***Spoilers without spoilers***

Another tough one for me. I love this book for the most part…put the ending really knocked it down for me from a book I could have loved to just “meh”.

The stuff going on between Kate and her husband, Dexter was more than enough to carry the entire book. Once we found out what Kate’s previous job was there were dozens of ways this book could have went…All of them good. When you add the secrets that she kept from her husband and how they continued to grow after time to such an extent that she felt she could never share them. Once you’ve went years not telling the truth, the truth becomes even harder to share, simply because you didn’t do so long ago. Something simple and harmless (Although her previous job was far from that!) grows more menacing as the time goes by…The party kept in the dark will always wonder why didn’t you share SOONER? What else have they hiding all that time.

Then you have Dexter…who might not be so innocent as Kate once believed. Maybe he doesn’t truly have such a passive personality after all. If she has her secrets, why shouldn’t she realise that he might have his very own. Perhaps even bigger than hers!

See! Paranoia just feeds upon itself with just that….it just builds and builds. Considering Kate’s previous job title, paranoia is understandable…or is it? See! There it goes again! That is why this book could have been fantastic….

Alas, the author decided that it wasn’t enough….he had to throw in some extra characters and at the ending make the entire storyline not about Kate and Dexter, but about this mass cover up/conspiracy/manipulation. The entire novel could have…nay, should have left the other couple as bit players and nothing more. I wish authors remembered that you don’t have to fabricate drama in every sentence. If it’s there it’s there! No need to try to insert more. It just seems forced and unbelievable for me. I understand the need for some authors to provide *surprising and shocking* endings in novels. I suppose the public does demand them. However, the best ones are the believable ones aren’t just Johnny on the spot and seemingly there to cause drama. They are the ones that were there all along…

Another major let down for me, but just as the book was too predictable, I suppose my let down is just as predictable….

Until next time…

Urania xx

Buy it now The Expats by Chris Pavone