Ten years ago, Aarav Rai’s beautiful mother Nina disappeared from her home in an exclusive enclave in the forested hills high above Auckland, after emitting a single, blood-chilling scream. Only sixteen then, Aarav has never given up looking for answers. Now a successful novelist, Aarav is living again in his father’s house temporarily while recovering from a serious car accident which has left him with a broken leg and an unreliable memory. The discovery of Nina’s body, crashed into the deep forest in her car just minutes from home, but missing the quarter million dollars with which she vanished, raises far more questions than it answers. Because it’s quickly obvious that Nina was murdered, the same night she vanished.
Now Aarav wants to know who did it. Who hated Nina Rai enough to kill her - and what did they do with the money? Someone in the exclusive gated community of the Cul-de-Sac knows more than they’re saying, and Aarav isn’t going to stop digging until he knows all their secrets.
This is so good. You might know Nalini Singh better for her paranormal romances, but she’s an even more extraordinary mystery writer in my opinion; her first A Madness of Sunshine had me thinking about it for weeks after I finished the read, and this one is no different. It paints an incredibly detailed picture of multicultural Auckland, but the very tip-top of the one percent of it; doctors, architects, business owners, family money and family secrets. Aarav is a fascinating hero, one who clearly shows that money most definitely can’t buy you happiness. He could come off spoiled, but instead he’s a figure of pity, tortured and lonely, desperate for answers and someone - just one person - to love him unconditionally. To put him first. His mother was that person, and Aarav’s determination to get justice for Nina is very understandable, making it easy to empathise with him.
I didn’t see the killer coming, but it was set up very nicely and I was satisfied with how things played out (except for Aarav’s father, who really didn’t get what he had coming in my opinion). This is a fascinating read and I was riveted all the way to the end, invested in Aarav’s story as he tried to puzzle out the truth about both his mother’s murder and what was happening in his own damaged mind. Five stars for a book I just couldn’t put down.
