I recently decided to rejoin the library after a considerable gap of about 7-8 months. Usually I browse through the latest arrivals in the horror and crime genres with great enthusiasm. But this time around, I went through the heap rather listlessly. The plots started to look more or less similar - a kidnapping here, a murder there, bomb threats, terrorists, serial killers, international incidents, espionage, cold cases. I picked up books and replaced them on the shelf with only a half-hearted glance at the synopsis. Guess I was in one of those 'gotta read something that will nourish my soul' kind of moods that I find myself in at least once a year :-) Unfortunately, it isn't easy to find such books in the library and I was pressed for time. So I picked up 'The Cinderella Murder' just because I have read and liked earlier offerings of the author.
First, a brief about the plot. Laurie Moran, the producer of the reality TV show 'Under Suspicion', is in search of a cold case for the show's second episode. The first episode has succeeded in finding the perpetrator of a crime after bringing together friends, relatives of the victim of a cold case along with people who have been living under a cloud of suspicion despite not being charged formally for the crime. So obviously, there are a lot of expectations from the second episode. She chooses to take up the case Susan, a very promising student of UCLA, who was found murdered in a park 20 years ago, just miles away from the home of a producer who had asked her to show up for an audition. The case was never solved. Laurie succeeds in bringing all the people connected with the case together - Susan's boyfriend Keith, her mom Rosemary, roommates Madison and Nicole and her lab partner Dwight Cook. But even before they start to shoot, Rosemary's neighbor is killed in a violent attack. Then Laurie's assistant is brutally assaulted. One thing is clear - someone wants to stop 'Under Suspicion' from investigating what happened to Susan. Was it her boyfriend, Keith, as always suspected by Rosemary? Did it have anything to do with the successful company founded by Cook? Or was it the shadowy presence of the megachurch Advocates Of God and its founder? Who really killed Susan two decades ago?
I am sure I don't have to write about how effectively Clark manages to keep us guessing about the killer throughout the book. All possibilities sound equally plausible. That said, I wonder, not for the first time, how all men (except for Nicole's husband Gavin and of course, Dwight!) end up being tall, masculine and good-looking? Alex, Keith, Hathaway - all are described as handsome. The ladies (except for Nicole!) are all good-looking as well. In fact, Clark's world seems to be operating at 180 degrees with the real world where good-looking people are an exception and not the rule :-)
P.S. I couldn't help but smile when at the beginning of chapter 22, Rosemary's neighbor Lydia is described as waving her garden glove in the direction of the very-dead 'Susan' instead of that of her mother :-)
First, a brief about the plot. Laurie Moran, the producer of the reality TV show 'Under Suspicion', is in search of a cold case for the show's second episode. The first episode has succeeded in finding the perpetrator of a crime after bringing together friends, relatives of the victim of a cold case along with people who have been living under a cloud of suspicion despite not being charged formally for the crime. So obviously, there are a lot of expectations from the second episode. She chooses to take up the case Susan, a very promising student of UCLA, who was found murdered in a park 20 years ago, just miles away from the home of a producer who had asked her to show up for an audition. The case was never solved. Laurie succeeds in bringing all the people connected with the case together - Susan's boyfriend Keith, her mom Rosemary, roommates Madison and Nicole and her lab partner Dwight Cook. But even before they start to shoot, Rosemary's neighbor is killed in a violent attack. Then Laurie's assistant is brutally assaulted. One thing is clear - someone wants to stop 'Under Suspicion' from investigating what happened to Susan. Was it her boyfriend, Keith, as always suspected by Rosemary? Did it have anything to do with the successful company founded by Cook? Or was it the shadowy presence of the megachurch Advocates Of God and its founder? Who really killed Susan two decades ago?
I am sure I don't have to write about how effectively Clark manages to keep us guessing about the killer throughout the book. All possibilities sound equally plausible. That said, I wonder, not for the first time, how all men (except for Nicole's husband Gavin and of course, Dwight!) end up being tall, masculine and good-looking? Alex, Keith, Hathaway - all are described as handsome. The ladies (except for Nicole!) are all good-looking as well. In fact, Clark's world seems to be operating at 180 degrees with the real world where good-looking people are an exception and not the rule :-)
P.S. I couldn't help but smile when at the beginning of chapter 22, Rosemary's neighbor Lydia is described as waving her garden glove in the direction of the very-dead 'Susan' instead of that of her mother :-)
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