The Guilt Trip. A Mini Review.

The Guilt Trip

By Sandie Jones

Rating: 3.5/5 Stairs

Which starts like this:

Prologue
The policeman, with his slick-backed hair, stands at the bottom of my hospital bed, eying me intently.
“So, can you confirm you knew the deceased?” he says, in heavily accented English.
I nod, but even that hurts.
His eyes narrow as he studies me. “Do you remember what let up to this unfortunate incident? Were there any altercations between the guests? Was anything said?”
I almost laugh. Where would I start?
The Guilt Trip

I really wanted to love this book. I think if the story would have been written a little differently, I would have. For me, it would have worked if Ms. Jones had written it starting with the hospital after the accident, with Rachel slowly remembering events of the weekend from there while the police investigate the crime. I think this would have built some nice tension and made it a real page turner.

Instead, after the intriguing Prologue, Ms. Jones tells the story serially from the beginning of the destination wedding weekend, with a strong start and a strong finish, but it did drag a bit in the middle. “The incident” (as the officer refers to it in the Prologue) doesn’t take place until almost the end of the book. It’s a long journey to get there, and then the ultimate revelations and resolutions felt rushed.

I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed the narrator, Clare Corbett. Ms. Corbett does a great job voicing the different characters, and making Rachel come to life through her portrayal.

I liked the complex relationships the characters had with each other, and the clues that Ms. Jones dropped along the way as Rachel tries to figure out if the suspicions she has towards her husband are legitimate or all in her head. The Guilt Trip is a fun domestic-noir style read that will keep you wondering who you can trust.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book for review.