THE BEST OF CRIMES

THE BEST OF CRIMES

By K.C. Maher

At 79% of the way through this book, I finally said, “Enough.” I was nauseated, disgusted, and doing way too much eye-rolling to read any further. The fact that I stopped after having gotten so far along speaks to how much I wanted to give the book a fair shake, considering it was a NetGalley ARC. However, the story was way too far-fetched in some ways and way too sickening in other ways for me to keep on reading.

The story centers around Walter, well-to-do former child prodigy and math wizard, now in his early 30’s. He is married to Sterling, an older woman, and they have a 13-year old daughter, Olivia. The relationship among the three of them starts out fine, until Sterling decides to enter into a long-term affair with her interior designer. She takes Olivia and moves from their home in New York to Maine. I found the writing to be stilted and semi-unbelievable up to this point, but bearable. But this is where absolute ridiculousness, and an unbelievable and twisted plot takes over.

Amanda lives next door to Walter and his family. She is slightly younger than Olivia, and was her best friend when they were small. Walter adored both little girls and took pleasure in their sweet childishness. But Amanda basically lives alone – at 12 years old. Her mother is gone on business and/or pleasure trips the majority of the time, coming home a couple of times a year for two or three days at a time. There’s no father in the picture at all, nor other relatives nor even a nanny. Amanda takes care of herself, and even though the neighbors and parents of her schoolmates know it, NONE of them seem to think this is odd or inappropriate or even worrisome.

After Sterling and Olivia leave (and by the way, Walter makes no effort to visit Olivia during the months that they’re gone. Way to go, dad.), he becomes very close to Amanda. Too close. His inappropriate, sexual feelings for her are carefully described in the book, and even though he tries to place boundaries, the boundaries keep getting moved. But the two get physically and emotionally closer and closer, and at almost 80% of the way through the book, I didn’t even want to know what happened next. The whole premise was nauseating, and the other situations in the book were so bizarre as to be totally unbelievable.

I’m sorry that I can’t even give this a proper review, since I couldn’t stand reading another word. I do thank NetGalley and RedDoor Publishing for the opportunity to read and review.

Reviewed April 2019