This was an interesting, twisty read with a wonderfully diverse cast and an intriguing mystery. This was my first Nalini Singh book and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I loved the descriptions throughout, and the story kept me hooked through the end! Thank you Berkley Publishing for sending me a free copy of the book.

Dear Nalini Singh:

A friend alerted me to this book, knowing I was a reader of both your Psy/Changeling series and, in recent years, of the thriller/suspense genre. I was curious to see how my two interests would converge here.

The book is narrated by Aarav Rai, an author whose first novel unexpectedly became a best seller and was made into a blockbuster movie. As the story opens, Aarav is recovering from a serious car accident at his father’s home. The police show up with unwelcome news: after ten years, Aarav’s missing mother Nina has been found. When she disappeared, it was believed by some that she stole money from her husband and fled to start a new life. Aarav doesn’t know if he ever believed that, and now the proof of another, grimmer fate has arrived: bones found in Nina’s green Jaguar at the bottom of a ravine very near the Rai house.

Aarav is 26 years old and troubled. He’s had great success with his writing, but his personal life is a mess. He’s recently quit drinking, after realizing his consumption was out of control. He’s haunted by the one that got away, his last (only?) serious girlfriend, Paige. Aarav hates his father and he hasn’t begun to deal with the trauma of his mother’s disappearance, nor the twisted and co-dependent relationship the two of them had. The physical damage from his recent accident is severe: he has one leg in a boot, limiting his mobility; his lungs were damaged where a tree branch impaled him; and he suffered a brain injury as well.

The family home, where Aarav grew up, is located in a small, ultra-private gated cul-de-sac on the edge of the forest in Auckland. He was his parents’ only child, though his father has a daughter with his second wife (he divorced Nina in absentia a few years after she disappeared). As it becomes clear that Nina’s death was no accident (her bones were found in the passenger side of the car), Aarav begins to scrutinize the neighbors for clues as to who would have wanted to harm his mother. He also suspects his father; the night Nina disappeared, his parents fought (a frequent occurrence) and Aarav heard a scream before running outside in time to see his mother’s car driving off in a severe rainstorm.

Aarav is a classic unreliable narrator. Between the lingering effects of his accident, various medications he takes for his physical recovery and mental health, sleeping problems, and his massive sugar habit, his grip on reality often seems compromised. I wondered if the sugar thing was meant as a stand-in for alcohol; I know some alcoholics develop a sweet tooth after they stop drinking. But Aarav drinks so much Coke and eats so much chocolate it just about made *me* queasy reading about it. It’s no wonder he can’t think straight; he even straight up hallucinates at one point. (He also sleepwalks on occasion.)

The ghost of Nina hangs over Quiet in her Bones, and though I think we’re meant to see her as compelling, whew, she was not a very sympathetic character. Of course, she didn’t deserve her fate, and to be fair she was plucked from a comparatively sheltered life in an Indian village and chosen to be the wife of a man who was controlling, adulterous, emotionally and occasionally physically abusive. But the hold she has over Aarav is creepy; he demurs that it’s “not like that”, but sometimes it seems to be a little bit like that, skating on the edge of incestuousness. At one point Aarav muses on the time a teenage friend tells him that Nina is hot:

Her lush and scalding heat had alternately confused and angered me.

In summary, Nina is one of those beautiful, doomed, tragic, unstable characters who I suspect are a lot more enthralling if you don’t actually have to deal with them.

The plot suffered from a surfeit of characters – I’m used to that in the Psy/Changeling world where there are well over a dozen books and the characters are all heavily interrelated. Here, everyone was new, and there were just too many of them: the neighboring couple whose wife was Nina’s best friend, the lesbian couple with the mother-in-law who may have seen something the night Nina disappeared; the aging ex-rocker couple; another couple that didn’t even live in the cul-de-sac when Nina disappeared so I don’t get why we have to read about them. There’s also a family where Aarev suspects both the father (he may have had an affair with Nina) and the son (it’s complicated, but he has a few reasons for resenting Nina).

That’s not even everyone in the cul-de-sac. Outside the cul-de-sac, there’s the young woman who runs the local café, whom Aarav has history with (and whom Nina treated like garbage when she was the family maid), the fitness instructor who seems to do more than train with half of the women in the cul-de-sac, and Aarav’s father’s ex-mistress, a later comer in the suspect category. There are several subplots that may or may not be related to the main mystery, including the estrangement between Nina’s best friend and her sister, a detour into domestic violence, and a poisoned dog (I really didn’t see the reason for that plot point, at all).

Too many characters meant too many suspects, which left the resolution feeling half-random. (There were a few clues spread throughout, but in retrospect I don’t see how anyone could have figured out the ending on those clues alone.)

Then there is Aarav himself, who is not a particularly compelling or relatable narrator. He considers himself to be a sociopath, and it feels like a bit of a humblebrag coming from him. (Because of his self-diagnosis and other factors, he sometimes suspects himself in his mother’s murder.)

Aarav loved his mother, he maybe loved Paige, he loves his little sister and seems to care for his father’s somewhat downtrodden second wife. He has one friend, a friendship he thinks is mostly based on both parties’ abilities to tolerate the other person. I didn’t dislike Aarav but I also didn’t like him, nor did I feel much for him. I found myself irritated with him on more than one occasion; he has the modern unreliable narrator compulsion to self-destructive behavior, and I wanted to tell him to get it together.

The setting is effectively rendered, with the sprawl of urban Auckland meeting residing uneasily alongside lush forests and beaches.

Quiet in her Bones held my attention and kept me turning the pages to find out the resolution, which is my main requirement in the mystery/suspense/thriller genre. So in spite of my criticisms, my grade for it was a B.

Best,

Jennie

This was a solid thriller. I especially enjoyed that it was set in New Zealand and featured both immigrants from South Asia and Indigenous characters and discussed how people from different backgrounds are treated in NZ. I don't mind an unreliable narrator, but I find I am tiring of unreliability due to drugs or alcohol, and this personal preference meant I didn't *love* this one. But, I imagine it will work for many other readers.

I adore Nalini Singh's paranormal and romance series. I don't know if I love her thrillers as much. She's a very gifted writer but I don't think I was in the right thriller mood to read this. I'll try again at a later point, for now DNF.

Thank you to the publisher for a free copy of this book.
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What I loved: The plot was well done and the writing was fantastic. I loved the setting and how though you were cheering for the protagonist you were not quite sure if you were. The closed off community gave a sense of claustrophobia amongst the neighbors and their lives.

What I did not: the pacing was atrocious. This books clocks in at almost 400 pages and while I am down for a 400+ page book, I did not feel this was necessary. A lot of the book felt a big repetitive and the past flashbacks did not always flow well.

Overall this book was a solid read and I enjoyed it, but I felt myself getting bored due to the repetitive nature of the middle part of the book.

Ringer isn’t usually the genre, that I seek out, however, this novel was dark and had a twist that has had me up for nights thinking about it. I’m no stranger to Nalini Singh’s sweeping romances, who would’ve known her skill and brilliance would also transcend thrillers as well. Fabulous!

Riveting, twisty, many unlikeable characters, an unreliable narrator, rich socialites, lots of drama, and plenty of people to add to and eliminate from your "whodunnit" list. There may have been a few too many characters to keep track of, but the way the story was told was intriguing. And the journey to get to the resolution was probably more enjoyable to me than the actual destination at which we arrived.

Unhappy socialite Nina Rai disappeared ten years ago, taking with her a chunk of money and leaving behind her young son Aarav. Everyone believed she’d disappeared to enjoy her spoils away from her unhappy marriage. Until they find her bones in the forest still in the same clothes she wore on the day she disappeared ten years ago. Now that his mother has been found, Aarav is determined to find out exactly who killed her, but the more he discovers…the more he realises that the killer could be far closer to home then he thought.

I am a huge Nalini Singh fan, especially of her paranormal romance and urban fantasy series, so when she released her first thriller A MADNESS OF SUNSHINE in 2019 I was excited to see her tackle a new genre. It fell flat for me. So, starting QUIET IN HER BONES had me feeling a little nervous. But, my fears were unfounded as I absolutely loved it. It’s written in a completely different style to A MADNESS OF SUNSHINE and I found this book much more engaging and unique.

What I enjoyed most about this book was the style. This was written in first person POV from Aarav’s perspective. I know first person isn’t popular, but don’t let that stop you from picking this book up. First person is designed exactly for this type of book, it was perfectly deployed by Singh. Aarav is an unreliable narrator, something that you slowly begin to realise as the book goes on. Which means, the more you read, the more you realise that everything he (and therefore we) have found out, or he remembers about that night is suspect.

You also get a front row seat to Aarav’s decline throughout this book, his uncertainty as he, himself realises that he can’t trust his own brain. It was absolutely fascinating and expertly crafted by Singh and seeing Aarav’s devolution kept me glued to the page almost as much as the prospect of finding the murderer.

The book also had an almost Agatha Christie style set of suspicious characters, all who live on the same street and are the only ones who could have been responsible for Nina’s death. So, not only are you treated to Aarav’s internal conflict, we have the external conflict adding additional pressure as you realise everyone you meet is a suspect, or is hiding something. Or both. It was a nail-biting read.

The only reason this book didn’t get 5 stars is the end. It was all so…easy in the end. Maybe I was expecting too much after all the psychological twists and turns of the book, but I was left at the end thinking “Oh, is that it”. However, I can say for certain that I never saw the end coming. Although, I did have a lot of fun texting back and forth with Francesca who read this before me telling her all my theories. So, if you want a book to buddy read, this is a great one.

Aarav has been haunted by his mother's disappearance for 10 years. As a teen he heard her fight with his father, scream, and then drive off, never to be seen again. When Quiet in Her Bones opens, the police have just found her body in the bush not far from his family's Auckland home. I love the way Singh writes New Zealand - it's lush but forboding. In this book it's not quite an additional character the way it was in her first thriller, A Madness of Sunshine, but the ominousness of not knowing what's out there is omnipresent. I enjoyed this thriller - it was twisty and I had a good time trying to figure out whodunnit. That said, there were a few things that kept me from being fully engaged. I didn't love the therapy chapters - snippets of Aarav's conversations with his therapist are interwoven throughout the book. I think they are meant to serve as a way to undercut the reader's confidence in Aarav, and to make him seem untrustworthy. But Aarav is already an incredibly unreliable narrator - he was recently in a car crash and is grappling with a brain injury. His memories are suspect, and he doesn't even know if he can trust himself or what he believes, so the therapy chapters are just kind of extraneous. I also thought there were a few too many characters who weren't differentiated enough - I had trouble keeping them straight. Aarav suspects that someone who lives in his family's wealthy cul de sac must be the killer, and Singh throws in a bunch of red herrings. But I could never remember who a few of the characters were, so they weren't really effective suspects. I did enjoy the family dynamics, especially Aarav's relationships with his sister and stepmom. Worth picking up if you're looking for a domestic thriller, but not nearly as good as A Madness of Sunshine.

Nalini Singh who is known for her paranormal stories also writes mysteries set in New Zealand. Quiet in Her Bones unravels the dysfunctional family story in which the mother has disappeared only to be found years later murdered. The son who narrates the story has been in accidents and has faulty memory. His mother and father had violent arguments and cheated on each other. Araav in the present faces police suspicion and can't form a coherent picture of what happened to his mother. The reader is not left sufficient clues to figure out the killer, although the narrative is intriguing.

Quiet in Her Bones. By Nalini Singh. 2021. Berkley (ARC eBook).

Aarav Rai’s mother, Nina Rai, disappeared into the night ten years after another fight with her husband. Now her car and bones have turned up in the nearby woods. She had been so close while completely out of sight. This discovery coincides with Aarav returning home in order to recover from an accident. His relationship with his father is terse, and with his stepmother, a bit stilted. But he loves his little half-sister and now has his mother’s murder to solve and avenge.

Quiet in Her Bones is a page-turning, atmospheric murder and suspense mystery that takes place in an affluent New Zealand cul-de-sac where danger lurks closer to home than the residents think. I thought Singh did a great job with Aarav’s engaging (and unreliable) first-person narrative. And the plot kept moving at a satisfactory pace while all of the pieces of the mystery were unpredictably fitted together. Overall, an entertainingly chilling read.

I am becoming a big fan of Nalini Singh's thrillers. She has two thriller titles out now. I have read both. The first "A Madness of Sunshine" was a good read but I believe she has stepped it up a notch with this latest one "Quiet in Her Bones". I loved it! I love the book cover and I love the title - each is absolutely perfect for this novel.
The novel is full of dysfunctional family, neighborhood relationships, and deep psychological issues. Aarav is the main character. He has been greatly effected by his mother's unexplained disappearance 10 years earlier. Her wreaked car is discovered not far from their home a decade later. Was it an accident or murder? You can feel evil lurking. This novel is a true psychological thriller with maliciousness seeping throughout. Singh crafts the intrigue beautifully weaving through mystery and illusion challenging the reader with complicated histories and secrets. Aarav is trying to find answers. Is it leading him into madness or something more terrifying? An eerie but entertaining read!

This was good. Not great, but good. I am writing this review about a month after I read it, and I cannot for the life of me remember what happened at the end. Soooo maybe that isn't saying much about how I liked it?

Unfortunately, this one was a DNF. I read to 40% and honestly could not keep up with the story line. There were so many side bar characters that I knew weren't really supporting the overall story of Ari finding out what really happened to his mother all those years ago. I wish the author concentrated more on his development and didn't worry so much about the Cul-de-Sac and the neighbors. There were just too many people to keep track of.

This is the perfect beach read to escape your winter situation. Aarav Rai is a 26-year-old bestselling crime author whose mother disappeared–with a quarter of a million of his father’s money–when he was a teenager. Was she a missing person who should be presumed dead or a woman in an abusive relationship who took money and ran?

Those have been the questions left behind in an Auckland, New Zealand, cul-de-sac. Except now Nina Rai’s car has been found with her body inside at Waitākere Ranges Regional Park adding new questions: did she die in a car accident; was she murdered? Aarav has plenty of theories from his crime writing brain, but he was recently in an accident and is having memory issues–including around what he remembers from the night of his mother’s disappearance. But he does remember her screaming.

And so we’re taken not only into Aarav’s thoughts and memories of his childhood but also into the cul-de-sac of wealthy neighbors as he tries to unravel everyone’s secrets and dirty deeds…

I love small communities and watching all the secrets being exposed, so this was already my catnip, and then it had the added bonus of a great location we rarely get to armchair travel to. Aarav is an interesting, layered, on-and-off unlikeable character forced to face his complicated feelings and memories of his childhood and parents.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Raj Varma, which is always my go-to format for settings I am unfamiliar with in hopes to hear proper pronunciations. I really liked Varma’s voice, accent, and that he did not do high pitched women’s voices.

(TW alcoholism/ domestic abuse/ statutory (19/16)/ dog death questioned as poisoning, no graphic details/ past suicide, detail/ past eating disorder, detail)

This was my first time reading this author and no matter how many times I would come back to it I just couldn't connect to the writing. Her covers and synopsis have always intrigued me, and I will definitely try again but for this one it just isn't happening.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this one. I'm sorry I can't provide you with something more positive as the outcome.

Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh is a beautifully written thriller set in New Zealand that has so much potential. While the writing is descriptive and interesting, the plot moves very slowly. It has a unique concept with an intriguing main character, however, this is one book that just didn’t thrill me.

The setting of the novel is entrancing and perfectly sets the stage for a mystery. The author has such a wonderful style and the descriptions of the woods and the New Zealand scenery are gorgeous. Sometimes it just felt a bit too much description and not enough of the fast-paced thriller that I was hoping for.

❀ UNRELIABLE NARRATOR

Aarav is a character that is very hard to enjoy. He is pretentious and self-absorbed, as well as being an unreliable narrator. I did, however, find myself empathizing with his grief and the need to uncover what happened to his mother. That being said, it was hard to root for Aarav, which affected my enjoyment of the novel.

❀ A DESCRIPTIVE MYSTERY

If you enjoy mysteries that are more descriptive and characters that are unreliable, Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh is one to try. The book definitely kept me guessing, although the slow pacing turned me off. I do believe that this is a book that will be enjoyable for some.

Excellent book! This is my first thriller by Ms. Singh and she did a fantastic job of fleshing this story out and keeping readers on their feet, toes. Amazing job.

Wow this one was fantastic. I was on my toes the entire time and definitely couldn't guess any of the twists.

Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh is reviewed in the April 2021 issue of Gumshoe Review and is exclusive to them until May 1st, 2021. You may read the review at this link <http://www.gumshoereview.com/php/Review-id.php?id=6750>.