FIVE MEN. FIVE STORIES. BUT ARE THEY READY FOR HERS?
Her father remembers the sweet schoolgirl.
Her childhood friend bonded over a shared fascination with conspiracy theories.
Her lover regrets ever falling for her.
Her lawyer believes she is hiding something.
A journalist is convinced he knows exactly who she a cold-blooded killer.
But which is the true face of Katherine Cole? The reality lies somewhere between these very different perspectives.
Comment: I became aware of this book while checking out a list which included stories where a trial in a courtroom would take place. I can't explain why, but books with this element somehow seem appealing to me...
Katie is a young woman accused of killing four important men at a private club, especially since that, when caught by the police she says "they all deserved it". Katie is now going to a trial, and her defense needs to convince the jurors that she is innocent, but as the evidence starts becoming available, it seems too many things are not easy to explain or when something is, more information comes forward and it all becomes muddled again. Is Katie innocent or guilty? If she is guilty, why did she do this and if she is innocent, why was she caught in the cameras? Katie is a mysterious woman, but somehow, someone must know how she really is...
This was an engrossing story to read, I will say that. I had no expectations except I wanted courtroom scenes and considering this is my first attempt at a book by this author, I had no way to compare with anything else. I saw that this seems to be her first book for adults (she has written YA stories before) so I'll try to be on the lookout for future books.
The story is told by several men who are now somehow linked to Katie. The first and last chapters are actually on third person, centered on Katie, but the rest of the book is told, in alternated chapters, by her father John, her barrister Tao, her childhood friend Gabriel, her lover Conrad and Max, the journalist investigating her life. Her father shares his POV on what Katie was growing up and what he feels now, Tao and Max present us with the contemporary events, and Gabriel and Conrad are a link to Katie's past, how she was before things got to this point.
It does seem that having so many POVs and jumps in time would make this messy, but in reality, the men's voices are distinctive, their views on what is happening and about Katie very easy to set apart. I've found myself quite eager to see what happen next, because with each new chapter we would learn something else and, more important, we would be given a new slice of life on Katie's personality, so the mystery remains until the end, is she a victim or is she guilty of the crime.
If there is one element I could do without is that a few chapters were unnecessary, because there comes a point where the story drags a little. I'd change those chapters with more courtroom scenes or more situations where we need to keep guessing if Katie is guilty or not. I can't really say if the resolution was to my taste or not, but the process to get there was definitely fascinating. When we get Katie's, and the books', last chapter, it also felt the author wanted to leave with an extra dramatic twirl, and I cannot say this was such a great ending, but it does finish what the plot proposed, so...
Katie is the central character but we only know her through the eyes of the five men. I liked everyone except Conrad, because of some things he does, but what makes this story successful is how nothing is every universal, everyone has layers, everyone has behaviors and emotions that change, and seeing things from just one side will always lead to incomplete results. I think the author accomplished what she aimed for, which I'm assuming was to let the reader come up with personal conclusions. Of course, beneath all these doubts about Katie, there is still a crime to be understood and when we do, I mean, sometimes we really do look for elaboration when reality is simpler.
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