Lexie is the maid of honor at her best friend Olivia’s extravagant wedding at the remote chain of islands of Panama. The story is told by her, when she has to guide the guests through the week, by smiling and being nice to everyone, even if anything happens.
The beginning of the book is a little slow: there’s a long background story for every step, where all the guys are introduced by detail. At last after the snorkeling one of the guys remains dead in the water, so the real story begins. There are many turns and twists in the plot, and some of them are confusingly unrealistic.
First, everybody here is an adult, so I would expect a minimal amount of responsibility. There’s a dead man, their friend, who will be missing from the wedding. No, this fact couldn’t be concealed from everybody. In the book Lexie pretends that everything is OK – even when the police finds it was a murder.
The next unrealistic point is that the police is not really interested in the case. They arrest the groom and that’s it, no more investigation, no questioning around. The police does not need some kind of evidence over there? Lexie is the only one who is curious about the killer? So the best man is dead, the groom is arrested, and the police officers just went to sailing and the wedding goes on… really?
The third one is that even two different thirty-something, handsome, drunk, single boy accompanied the beautiful and also single Lexie to her room in two different nights, after the parties. And the boys does not have any other plan than… teaching Lexie to swim! They are patiently waiting until Lexie is floating on the water or crawling like a dog in the sea in the Caribbean night… OK.
But, if you can oversee these logical problems, the wedding guests and their relations are entertaining. It is more of a drama, than a mystery: the girls’ friendship and their boyfirends are interesting and funny, it’s OK to read on a hot summer day next to the sea.
Rachel Neuburger Reynolds: Drowning Lessons (Red Frog Beach Mystery #1)
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I got an advanced copy through Netgalley