Review: “Dark and Shallow Lies”

A novel of a different kind in our review today.

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La Cachet, Louisiana is the worst place to be if you have something to hide. Because the small town where seventeen-year-old Gray spends her summer vacation is the secret capital of the paranormal – and the place where Gray’s girlfriend, Elora Bellerin, disappeared six months ago. Gray refuses to believe that Elora has vanished into thin air, just as she refuses to accept that in a city full of psychics, no one knows what might happen to her. However, during the investigation, it soon becomes clear that almost everyone in La Cachette has something to hide – including her late mother, whose secrets haunt Gray even from the grave. When a mysterious stranger appears, La Cachette’s past turns out to be far more present and dangerous than Gray could have imagined. In a city where darkness hides beneath the surface and a murderer roams, no one can be presumed innocent… La Cachette’s shallow web of lies now threatens to tear the city apart.

criticism

“Dark and Shallow Lies” is a thriller with a supernatural twist that takes place in the swampy capital of the United States, New Orleans, or the surrounding swamps. The focus is on Greycie, who returns home a year later due to the disappearance of a friend. It soon becomes clear: she has been killed and the search for the killer begins.

Of course, as befits the swamps of New Orleans, voodoo also plays a role here. Because the group of 10 (more later) kids we’re talking about here are all twins, so to speak. Two are always born on the same day and each person has special abilities, such as the ability to see or feel certain things. However, this “mystical effect” is rarely used and is in fact unnecessary. Skills are only used in one or two places, and you don’t really need them either, since you could have guessed the scenes or their accuracy that way.

In addition, the beginning of the book is also difficult, because after the arrival of Gray, there is a lot of talk about the missing Elora. But actually only in a small circle, because the other kids only appear after 200 pages and then disappear again without a puff, so you didn’t need them either. Somehow one wonders where the author is heading because the story takes so long to pick up speed somehow. While the character scenes aren’t generally bad, they are definitely more mind-blowing.

It also seems strange that all children (or young adults) are only 17 years old. With that in mind, it would have been better to increase the age a bit, because navigating alone when he’s 17 seems a bit strange, even to the United States. After all, the story finally moves after about 200 pages, because there was a murderer in the quiet small town and the question arises whether he is back now. Then some cliché is pulled out of the bag, but at least the killer’s identity remains secret until shortly before the end. This is where the suspense can be maintained.

And even if the end of the story comes right after that in a few pages, unlike other abrupt endings, it fits the overall picture well.