Deceptions
A Cainsville Novel
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4.5 • 84 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Otherworld series and Hemlock Island delivers her most suspenseful novel yet, where the discovery of Cainsville’s dark past and the true nature of its inhabitants leads to murder, redemption, love, and unspeakable loss.
Olivia Taylor Jones’s life has exploded. She’s discovered she is not only adopted, but her real parents are convicted serial killers. Fleeing the media frenzy, she took refuge in the oddly secluded town of Cainsville. She has since solved the town’s mysteries and finds herself not only the target of its secretive elders but also her stalker ex-fiancé.
Visions continue to haunt her: particularly a little blond girl in a green sundress who insists she has an important message for Olivia, one that may help her balance the light and darkness within herself. Death stalks both Olivia and the two men most important to her, as she desperately searches to understand whether ancient scripts are dictating the triangle that connects them. Will darkness prevail, or does Olivia have the power to prevent a tragic fate?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Armstrong's third Cainsville novel (after Visions) blends aspects of a psychological thriller into her urban fantasy, but the excitement is muffled by the slow-moving narrative, which is becoming a hallmark of the series. After an opener that will confuse even those who read the previous installments, multiple plot lines eventually unfold, and the agendas of various fae factions in Cainsville, Ill., are revealed. Olivia Taylor-Jones's ex-fianc is stalking her. She continues her investigation, with the help of morally ambivalent lawyer Gabriel Walsh, into the serial murders committed by her birth parents. She also has a burgeoning relationship with Ricky Gallagher; he's an insightful M.B.A.-earning gangster in training, but no one around him really takes him seriously. The story's unsettling psychological component involves Olivia's incapacitating and worsening visions, which help the underlying puzzle pieces, built around ancient folklore, fit into place. By the story's end, many questions are answered, but whether readers will get that far is debatable.
Customer Reviews
Great story, horrible ending
A well-written, engrossing story...right up until the end. It's as though the author couldn't figure out where to go or how to get to a satisfactory conclusion so she just flubbed it and said "the end." I concede the most of the lose end were tied up but in a hurried and manufactured way that doesn't sit well with this reader. I am disappointed by a poor ending of what could have been a great story.