She Treads Softly: Dying to Meet You

Monday, April 28, 2025

Dying to Meet You

Dying to Meet You by Sarina Bowen
5/13/25; 368 pages
HarperCollins

Dying to Meet You by Sarina Bowen is a very highly recommended mystery with Gothic vibes that follows the structure of a procedural with a little romance thrown in on the side.

Rowan Gallagher is an architect who is working for Hank Wincott on the restoration of the family's historic mansion in Portland, Maine. She works closely with Hank's assistant Beatrice. Rowan is still hurt that reporter Tim Novak recently broke up with her via text and she's been tracking his movements using an app. When she sees his car is parked nearby, outside the Wincott mansion, she takes her dog out for a walk, expecting to find him with someone else. Instead she finds him in his car, dead. Tim was shot and Rowan is on the police's list of the main suspects. She begins to undertake an investigation on her own.

The narrative is told through three points-of-view in alternating chapters. Rowan is the main voice. Rowan is a fully realized, complex character who has both strengths and weaknesses. The other two points-of-view are Rowan's 16-year-old daughter, Natalie, and Hanks young secretary, Coralie.

Natalie never liked Tim, but she also saw things she didn't tell her mother. She and her mother have a believable mother/daughter relationship. Hank is exploiting Coralie. Even the mansion itself is a character as it is reported to be haunted and the restoration crew are uncovering suggestive murals and disturbing graffiti. Then Harrison, Rowan's ex and Natalie's father is discovered to be in the area.

While the opening is even paced, my appreciation of the novel increased with each subsequent chapter as Rowan uncovered new information and looked into what Tim was investigating. The alternating viewpoints work very well to propel the plot forward and introduce fresh leads and discoveries. The plotting is intricate and progresses with each new discovery. Personally, I could have done without the romance included and stuck with finding clues to solve the mystery of who murdered Tim. The ending is riveting. 4.5 rounded up.

Dying to Meet You is a good choice for those who enjoy mysteries with a little added romance. Thanks to HarperCollins 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.