Published 2023. Finished March 4th, 2026.
Sager's work isn't for me. This is the second novel of his that I've read, the first being "Survive the Night" which, for the record, I liked more than I like this. Sager's work explains itself far too much for my taste and tries too hard to keep my attention. I don't need that. I'm paying attention, you don't need to reiterate or leave me hanging at the end of every goddamn chapter. Jesus.
That's not my issue with this particular book, though. My issue isn't even how absurdly trope-laden the whole thing feels, even to me, someone who doesn't read much mystery. No, my issue is that it's a novel primarily about an elderly disabled woman and her caretaker where the happy ending for both of those characters involves revealing that actually, she wasn't disabled at all, only pretending to be for complicated reasons, and the caretaker quiting her job so she can "live a life that belongs to [her] and no one else." I don't believe that Sager is so unimaginative as to be unable to imagine a happy ending for a disabled woman that doesn't involve her not being disabled in the first place, and the way the caretaker, Kit, thinks of her job as something inherently sacrificial, something she does because she doesn't care about her own needs enough, is honestly rather offputting, though I of course I understand that one of his characters thinking that way doesn't mean that Sager believes that himself. The two things combined just leave a bad taste in my mouth.