Book Review – The Breakdown by B.A. Paris

Goodreads Synopsis:

Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods, on the winding rural road, in the middle of a downpour, with the woman sitting inside―the woman who was killed. She’s been trying to put the crime out of her mind; what could she have done, really? It’s a dangerous road to be on in the middle of a storm. Her husband would be furious if he knew she’d broken her promise not to take that shortcut home. And she probably would only have been hurt herself if she’d stopped.

But since then, she’s been forgetting every little thing: where she left the car, if she took her pills, the alarm code, why she ordered a pram when she doesn’t have a baby.

The only thing she can’t forget is that woman, the woman she might have saved, and the terrible nagging guilt.

My Opinion:

This was my vacation read and I couldn’t have picked a better book. There’s not a ton of characters to keep track of and it isn’t an overly complicated storyline to follow, so it was really easy for me to jump in and out of the story and pick right back up where I left off.

It’s dark out and a storm is brewing as Cass is leaving an end-of-school-year party. As she is leaving, her husband Matthew calls her and warns her not to drive home through the woods at night, especially with a storm on its way. She promises she won’t, but while on the drive home the road feels too dangerous with the heavy rains and lightning so she decides to break her promise to Matthew and take the shortcut through the woods. While in the woods, she sees a car pulled over with a woman in it. She wants to help the woman, but is concerned about her own safety, so she pulls over and waits for the woman in the car to either approach her or signal with her car that she needs help. After a few minutes and no sign of the woman needing help, Cass decides to head home.

The decisions Cass made this fateful stormy night, taking the road through the woods and not helping the woman in the car, sets her on a horrible downward spiral and her life will never be the same. Cass becomes confused, scared, and paranoid. Between the guilt she feels from leaving the woman on the side of the road and the possibility of having early stages of dementia like her mother, she is quickly losing control of her life.

I had part of this mystery/thriller figured out early on, but I’m happy to say that I didn’t have it entirely figured out until the end.

This is my first B.A. Paris book and look forward to trying her other book, Behind Closed Doors.

*Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and B.A. Paris for the opportunity to read and review this book for my honest opinion.

Have you read one of her books? Do you prefer one over the other?

My Rating: 3/5

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Series: None

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Publication Date: 7/18/2017

Pages: 328 (eBook)

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Happy Reading!