Whew. I almost gave this 1 star and I have NEVER done that with a book that wasn't a DNF. My opinion is it's got to be at least 2 stars if I finished it. But this one barely was.
The reason I did go with 2 stars instead of 1 is because I did think that the story was quite clever - there were definitely some red herrings that maybe didn't need to be there, but I could clearly see what the author set out to do and I do think she had a great idea for a great story - I can see why this book has been optioned because a good screenwriter could have an absolute field day with this story. The story is the only good thing about this book. The execution is absolutely horrid.
The writing. Oh my gosh, the writing. It was terrible. Awful. Childish. Vapid. Inane dialogue. A lot of lines like "She's the one person I can always depend on, the one person I can always trust" and you know, duh, she's obviously not. Lots of telling instead of showing.
The plot has so many holes. The author clearly did not research either of the professions she wrote about. Her lawyers were terrible lawyers with no clear understanding of what their job entails and her law enforcement officers were even worse than the lawyers. And lots of issues similar to this: on one page Adam is thinking about how it's a shame he has no more scotch and then on the next page there's miraculously scotch that he's swigging at the wet bar.
There was zero character development. You never really got a feel for who any of them really were because their actions were so inconsistent throughout the whole book. They're both confident and meek. Weak and strong. Smart and stupid. Brave and cowardly. It makes no sense.
Characters would act one way and then turn around and do something completely different. Adam did stuff that any sane person would realize is RIDICULOUS. The DA is really kind to Sarah and she goes on and on about how he's so reasonable and then the next time he's a complete jerk.
One character is there all over the place but realistically I kept asking WHY. He was not important to the story. He was taking part of an investigation he had ZERO reason to be a part of. One character takes a sip of Adam's coffee THE VERY FIRST TIME SHE MEETS HIM - and no, he didn't offer it to her, she just reached out and grabbed the mug and took a sip. I mean, who DOES that and why would an author make a character do that? Especially when it has nothing to do with developing her character.
WHERE WAS THE EDITOR FOR THIS BOOK!?!