Hat man bereits mehrere Bücher vom Duo Nicci French gelesen, kommen einem einige Abläufe und Muster doch sehr bekannt vor. Ungewöhnlich ist, dass das Buch in zwei Zeitstränge aufgeteilt ist: "Davor" und "Danach". Diese wechseln sich in kurzen Kapiteln immer wieder ab, sodass knapp ein Viertel des Buches lang sogar unklar ist, um wen es sich bei der Leiche tatsächlich handelt. Das hat das Lesen am Anfang etwas ungewohnt gemacht, brachte aber auch seinen Reiz mit sich! Wie leider oft bei Nicci French kann ich nicht immer mit allen Figuren nachfühlen, da sie häufig etwas kalt sind.

The story starts with Bonnie Graham standing in the apartment of a friend. In front of her lies the corpse of her lover. Then the story skips back and forth between the events before the murder and the time immediately afterwards. In the chapters about the events leading to the murder Bonnie forms a band in order to play at her friends wedding. We learn a lot about the relationship between these characters. Many of them seem to have a motive for the murder or had problems with the victim. The chapters taking part after the murder deal with the same characters, trying to cover and protect each other while not knowing who really committed the crime. I liked the book, although I sometimes felt the urge to shout at the characters for behaving so stupid. Although I suspected the real murderer quite early in the After chapters, it was fascinating to gain small bits of information in each chapter forming the whole picture at the end. I was a bit disappointed by the motive, though. Overall, the book is a capturing thriller, focussing on problematic relationships between the main characters.