Book Review: The Warning | Kathryn Croft

Twisted and deceptive—that is how I describe Kathryn Croft characters. And I don’t just mean the villain. Kathryn Croft writes about people and her novels are character-driven above all else. How do ordinary people react to extraordinary circumstances? When does grief cross into deception? And how do we know who is lying to us? This book had my mind spinning the whole way through, and then when I got to the reveal I could hardly believe that I’d missed it!!! Masterful!

About the Book

Three years after the tragic death of her 14-year old son Ethan, Zoe is still grieving. Her family has never really healed from the tragic accident. Her husband Jake is distant, throwing himself into his work. Her older son Harley had an emotional breakdown that he barely recovered from. And Zoe finds herself unable to move on. They go through the motions every day, pretending to be a happy family. But inside their home, they are shattered.

And then one day Zoe receives an email…

You need to find out the truth about what happened to your son down by the river three years ago. Don’t let this rest. Don’t believe the Lie. It was no accident.

Despite Jake’s insistence that it is a prank, and tracking the sender down will only bring them more pain, Zoe can’t accept that. She starts to follow the clues about the deaths of Ethan and his friend Josh that night. The more information Zoe finds, the more she realizes that there’s a lot she didn’t know about that night.

Why is Jake so insistent that she drop this? What is going on in Harley’s mind that he keeps so private? And why will Josh’s mother not speak about this with Zoe? Secrets come to light and Zoe realizes she has been lied to, perhaps by those she holds dearest…

Reflection

It’s no secret that Kathryn Croft is a favorite author of mine. Her books tend to feature characters in a difficult life situation, which Croft then twists until secrets, lies, and deception are revealed. As a reader, I find her books masterful. The answers are there, if only we see them. But we never do! Croft manipulates us into a false sense of understanding about the story, and then flips it on us. Her books are among the top psychological thrillers I’ve read!

This poor family in this book!!! There’s an authenticity to the way they’ve shattered after tragedy struck. From the outside, they seem to be coping. But each of them has demons. Each of them is barely holding it together, which means as a unit they aren’t holding together. They’ve settled into a routine of going through the motions. Accepting the lies in order to feel whole again. For instance, Zoe allows herself to believe that Jake works so much because he cares about his business. But the truth is, Jake is not okay since Ethan’s death. Jake can’t bare the hours when his mind is unoccupied.

The writing structure is so effective. The chapters are fairly short, and change narrators. It totally hooked me! It was important to see what each of them was experiencing and piecing together. And then there is a mysterious narrator of some chapters. Twisted and unsettling is the only way to describe this narrator. Those chapter positively gave me the chills! I couldn’t work it out—I was stumped!

And then we get to the reveal and I was blown away! How did I never consider THAT twist??? Masterful and twisty—I can’t wait for more readers to experience this book!

Thank you to the team at Bookouture for my copy of this book and including me in the blog tour.