Blind Faith

By: Alicia Beckman

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC of this Book.

For decades, the death of Father Mike Leary went unsolved. But this once cold case is now being re-opened after new evidence comes to light. Brian Donovan, a detective from Boston, wants to solve Billings, Montana’s oldest cold case. He begins his investigation by going through the old case file and speaking to the old witnesses. What he uncovers is a tangle of lies and secrets. At the same time, a short time resident of Billings, Montana tries to figure out her family tree and it’s genetic history to help her grandson. What she finds is that she is apart of this tangled web of lies and secrets.

I wanted to like this book. I enjoyed the description and was so excited when I was approved for this ARC. However, the book fell flat for me. The story is told in the present time and in the past and in the third person point of view. But there are times when it feels as it’s in the first person, and just very confusing. Additionally, each chapter focuses on a character, but sometimes you don’t know which character until you read half a page or more. It would have been helpful to have the character listed at the top.

There are so many characters, and non-characters named, that it makes the story convoluted and confusing. The multiple sub story lines also make the story very confusing. At some point, these sub plots really needed to be edited down. There is too much description, and other non important information – such as someone’s egg roll dripping down their face, that just doesn’t need to be there. None of this information pushes the plot forward. It felt as though the author had a character minimum and so she just kept adding more unnecessary scenes.

I didn’t put together the who and the why when it came to Father Leary’s death, and for that, I’ll give it two stars.

This book will be available on October 11, 2022. You can pre-order your copy here.