We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz

We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz

Emily is having the time of her life--she's in the mountains of Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual reunion trip, and the women are feeling closer than ever. But on the last night of their trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker she'd been flirting with attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him in self-defense. Even more shocking: The scene is horrifyingly similar to last year's trip, when another backpacker wound up dead. Emily can't believe it's happened again--can lightning really strike twice?

Back home in Wisconsin, Emily struggles to bury her trauma, diving head-first into a new relationship and throwing herself into work. But when Kristen shows up for a surprise visit, Emily is forced to to confront their violent past. The more Kristen tries to keep Emily close, the more Emily questions her friend's motives. As Emily feels the walls closing in on their coverups, she must reckon with the truth about her closest friend. Can she outrun the secrets she shares with Kristen, or will they destroy her relationship, her freedom--even her life? (from Goodreads)

I was excited to read this one because I used to travel all the time, often with friends, and you definitely find yourself in different situations than if you'd stayed home. Not that anything like this ever happened to me! But I could see how things progressed and it felt possible to me.

This book had great suspense and lives unraveling but it felt lacking in some way. I could see it as a movie, and seeing the characters interact might help because the description of actions between Emily and Kristen felt lacking in some areas, while other ideas and thoughts were repeated over and over. The ending was also a bit rushed and unresolved. It can be hard to come up with a good ending when the story is so twisted, but I think the resolution itself was decent, just not explored enough.

Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely

Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely

I read this because Sisters in Crime will have a Reading Like a Writer discussion on it soon and I wanted to take advantage of that.

I know there are a lot of mysteries out there, but I had never heard of this book! I’m so glad SinC brought it to my attention because I loved it!

Blanche is a cleaning woman who is taken to court after writing bad checks. Because she's a black woman in the south, she's sentenced to jail. But she's taking care of her dead sister's kids and can't leave them, plus she just doesn't want to be in jail. So she makes a run for it, and finds herself in a strange situation she doesn't know how to get out of without calling attention to herself and her whereabouts.

Blanche is so sassy and really stood out from a lot of mystery sleuths I’ve read lately. Here's one of her internal thoughts that cracked me up: "Waiting for some prime-aged whiteman to show up and set things right had the ring of guaranteed failure." I love all the side characters too, and how they form this network for Blanche.

The mystery itself was really well-done; I didn't see the twist coming, but it was explained well and didn't seem pulled out of thin air. I went back and saw the clues I'd missed in a different light. That said, I think one of the reveals was a little glossed over; I don't think I would have known what happened in the book alone - I had to look it up and check out another review to realize what transpired.

It’s written in the 1990s but sadly the racism and sexism aspects are so relevant these days that it could be a modern book. I can’t wait to read the rest of the Blanche series.