REVIEW

Book Review - Did You see Melody?, Sophie Hannah

Reviewed By
Andrea Thompson

There’s both highs and dips with this novel.  Some of the dialogue is quite fun and the main character Cara is comically harried with all that is going on in her life.  We’ve all been there.  Mother and teen daughter relationships based on sarcasm are very relatable, as is the faux cheeriness you often encounter from hotel staff when all you want to do is be left alone to enjoy your holiday.  Author Sophie Hannah contrives to balance all of the mayhem of hotel goers joining forces for a holiday adventure with the darker depiction of a child’s murder.

As the abduction/murder plot is rather over worked, you will need to check your reality radar (and eyerolling) at the door in order to complete this read.  As a beach towel novel, DID YOU SEE MELODY may have served a little better.  As a crime novel, it’s a little oddball.   It needs a little more darkness, or a little more lightness to slide home successfully in either category.  Whether you are new to this author of an existing fan you will appreciate how Hannah has brought together a lot of diverse characters and made them interact in the unlikely environment of a high end desert resort. 

Shades of “It’s a Mad, Mad World” for sure, but in the hands of Hannah DID YOU SEE MELODY has enough intrigue (satisfactorily largely in the hands of the women) to push (rather than sweep away) the reader through what is essentially a one location mystery.  It’s a bit of frenetic trip in order to answer the burning question of the novel -  did Cara really see Melody at the Swallowtail Resort? 

BOOK DETAILS
BOOK INFORMATION
Author
ISBN
9781444776140
Year of Publication
BLURB

Tired and irritable from her cross continental flight from the UK, the last straw for Cara Burrows is being sent to the wrong room in the middle of the night by hotel reception.  Disturbing a teenager and a man in the room, the over reaction is completely bizarre to Cara but in the light of day, it becomes just one of those things. The purpose of Cara’s trip was to regroup her thoughts and have a well-deserved break from her insufferable family so beyond that, she’d rather just enjoy what the Arizona resort has to offer.   Cara has big mental fish to fry.

The disappearance of Melody Chapa ten years ago was one of those cases that gripped the public. Though Melody’s body was never recovered, her parents are in prison serving time for her murder and the case remained in the public eye thanks to occasional ‘sightings’ and sporadic media attention.  Overhearing another hotel goer claim a number of recent sightings of Melody, Cara has cause to examine again her memories of that first night in the hotel.  Could that have been Melody, hiding in plain sight?

Review Book Review - Did You see Melody?, Sophie Hannah
Andrea Thompson
Saturday, November 25, 2017

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