She Treads Softly: The Night of the Crash

Saturday, October 12, 2024

The Night of the Crash

The Night of the Crash by Jessica Irena Smith
10/1/24; 330 pages
Headline

The Night of the Crash by Jessica Irena Smith is a highly recommended thriller told through a dual timeline.

Steppy Corner is the popular true crime podcaster of "All the Dark Corners." When she wakes up in a hospital she has no memory of what brought her to Heartsick, Colorado, the small town where her estranged family lives. She learns she had a car accident on the way up the mountain to her family's home. Then others inform her that her mother was murdered and her brother Garrett is the prime suspect. Slowly Steppy starts to piece together exactly why she was in Heartsick.

The narrative is told through Steppy's point-of-view in a past and present dual timeline reflecting before and after the accident. In the past timeline before the accident we learn that Steppy was in Heartsick to investigate a missing person case where Garrett was a suspect. We also see the tension within her family and the stress Steppy was under in her personal life. In the present after the accident Steppy has no memory of the information she uncovered so she is re-investigating the missing person case while trying to figure out who murdered her mother. Garrett disappeared after the accident.

The dual timeline was an interesting plot device but also could have been used more effectively. It does add additional complexity to the plot and helps to increase the tension and suspense. It was interesting to follow Steppy uncovering clues or trying to figure out what she previously had uncovered. On the other hand, it also seemed to drag a bit in the middle for me and stretched out the story too much while covering the same information. The merging of the timelines leads to a satisfying conclusion and a surprising twist. Thanks to Headline for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.