Oh my giddy aunt, WTAF?

What did I just read?
Ok, so Mcdermid's an amazing storyteller and I very much wanted to know how this would resolve. That said, most of the book is totally unbelievable -- Stephanie's never-ending desperately detailed monologues just don't make sense in the context; the plot twists are weird and just slightly off; the characters are memorable but not terribly likeable. Overall, it's compelling except in the places where it really isn't -- there was a point about 4 hours in where I almost gave up from boredom, but still wanted to know what happened next and then everything went off the rails. I guess in the end it's good that Nick-the-cop has such a questionable moral compass, because wow are they going to have to do some relationship work.

I think I'll stick to the procedurals from now on. This was just not my cup of tea. ( )

Added to my list of most jaw dropping, never saw it coming endings. This is #3. ( )

Spannend boek tot op het laatste moment. Er zitten zoveel verrassingen en plotwendingen in dat je zou denken dat ik op alles voorbereid was, maar het einde was echt WOW. Dit boek gaat over van alles, moederliefde, vriendschap, ontrouw, trouw, verraad en liefde. Inhoudelijk ga ik niets vertellen, dat is niet echt handig als je dit boek wil gaan lezen. ( )

I was panicking a bit - had /- 50 pages to go and things were NOwhere near closed up.
And she took me up & down the roller coaster for sure... guessing until the end.
Not positive I *liked* it (thus the 3 stars instead of more), but McDermid sure is good.
One beef: I hate build-up suspense lines at the ends of chapters. That's just me. ( )

Anticipating a difficult transition after landing in the States from England, Stephanie was not prepared for it to be as difficult as it was. She has metal plates in her leg and is accustomed to being fondled by TSA agents however to watch her travelling companion, five-year old Jimmy, be kidnapped - while she held her down by the very authorities who should have been helping her - thinking she was trying to get a bomb into the airport by the way she set off the alarms.
By the time she is able to get her story finally believed, the FBI is involved and a too late Amber alert is transmitted Jimmy is gone. The little boy is the son of a famous TV reality star in Britain. It was too much of a coincidence that it was this child that was lifted. Scotland Yard and the Feebies put their heads together to discover who might be the party responsible.
Told in a sequence of flash backs old to the FBI we find out the Stephanie is a ghost writer for the rich and famous, and is looking after her child after her latest biographer, Scarlett Higgins, died of cancer. We are led into the convoluted life style of the rags to riches story of Scarlett and all the flotsam and jetsam, including her awful family members, which had been part of her life story.
McDermid exhibits the art of writing in both British and American euphuisms with a flourish and shows a nice turn of demonstrating red-herrings and the usual twist in the end. The lead up as the police track down the kidnapper and plan the raid on the house is mesmerizing and you will find this book quite the page turner
( )