers for the Dead by C.K. Williams
Publisher: One More Chapter
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery
Length: 352 pages
Book Rating: C+
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley
Summary:
I am the reason girls are told not to trust strangers. I am their cautionary tale.
Nineteen years ago Linn Wilson was attacked. Seventeen-years-old and home alone, she’d been waiting for her friends to arrive when she heard the doorbell ring. But when she opened the door, Linn let in her worst nightmare. The culprit was never found.
It was someone I knew. I am going to find out who did this to me.
Now, Linn is determined to get to the bottom of the night that changed her life forever. Returning to the village where she grew up, she knows that someone must know something. The claustrophobia and isolation of small town living means secrets won’t remain secrets for long…
Review:
Flowers for the Dead by C.K. Williams is an perplexing mystery with an interesting premise.
Nineteen years earlier, Linn Wilson Dawson was viciously attacked in her home but the perpetrator has never been found. She married her boyfriend Oliver soon after and the couple left town and never returned. But after receiving a package from friends of her now deceased parents, Linn impetuously decides it is time to return in order to uncover her attacker’s identity. When eerie events begin occurring, Linn turns to Detective Inspector Graham Walker for help. He was in charge of the original investigation and Linn remains hopeful he will help her solve the crime once and for all.
Although Linn has come a long way in the years since the attack, she does not have a job and struggles with leaving her apartment. But when the delivery from her parents’ friends sparks a long suppressed memory, she is determined to find out the truth. Almost as soon as she arrives back in her hometown, Linn is plagued by sleepless nights in which she remains extra vigilante when she hears the ominous ringing of the doorbell. She is also troubled when her memories are refuted by DI Walker and other people who were present in the aftermath of the attack. Reaching out to her former friends highlights her suspicions they are hiding something from her. But if they know who is responsible, why would they keep this information from her?
The chapters alternate between Linn’s and DI Walker’s points of view. Due to her increasingly unreliable perspective, it is difficult to trust Linn’s perception of events both in the past and present. Walker at first seems to be more than willing to help Linn. But as time passes, he becomes increasingly vile and vulgar about what happened to Linn. He is also patronizing and dismissive when Linn reports the activities occurring where she is staying.
Flowers for the Dead is a clever mystery but the pacing is very slow. Linn is a difficult person to empathize with even though she is dealing with an increasingly menacing situation. Although savvy readers will most likely figure out the perpetrator’s identity before the big reveal, C.K. Williams brings the novel an unpredictable conclusion.
