Review: 6 Ripley Avenue by Noelle Holten

                     


Print Length: 384 pages
Publisher:  One More Chapter (September 27, 2022)

From Goodreads.com: ONE HOUSE
EIGHT KILLERS
NO WITNESSES

Jeanette is the manager of a probation hostel that houses high risk offenders released on license.

At 3am one morning, she receives a call telling her a resident has been murdered.

Her whole team, along with the eight convicted murderers, are now all suspects in a crime no one saw committed…

                                                         *******************


My Rating: 2 stars out of 5

This novel started off on a very strong note - with the murder of a convicted murderer and the reasoning as to why he was killed. Sadly, from there, it just lost its momentum for me, slowing to the point where reading almost felt like a chore, even though nearly every chapter ended on some sort of cliffhanger (you would have thought that would have made things more interesting, but no). 

Jeanette (the person in charge of the hostel) was not an easy character to like. She was either coming across as hostile to her staff and the residents or showing just how incapable she was of holding her position. I mean, honestly, what head person in charge doesn't know what her staff is up to (especially when it comes to potentially criminal behavior)? At every turn, she seems surprised that so-and-so didn't do their job or so-and-so didn't follow up on something, but honestly, if she is the one who is accountable for everything that happens at the hostel, she should have been the one following up and therefore should have known what was going on under her own roof.

Now I will admit that I'm not well versed in how the criminal justice system works (especially as an American reading a book set in the UK), however - is it common to release people who are serving life sentences for murder and/or rape to a hostel? Where they can seemingly come and go as they please? A mention was made once, I believe, about ankle monitors, but that never came into play (for example, I would have thought it would be a simple matter for the police to check the activity on one to see if they had been trespassing where they shouldn't have been)? 

Then again, the police in this story do come across as very incompetent, to the point where Helen (the busybody neighbor living next door to the hostel) and Sloane (an investigative reporter) seem to do most of the work for them. In fact,  when it came time for the big reveal of who the killer was, for me anyway, it wasn't that big of a shock. 

However, all of that being said, I am sure there is still a wide number of people to whom this novel will appeal, so after reading about it, if it seems like your cup of tea, please give it a shot, and then let me know what you thought later! 

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.
                                                         *******************
                                               
                                             6 Ripley Avenue is available on Amazon.com
                                          

Post a Comment

0 Comments