Since We Fell - Dennis Lehane

Since We Fell was such an uneven book it has to come out at 2 Stars. I'm not sure where to start on this, and maybe Lehane was not either. The first 40% of the book is the backstory of Rachel Childs, daughter of an overbearing mother who was a psychologist and a famous author. Having never married she wrote a best-selling marriage advice book. Okay sure Lehane, I'll suspend reality for a while here. Rachel spends 80% of that early section of the book lamenting over her inability to know the identity of her father, a man her mother hid for some reason that is explained, but I don't recall. She even hires a private detective named Brian Delacroix (I listened to this one, I never know how to spell names). She is an investigative reporting and becomes a TV news reporter. She goes to Haiti and witnesses unspeakable horror. She has a panic attack and nervous breakdown, gets divorced, and becomes a shut-in. 

So I'm thinking, okay this book is what, a think piece on the semi-annoying character Rachel. Then Rachel reconnects with Brian, gets married to him and remains a shut in based on her anxiety, except when she goes out with Brian or whatever. It's all really unclear. They are married for about four years when one day she sees him on the street in Boston when he's supposed to be in London. She confronts him, kind of, and is satisfied he was really in London, except when she's not. So all these things start happening that make her suspicious he's living a double life. Despite her anxiety she rents a car and follows him to a small Rhode Island town and sees him with a pregnant woman. Then the story takes this wide turn and becomes a thriller with contract killers and some kind of scam and oh yeah you have to suspend your belief in basically everything to go on with the rest of this book. 

Possibly the most irritating parts is when Rachel is following Brian around trying to determine if he's been lying to her. You get to hear pages and pages and pages of internal monologue about all Rachel's thoughts and feelings, with misplaced flashbacks and frustrating self-doubt. I just didn't need this much Rachel. This book just was way too long.

Some people I know and like rated this book much higher than me. Perhaps the narrator missed the mark here. Every male character sounded the same. It was annoying. 

2 Stars.