The Best of Friends by Lucinda Berry

EXCERPT: ‘You can’t go out there!’ Paul yells.

‘What if there’s a crazy shooter?’ Reese asks at the same time.

I ignore them and step outside before shutting the door tightly behind me. Three police cars race down the street and make a left at the corner just like all the others. I take off running. People are coming out of their houses, milling down the street while I sprint past them.

‘Dear God, please don’t let anything happen to my baby.’

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Best friends Lindsey, Kendra, and Dani endure every parent’s nightmare when a tragic accident befalls their teenage boys, leaving one dead, another in a coma, and a third too traumatized to speak.

Reeling from the worst night of their lives, the three mothers plunge into a desperate investigation of the bizarre incident. How could something so horrible happen in their wealthy Southern California suburb?

They soon discover that the accident was just the beginning, and troubling discoveries lead to chilling questions: Do they really know their children? Do they even know each other? As more secrets surface, a fog of doubt and suspicion threatens to poison their families, their friendships, and the whole community.

With the illusion of happiness and safety long gone, these women must now confront the hazards of heartbreak, the consequences of jealousy, and the dangers of living double lives.

MY THOUGHTS: I failed to become invested in The Best of Friends by Lucinda Berry. I have read this author previously, and really enjoyed her work, but this just left me cold. For a short novel, this felt inordinately long!

The characters were interchangeable, lacked definition, and I had difficulty in remembering what children belonged to which parents.

The chapters are narrated by the mothers of the children, Dani, Kendra and Lindsey. But it was easy to forget who was narrating.

There really is no feeling of suspense, and there are tantalizing tidbits dropped into the narrative which are never explored or explained – the most glaring of which is an oblique reference regarding something that happened when these three were at school, but that was it. A scandal waiting to be exposed, or the possibility of one, and there’s no clarification, no further reference to it. Frustrating!

Several times I thought of not finishing The Best of Friends, but I wanted to know what these three had been up to. As it is, we never find out. Disappointing, and mundane. Not at all what I expected from the author of Saving Noah, which I loved.

A lot of other readers love this book. Reading is a very personal subjective experience, and not every book is for every reader. So, if you enjoyed the extract, and the plot summary interests you, please do read Final Cut by S.J. Watson. I hope that you are one of the many who love this book.

** depressed stars

THE AUTHOR: Dr. Lucinda Berry is a former clinical psychologist and leading researcher in childhood trauma. Now, she spends her days writing full-time where she uses her clinical experience to blur the line between fiction and nonfiction. She enjoys taking her readers on a journey through the dark recesses of the human psyche.

If Berry isn’t chasing after her son, you can find her running through Los Angeles, prepping for her next marathon.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Thomas & Mercer via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of The Best of Friends for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbooksday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and Goodreads.com