I feel like the idea for a great book was there. There was a solid basis for a good crime/mystery/thriller book set in a unique location but it just missed the mark for me.

When I read a book, I want to be immersed. I don't self-insert but I do picture the book like a movie in my head. And unfortunately, the way this book was written did not allow me to get a good picture of what was happening. I had some hope at the beginning when the scene with the crocodile happened but I really struggled to get my bearings otherwise.

Everyone talked the same and it felt rather robotic instead of natural. I don't know what anyone looked like. I don't know what the environment is like in Milingimbi or Darwin other than it's hot and humid and rains a couple times a day during a certain season. It's just not a writing style that I connected with.

I also found it jarring that there didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason for when new chapters started. Like, a new chapter would start and let me know that some time had passed. But also, several days or weeks would pass in the middle of a chapter too. I couldn't get a grasp on the timelines.

I was disappointed in the end and the epilogue. There were a lot of unanswered questions. The book totally took a turn and focused mainly on romances instead of the several events that happened. We didn't get answers to why a certain person was found and who the other person was, what happened to someone else, was this one thing really as it seems? I had anticipated that these events would all be wrapped up in the end or there would be an answer that would connect them all and we got nothing instead.