With Malice

I am telling everyone to grab this book, a giant glass of lemonade, a towel, and hit the beach and don't leave till you finish this book.

From the very first page you are thrust into the mind of Jill Charron. She finds herself in a hospital with no memory of the past months. She cannot remember going on a trip to Italy and can't even remember she was in a car accident. Jill finds herself in the midst of a media frenzy as the community and the press turn against to her mark her as a cold killer.

What I liked best: The entire book just works. For mystery/thriller fans and readers of Gone Girl or The Girl on a Train will love this one. What got to me was how real everything felt. Like other reviewers it reminded me of a the real life murder case of a college student accused of killing her roommate. Jill is a likable character and you really feel like you are getting into her mind.

Eileen Cook's writing style makes this thriller stand out. The narrative is told through Jill's perspective, but the reader also gets to read the Italian dectives' notes, comments from blog posts, and see how the media twists and turns facts to sway people's opinion. Cook weaves an entertaining mystery with important insights into how media can sway public opinion and how sometimes people are quick to join the majority to victimize or villainize those involved in an incident.

As the bits and pieces of the accident begin to unfold, the reader is thrown into a worldwide of twists and turns. Truth is sometimes more than just the facts. Sometimes you have to dig deeper.

Highly recommended book. On my list for best books of the summer.

Eighteen-year-old Jill Charron wakes up in a hospital bed with no memories of what put her there. Then she finds out while on a trip to Italy, she was in involved in a tragic accident that claimed the life of her BFF Simone. The media runs wild saying that it wasn't an accident but something a lot worse. Jill struggles to remember what lead up to the accident and whether or not she was to blame.

What worked: I was totally addicted to this edge of the seat murder mystery! It reminded me a lot of a recent real life murder case in Italy of a college student accused of killing her room mate. Only in this novel there are enough twists and turns that keep you second guessing what really happened on that fateful day.

The story alternates between Jill's point of view with the investigation both here and in Italy. Readers get glimpses of what Jill's friends and school mates actually thought of her and Simone. Jill doesn't come across as an entitled 'rich' girl but rather one that is fighting to regain her memories while trying to make sense of the tragic event.

Bit by bit the story reveals that not is all it seems to be with both friends. The reveals are surprising and the ending has a total wowza punch.

Addictive criminal murder mystery that is loaded with secrets that will have readers guessing right to the last page. Well-written with a powerful insight into the lives of two friends that takes a tragic twist.