Print Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Avon (January 19, 2023)
From Goodreads.com: My name is Rose, and I work for one of the country’s biggest newspapers. I was the Day Editor. Will Frost was the Night Editor.
When I got to the office, Will had already left. When I left, Will arrived. We were two sides of the same coin.
Last week, Will disappeared from floor 34 without a trace. Now I am the Night Editor.
And I have a feeling I’m next.
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My Rating: 2 stars out of 5
This was a difficult story to get through for a couple of different reasons. To begin with, Rose was a hard character to like, never mind being able to empathize with. She never seems to stand up for herself, not to her boss, not to her fiance, not even to her so-called friends. She also drinks to the point of getting blackout drunk, claiming it's "just what journalists do." Now I get it, she has unresolved trauma and PTSD after an incident that happened after she had had too much to drink, but instead of facing it, of dealing with it, she just continues to drink and push people away. Now I'm sorry, but if something like that happened to me because I had gotten black out drunk, I would stay away from alcohol altogether. But Rose isn't me.
I was also put off by the way the detectives were portrayed in this one. They never seem to get anywhere, instead they harass Rose at every turn even though she has told them time and again that she has nothing to tell them. She knows nothing. She has remembered nothing. I get that they have a reason to look at her, but leaving her voicemails telling her it's getting ridiculous that she hasn't returned their calls and demanding she calls them back ASAP is just over the top, especially when you consider the fact that Rose works the night shift meaning she is asleep during the day when they are trying to get in touch with her.
Another problem I had with this story was the way the author tried (and failed in my opinion) to build suspense by leaving the reader with a bread crumb trail instead of immediately revealing what they wanted you to know. One such example of this comes from this passage "We said his name. We nodded at each other. Yes. That was him. We had our guy." The thing is, the author never reveals what name they said. Instead you have to keep reading in order to be told who it was. Only to have even more twists added to the story that while interesting, came too little too late to save this one (although the last one was a doozy).
All things considered, while this one wasn't a favorite for me, I do think others may enjoy it more than I did. If this seems like your cup of tea, then I encourage you to look over some other reviews before you decide.
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.
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What Happened on Floor 34 is available on Amazon.com
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