What She Doesn't Know Andrew E. Kaufman 2/2 stars

      I've read a lot of thrillers before. but this one frustrated me to no end. There's no doubt that  Kaufman is a talented writer, but the novel feels like a bunch of ideas thrown together without any real thought to how it's going to turn out. The plot seems pretty straight forward, but the thing is by the middle of the book you begin to wonder why this is all happening. Sure, we all like plot twists, but this just left me scratching my head wondering how no one saw any of this coming. Let's be honest here and admit that it's kind of clever, but it couldn't really happen. How in the hell didn't anyone see any of this happening? Riley's sister is pretty much useless here, and Riley is pretty sketchy as a lead character which shouldn't really surprise us. It's not the story that frustrated me. it's the ending that left me practically throwing my Kindle across the room.

      The truth is, I really liked this book, I did, but Kaufman's story slowly begins to unravel with the addition of Samantha. A lot of these books do have a few twists and turns which is why we keep reading them, but none of these characters seemed to have anything likable about them. You should at least have a lead character you like, and root for, but Riley is just boring, and not enough is told about her daughter's death to make us feel anything remotely like sympathy. Of course Samantha is a main part of the second half and she's an interesting character, but I would have liked to see more of her. When it's all explained it doesn't seem to have any weight. There is so much potential here, but I just couldn't get into this at all. I'm sure there are readers who will call me insane because I felt that the book was lacking something. There are pieces of other stories here  in better books that have had a way bigger impact than this one did.

      After reading it there was a bit of shock as it all began to settle in. The ending is built to surprise you, but to me it didn't make a whole lot of sense because you kind of expected it to end the way it did. Given what Riley has gone through and the subtle clues throughout the novel, it's not much of a surprise ending. As I guessed in the first few pages what would happen, and I was sort of right. In terms of pacing, Kaufman does a pretty good job of moving the story along even when the novel slowly goes off the rails. There's a lot of potential here for a great novel, yet to me it just felt okay. If anything, it's a pretty decent B, or C level thriller. You read it. and promptly forget about it.