In Glass Houses by Edel Coffey

Twenty years after Juliet Fox is murdered, her father launches his big investment - a skyscraper made of glass, in commemoration of his deceased daughter. A journalist named Eddie goes to the party to write a piece on the Sky Building and the twentieth anniversary of Juliet’s death. She also wants to clear the name of a man who was, in her opinion, wrongfully convicted of the murder. Bryant Fox says that there’s place for everyone in the Sky Building, but is it actually true?

My first ARC! And… how disappointing. I was really careful requesting the frst few Advanced Reader Copies as I absolutely love giving great reviews and always try to look positively at things, but this one didn’t particularly speak to me, unfortunately. While I loved the premise, I loved the idea of going back to cold cases, there was a lot of potential lost in this particular story. I found it chaotic and repetitive, the characters were very confusing at the beginning despite the chapters being called by their POVs. The plot twists I saw coming, there was absolutely nothing that surprised me in this book as a lot of it was overexplained. Overall, not the best read.

First things first, the worldbuilding. I did like how the distance between the rich and the poor was shown, you could really tell people like Dave and Marley felt as if they didn’t belong. The image of the Sky Building presented wealth which was a good metaphor of what the story was about. 

The main characters however were not very likeable. I found both Eddie and Cleo quite full of themselves and while I understand why that might be, most likely trying to portray them as very independent and set on their goals, their monologues about how they were the best in their fields put me off both of them. Of course, their actions were positive but personally I just didn’t like them. The minor characters were more to my liking, maybe not by personality but by the way they were shaped. Samsara, for example, was a perfect example of a spoiled daughter of a rich man that gets everything she wants. While this is not someone I could relate to, I could easily imagine someone like this. Of course, a lot of this is an opinion, but overall I think the characters could have so much more to offer.

I really like the idea of the book, starting off with revisiting a case from so long ago, as well as fighting the rich in their power to control the outcome of the case. But! The way the author went about it was very chaotic. The beginning started off well with introducing everyone involved and then it… flopped. Eddie was fixating on certain situations for no specific reason which caused the story to drag as it seemed as if I was reading the same scene over and over again. Some scenes were also overexplained which robs the readers off trying to do their own detective work. The second half of the book was a bit more interesting with introducing Rache Little and her POV which gave the story some depth. When it comes to the plot twists, I did guess most of them so they weren’t necessarily surprising but that was my personal experience. What did surprise, and now in a good way, was the chapter written from Juliet’s perspective and describing her own death. While it gave us closure, I think it should have been written from the killer’s perspective as it seemed a bit out of place to give the voice to this dead person just for one short chapter.

As far as crime novels go, this one I found quite predictable with nothing that was really surprising. However, if you like books where you’re lead by the author this one is definitely for you.

Rating: 2.5/5