My rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.51 with 51 ratings (as of 8/26/2020)

Welcome to Beaumont Cove, a slowly decaying tourist town at the edge of the world, and the place where Maggie James’s worst fears for her estranged twin sister, Lilly, have come true.

Lilly is dead, and Maggie has arrived to identify her body.

Lilly’s husband, Mike, is in custody for her murder. With his long history of abuse, no one in town is surprised at the inevitable end to their stormy marriage, least of all Maggie. All she wants is to clean up her sister’s affairs, see Mike punished, and get out of Beaumont Cove.

With the help of the local sheriff, a retired private investigator, and a strange but friendly carnival psychic, Maggie begins to uncover the truth about what really happened to her sister. But the truth comes at a price, and soon Maggie finds herself walking a dark path toward the same deadly trap that killed Lilly.

The more Maggie discovers about her sister’s final days, the more she realizes that nothing is as it appears in this strange boardwalk town.…Synopsis from Goodreads

200 Word Review

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

Magnolia (Maggie) is not surprised when her estranged twin sister is murdered by her abusive husband. She travels to Beaumont Cove, the town where her sister and Mike lived. Mike protests his innocence, and, at first, she does not believe him. Wandering around town and looking into her sister’s time there, she begins to have doubts. Hiring a local PI, Maggie looks into her sister’s murder and wonders if Mike is telling the truth.

Broken by John Rector is a short, quick read. It is 284 pages. The story flows well, but I did not connect with the characters. The town is supposed to feel creepy, but it came across as similar to a New Jersey tourist town during the off-season, devoid of tourists. The “big reveal” from one of the characters’ past was not surprising, although it did explain his actions.

The cover and description of the book made it seem as if the story was going to be scary or suspenseful. It was neither. While it was worth reading, the book felt too short and not fully fleshed out.

According to Goodreads, Rector’s short fiction won several awards, including the International Thriller Award for his novella, Lost Things.

This review was published on Philomathinphila.com, Smashbomb, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble on 9/15/20. When available, the review will be published on Scribd.com and, using Overdrive, will be rated in 9 libraries.

Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Print Length: 284 pages
ISBN: 9781542091503
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Publication Date: September 15, 2020

Purchase at Amazon *** Barnes and Noble