´I´ve spent my whole life being denied answers´.
Even if you don´t necessarily read the blurbs about a book, if you trust to continue reading after the opening lines, most probably you will not be wrong. Especially when it has to do with a thriller. This was the promise of The Screenwriter by Amanda Reynolds, an author I´ve featured before on my blog before.
As in the case of The Assistant, most of the action takes place among the posh and rich. Blythe and Dom Hopper, a former Hollywood actress and successful screenwriter looking to re-launch his career. They may dream about getting back to run the show, but Blythe will take control of her destiny and shoot her husband.
Blythe will not stop here though as she wants her side of the story to be told and thus, is asking Marnie, also a ´once been´ to share her story to the world, while waiting for the judicial proceedings. Marnie may need to answer the request for a very simple reason: she may have some secrets co-shared with this family. Who is Blythe, anyway and why two days after Dom died, Marnie was received an email supposedly from the late screenwriter, promising her information about her estranged mother who abandoned her when she was just four?
Screenwriters getting caught into murderous entreprises is really an unique idea. Plus, the book has a high dosis of secrets of the darkest type that doesn´t let you put it down. Although the characters development is complex enough to keep the readers engaged, the story itself compliments the cast of characters. The plot is spectacular and plays very well the cat-and-mouse gamble of secrets, with moments of suspense stretched in between regular story episodes, which are the sparkles that one - me, for instance - needs for awakening his or her interest into the story.
Marnie, who is the one telling the story is bold, although a complete mess more than once. Blythe´s ambivalence as a former Oscar recipient may prompt us to put into question almost everything she is sharing and doing, which in the overall structure of the story creates a lot of ambiguity, a great ingredient for a crime story. The general tone of the story is empathic, particularly in relation with the ways in which women are treated in the entertainment world, in Hollywood and abroad. The book has women characters
I really enjoyed reading The Screenwriter and would definitely keep reading Reynolds, as her stories are always more than a crime puzzle to solve.
Rating: 4.5 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own
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