A kind of a psycho thriller from Nicholas Sparks in “The Guardian”.
It starts of as a romantic novel but ends with a chase by the police of a psycho killer on the loose. Julie loses her husband to cancer at a very young age, but before he dies he arranges a gift of a Dane to Julie. Julie at first detests the dog but gets on to love him dearly.
Julie settles down to a life in Swansboro in a saloon and emerges to recreate her love life. Richard is one such suitor and so is Mike, the quiet garage mechanic, who happened to be close to Jim her late husband.
Richard is a strange character as he tries to dominate Julie. She goes by her gut instinct and starts dating Mike. Which is when the real drama begins with Richard’s real identity emerging. The police are onto the plot after in fact Richard complains to the cops when Mike beats him up.
Jennifer the police detective ploughs through to find more details of Richard and what emerges is a deadly story of crime, murder, escape, name change and lunacy. The narrative comes to life only midway through the story. Till then, it was a dull romantic plot. Goodreads 3/5
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