This was one of those frustrating books that should have been better than it was. All the elements were there - great characters, compelling storyline and some good twists, but somehow the book fell flat for me.
Set across different time periods, the book is about twins, long estranged, who reunite to solve an old mystery about their mother who disappeared when they were young. Jane, who as an adult lives a quiet suburban existence, being a good mother to her daughter and as a good a wife to her husband as she possibly can, keeps her past cleanly buttoned away. She takes care of her father the best she can, but their relationship isn't particularly close.
When Lila, the twin she hasn't seen or head from in many years makes contact and says she thinks she's found their mother, Jane's safe, suburban life is irrevocably disrupted. She initially thinks she might be able to ignore Lila, but what happened with their mother back then has had such a profound effect on both girls' lives and on their father, she has to know the truth.
Woven into this story about the now-adult girls seeking the mother who abandoned them is the story of their teenage adventures and the act of violence that changed both their lives, and their relationship with each other, forever.
This book wasn't hard to read and the plot was compelling enough to keep me turning pages, but I really didn't like or sympathize with any of the characters. Except, bizarrely, the twins' father. Everyone made choices that didn't make sense for who they are and the reveals of why they made these choices never really satisfied.
So, while there is plenty to like here - espionage, secret identities, action and adventure - it's not a wholly enjoyable book. So I won't recommend this one.
But don't just listen to me. Here's the blurb:
Two estranged twin sisters as they hunt down their elusive mother in this razor-sharp crime novel from "master of the dark arts" J. Robert Lennon. (Kelly Link)
Jane Pool likes her safe, suburban existence just fine. She has a house, a family, (an infuriating mother-in-law,) and a quiet-if-unfulfilling administrative job at the local college. Everything is wonderfully, numbingly normal. Yet Jane remains haunted by her her mercurial, absent mother, her parents’ secrets, and the act of violence that transformed her life. When her estranged twin, Lila, makes contact, claiming to know where their mother is and why she left all those years ago, Jane agrees to join her, desperate for answers and the chance to reconnect with the only person who really knew her true self. Yet as the hunt becomes treacherous, and pulls the two women to the earth’s distant corners, they find themselves up against their mother’s subterfuge and the darkness that always stalked their family. Now Jane stands to lose the life she’s made for the one that has been impossible to escape.
Set in both the Pool family’s past and their present, and melding elements of a chase novel, an espionage thriller, and domestic suspense, Hard Girls is an utterly distinctive pastiche—propulsive, mysterious, cracked, intelligent, and unexpected at every turn.
Jane Pool likes her safe, suburban existence just fine. She has a house, a family, (an infuriating mother-in-law,) and a quiet-if-unfulfilling administrative job at the local college. Everything is wonderfully, numbingly normal. Yet Jane remains haunted by her her mercurial, absent mother, her parents’ secrets, and the act of violence that transformed her life. When her estranged twin, Lila, makes contact, claiming to know where their mother is and why she left all those years ago, Jane agrees to join her, desperate for answers and the chance to reconnect with the only person who really knew her true self. Yet as the hunt becomes treacherous, and pulls the two women to the earth’s distant corners, they find themselves up against their mother’s subterfuge and the darkness that always stalked their family. Now Jane stands to lose the life she’s made for the one that has been impossible to escape.
Set in both the Pool family’s past and their present, and melding elements of a chase novel, an espionage thriller, and domestic suspense, Hard Girls is an utterly distinctive pastiche—propulsive, mysterious, cracked, intelligent, and unexpected at every turn.
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