The Heart to Kill

The Heart to Kill

Dorothy Place

*This book was gifted to me by the author. The below review is my honest opinion*

I hate doing this, but I really struggled to get through this one.

Let me start with the plot. Sarah, our main character, is in her second year of law school and just found out she got turned down for a summer internship. Shortly after, she hears that her best friend from high school murdered her two children and decides to go home to help with her defense, much to her overbearing father's disappointment. It was interesting to see things from a lawyer's perspective, but there was barely any action. I was left with really weird questions: for one, why did she buy a baby blanket when she has no kids? And how did that add to the story at all? Who picks up raw beef and eats it with salt? Most importantly, this book is entirely about a case in court, so why don't we learn the verdict?

I was also confused with the writing. It's in third person but focuses on Sarah's perspective. I got really confused when the author was talking about Sarah's father and calling him Sam, etc. The setting would have been a good idea: small town where everyone is connected and there are barely any secrets... that could have been great for a murder trial, but the characters did not evoke any sort of emotion in me and the people and town were not described in detail.

I hated Sarah. Straight up hated. She was naïve and completely blind as to what was going on around her. I couldn't care less about Jo-Beth or whether she was guilty or innocent. The love interest was horrible, I felt absolutely no connection between them and Al was so completely bland. Honestly, there wasn't a single character I liked or felt any sort of attachment to.

The supposed 'plot twists' were apparent from the very beginning so they were not exciting reveals to me. I think it might have been more of a coming of age story, but it seems like it's advertised as a book about a murder trial.