REWIND by Catherine Ryan Howard
Blackstone Publishing; 9/3/19
CBTB Rating: 4/5
The Verdict: a just-one-more-page “popcorn read”
I read a lot of books, and I love a lot of books, but I know I’ve found something particularly special when I find a book I genuinely cannot put down. I’ve been eyeing Irish writer Catherine Ryan Howard’s latest suspense novel REWIND for quite a while now, but I finally took the plunge and dove into it this spring—and I’m so glad that I did. REWIND is pure “popcorn reading”—a lighter suspense story with a compulsive, just-one-more-page plot and major entertainment value. In REWIND, readers are drawn into a cleverly-crafted work of psychological suspense, one that utilizes unconventional plot structures and shifting perspectives to build an irresistible story of betrayal, secrets, and suspense. REWIND begins with a shocking crime: a woman is murdered while she sleeps in her hotel room, the only witness to the crime the hotel’s manager, a man who really shouldn’t be watching… but is, thanks to the hidden cameras he has installed around the hotel. Why was our victim in this hotel in the first place? Who killed her, and why? And what does the voyeuristic hotel manager have to do with any of it? From a relatively simple premise, Catherine Ryan Howard unravels a deliciously dramatic and sinister story of psychological suspense. While I did guess the story’s ultimate conclusion, my enjoyment of this engaging suspense book wasn’t diminished in this least; this is a story that’s more about the journey than the ultimate destination. When I started reading REWIND, I simply couldn’t stop. This book’s clever structure and engaging storytelling beg to be devoured whole.
Plot Details:
PLAY
Andrew, the manager of Shanamore Cottages, watches his only guest via a hidden camera in her room. One night the unthinkable happens: a shadowy figure emerges on-screen, kills her, and destroys the camera. But who is the murderer? How did they know about the camera? And how will Andrew live with himself?
PAUSE
Natalie wishes she’d stayed at home as soon as she arrives in the wintry isolation of Shanamore. There’s something creepy about the manager. She wants to leave, but she can't, not until she's found what she’s looking for
REWIND
Psycho meets Fatal Attraction in this explosive story about a murder caught on camera. You’ve already missed the start. To get the full picture you must rewind the tape and play it through to the end, no matter how shocking.
From the very first page, REWIND establishes itself as a thriller that brings something new and fresh to the table. REWIND isn’t just a thriller about a video—it’s a thriller built like a video, too. With chapters titled “Rewind,” “Pause,” “Fast-Forward,” and more, REWIND pulls readers from the present back into the past and into the future, with each section giving readers new perspectives and information—a trail of breadcrumbs that, when followed, ultimately build a complete picture of and explanation for the story’s central crime. In this ever-shifting plot structure, readers will never be sure exactly who - or what - they can trust, and the tantalizing promise of building out a complete, 360-degree understanding of our story’s central mystery will drive readers ever forward. REWIND is built on an ambitious structure, and it’s one that I first feared might be gimmicky or confusing—but I had nothing to worry about. Catherine Ryan Howard deftly draws readers through this story’s alternating perspectives, utilizing the book’s video-inspired structure to deliver essential mystery-solving pieces of information in a fresh, engaging format. Readers who love suspense novels that bring something a bit different to the table will be hooked on the author’s masterful plotting, while readers who just love addictive stories will find this unique structure lends REWIND a unique compulsive readability.
Modern-day technology and small-town life collide in REWIND, as a protagonist with a decidedly twenty-first century career travels to an isolated town on a mysterious personal mission. Protagonist Natalie has built a career on her digital presence. A popular Instagram influencer, Natalie’s livelihood depends on her visibility on social media. It comes as a shock to her legion of followers, then, when she snaps a photo of her luggage and shares that she’s taking a short break from social media, going off the grid for a personal trip. Contrary to the image she has so carefully crafted for herself online, Natalie’s real life isn’t picture-perfect. Something is rotten in her marriage, and she fears that her husband has been unfaithful. She sets off for the bleak town of Shanamore on a secret mission to uncover the truth. But what she finds in Shanamore has deadly consequences, and Natalie becomes the victim of a horrific crime—a murder that is the launching point for this inventively told story of suspense. Why did Natalie really travel to Shanamore? What did she find herself embroiled in, and how did it result in her untimely death? Catherine Ryan Howard raises these questions - and many more - in this layered, intricately plotted crime novel.
Natalie might be our story’s central figure, but REWIND is a book made up of numerous significant characters, each with shadowy backstories and questionable motivations all their own. Along this twisty journey, readers meet Audrey, a journalist who fears her career has stalled out. She’s been relegated to her employer’s celebrity news desk, and spends her days keeping tabs on B-list celebrities and their antics. When she catches wind of Natalie’s disappearance, she finds herself hot on the heels of the story that could break her out of her dead-end job. Tracing Natalie’s movements to Shanamore, Audrey finds herself in the thick of a mystery that is even more far-reaching than she could have imagined. Readers are also introduced to a local police officer with childhood ties to Shanamore that may have impacted the present, a hotel manager with a voyeuristic penchant for filming the guests at his hotel without their knowledge, and many more suspicious figures. While it can take a moment to ground yourself in the ever-shifting cast central to this story, the patient reader will be rewarded. Catherine Ryan Howard deftly weaves together the fates of her stories’ numerous characters, illustrating how even the smallest decisions and encounters can have life-or-death implications. The real fun here isn’t in getting to know just one protagonist—it’s in watching the lives of the story’s varied cast intersect, and witnessing the fallout of even the smallest chance encounter.
Sometimes you pick up a book and discover that you have, somehow, stumbled into exactly the story you needed at that moment. REWIND was that kind of book for me. This book just clicked for me, transporting me out of Brooklyn and dropping me in isolated Shanamore, and in the hidden secrets of its rich cast of characters. Though this book does have moments of violence (its first scene being a most stark example!), REWIND is pure “popcorn reading”: a suspense novel that packs a punch in entertainment value, and delivers an easy-to-binge reading experience. While I did predict the story’s ultimate reveal, none of the entertainment of this story was lost for me due to this prediction; this was, in my experience, a book more about the journey than the ultimate solution to the story’s central crime. REWIND is a creative, inventive psychological suspense novel perfect for a binge-read.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. All opinions my own.
Book Details:
Hardcover: 300 pages
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing; Unabridged edition (September 3, 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1538519704
ISBN-13: 978-1538519707
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