Quiet In Her Bones by Nalini Singh - A Book Review
Synopsis:
My mother vanished ten years ago.
So did a quarter of a million dollars in cash.
Now, she’s back. Her bones clothed in scarlet silk.
When socialite Nina Rai disappeared without a trace, everyone wrote it off as another trophy wife tired of her wealthy husband. But now her bones have turned up in the shadowed green of the forest that surrounds her elite neighborhood, a haven of privilege and secrets that’s housed the same influential families for decades.
The rich live here, along with those whose job it is to make their lives easier. And somebody knows what happened to Nina one rainy night ten years ago. Her son Aarav heard a chilling scream that night, and he’s determined to uncover the ugly truth that lives beneath the moneyed elegance . . . but no one is ready for the murderous secrets about to crawl out of the dark.
Even the dead aren’t allowed to break the rules in this cul-de-sac.
Genre: Suspenseful Mystery-Thriller Fiction
Tropes:
- Murder Mystery
- Missing Person
I came across Quiet In Her Bones by Nalini Singh during my research into titles that aligned with the A-Z Reading Challenge. I hadn’t previously heard of Nalini or her work, but the premise of the story intrigued me and I’ll never say no to a mystery thriller book.
Quiet In Her Bones follows Aarav, ten years after the disappearance of his mother, Nina. Aarav is met the shocking news that his mother and her car have been found in a local forest, which concealed her car for the past ten years.
Aarav is met with the news that his mother is dead and likely died the night of her disappearance, where evidence suggests that her car veered off the road.
Police begin their investigation asking Aarav and his father questions regarding the night she disappeared.
With the reappearance of his mother, Aarav uses the knowledge of what he knows the night Nina disappeared, in an attempt to find answers on what happened to her.
When questioned by the police, Aarav reveals an argument that took place between his mother and father, that lead to smashing of ornaments, before Nina ultimately left the house in a rush, driving off in her car. Aarav details how when he went downstairs, he saw the aftermath of their argument and even blood.
Living in a small neighbourhood, Aarav is very familiar with his neighbours who express their own condolences about Nina’s death. Interactions with his neighbours prompt Aarav to look into his neighbours and their connections to Nina.
Leading up to his mother’s reappearance, Aarav was involved in a car accident that left him on crutches and heavy pain medication. Whilst visiting his doctors, they become concerned that he’s abusing his medication and attempt to send him to rehab.
Aarav finally discovers the truth about his mother’s death: one of the neighbours was abusing his wife’s sister, killing her before she could reveal it to her sister. Nina ends up discovering this and is driven off the road by the neighbour to prevent his wife from finding out, before switching Nina to the drivers seat to make it look like an accident. The neighbour also began poisoning Aarav in his brownies, in an attempt to deter him away from discovering the truth.
I think this book has to be up there with some of the most boring and confusing books I’ve ever read.
I really struggled to follow along with the plot of this story and who the characters were. I felt like every 5 minutes or so, I was coming across a character who I had no recollection of being introduced to.
In terms of the main character Aarav, I really struggled with reading his inner monologue and felt like majority of the time, it wasn’t needed and therefore, I tended to skim read it. I’m pretty sure this book is the first I’ve read of a male main character and read solely from their POV and I can’t say I overly like it.
I’m so surprise I was able to read this book in such a short time 4 days! My motivation for it to be finished was purely to say that I had completed reading a Q titled book! I’m so surprised that it took me longer to finish Powerless by Elsie Silver than this!
After looking at the GoodReads reviews, I decided to persevere with this book because majority of the reviews said very positive things about it. However, after finishing it, I can’t understand them at all.
I also felt like the plot was very confusing and jumped around a lot of the time, making it very hard to follow which impacted my enjoyment for reading it – but, it could’ve been due to me simply not enjoying it from the start and therefore missing details?
At times, I felt like I was reading in a foreign language.
I did predict somethings correctly though – I predicted that the fudge Aarav was eating had been drugged and the reason for his memory loss and headaches! This plot of the story has lead me to believe that the author potentially made the story confusing to make readers feel how Aarav was and as confused he was in his drugged state.
At one point, I thought he was dying and that he had killed his mother. I also thought his mother would’ve came back alive.
All in all, the reveal of who done it was slightly anticlimactic because of the number of characters introduced. During the reveal I was like who is this again!
I can’t say I’ll be eagerly jumping to read anymore from Nalini Singh in the future.
My Rating: ⭐️.5
Georgia
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