Genre: Mystery, General fiction
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Reminds me of: Faulkner (Light in August, As I Lay Dying) (due to writing style rather than storyline)
Quick disclaimer: You may notice that this is a bit shorter than some of my other book reviews. This is a mystery – I liked it – Enjoy!
This is not your traditional mystery novel. While compelling and even thrilling in spots, it’s not exactly a thriller. This is certainly no problem since this book is much more than a traditional mystery. Celine is our heroine, a classy, charming, and empathetic private eye of retirement age. She is someone I would love to meet. After her sisters’ deaths and the events of 9/11, Celine is not her energetic self, but then one day, she gets a call from a young woman named Gabriela who seeks to hire her for another case.
Gabriela’s father has been missing for decades and was declared deceased, but she harbors hope that they may yet be reunited. Gabriela and her story capture Celine’s attention, so she and her husband Pete set out to investigate the age-old disappearance. They soon find that someone would prefer this cold case to remain unsolved. We, the readers, find that Celine has her own secrets that show us the journey is worth so much more than the destination.
I picked up Celine on a whim in an airport, and it was absolutely worth it. The writing style is unique and takes certain grammatical liberties. For instance, there are trailing fragments and few speaker tags in the dialogue. If anything, this only adds to the book’s charms. The writing style itself seeming like one of Celine’s fabulous accessories. One of the only negative things I can say about it is that it was too short. I would have gladly spent more time with Celine.
