‘Hold Still’ – Tim Adler

Hold Still

 

I received a digital copy of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The first thing I have to make clear is that this novel is very different in subject matter from the kind of stuff I’d normally read. This might explain some of my issues with the novel.

An excellent beginning. We see Kate and her husband in their hotel room in Albania, where they have travelled for a relative’s funeral, and within minutes he is dead – having fallen off the balcony. The easiest explanation for this is that Paul was depressed because of his failing business, and this is nothing more than a suicide. Unfortunately, Kate is convinced she saw someone else on the balcony at the time and that someone was watching them. She also is curious about the message Paul received just beforehand where he is pictured in a hotel with a younger woman. So begins her quest to find out what really happened.

Before we know it, Kate is drawn into the seedy underbelly of life. She learns things about her husband’s involvement in things that she would probably rather not have known about: drugs, bribery, corruption, human trafficking and Albanian gangs.

Though the story was well-plotted and kept you interested, I spent most of the book feeling quite detached from events. Kate simply wasn’t a character that I cared that much about, so I didn’t quite feel the emotional investment in her situation that I think was needed for this book to be totally successful.