The storyline itself was pretty decent, but the writing was grating . It felt like the author was a recent graduate from a creative writing class. Far too many similes. Far too many. All. The. Time. They were a cringey distraction. None of the voices / speech patterns felt very authentic either… The lead detective consistently presented as speaking in full cannot / did not / is not, instead of can’t / didn’t / isn’t. And the pregnant teenage girl from the difficult background who spoke beautifully and correctly. It just didn’t ring true. Oh, and I lost count of how many times a ‘palmate newt’ (?) was mentioned. Weird.
Narration was OK – Not awful, but also not really good.
Overall I’d rate this as distinctly average. I stuck with it to the end, but it drove me nuts.