Book Review: "Circle of Strangers" by Minka Kent

Okay, I lied about giving this series a rest after the first one, you probably read that in the review of Imaginary Strangers. This one is slightly better but still has its flaws. I feel like there are some things I'd question about the accuracy of the portrayal of a sociopath but then there's the ending which felt a bit forced. Apart from this, there's genuinely interesting set of characters now that our narrator, Camille, has moved into her new home with her family. What is uncovered however, is slightly less surprising than we think it is. I don't think though, the point of this book is to shock the reader but instead it is to introduce different character types to us. Needless to say, it was still an enjoyable book and I am looking forward to the third instalment so much I've already bought it.

We meet Camille at the crossroads. She's just moved to a new state and a new city and that means a whole new host of characters surrounding her. She knows that this is a gated community and so, she's trying to loosen her grip on the children, allowing them to have an inch of freedom even if that means only cycling down to the end of the driveway and back again. But when Camille starts receiving letters from Lucinda again she gets worried. Another thing she's worried about is her neighbours who don't seem to be all that trustworthy or all that reliable. But Camille is more than aware that you should keep your friends close and enemies closer - she's just not sure which one is which right now. Even her husband has a smile on his face since moving to a new, safer location. And that is another thing Camille is focusing on. I have to say that this is better than the first book in terms of characters. I really enjoyed learning about the neighbours in this novel and how different each of them actually are, the relationships that seemed as though they were falling apart at the seems yet they projected the perfect lifestyle of suburban households. This is something that definitely echoes Lucinda and the way she lived according to Camille in the first book.

After this, we are introduced to the lifestyle of the 'Desperate Housewives' of these women. This is something that I'm always interested in. Sometimes it is nice to read a book that has characters who can love to hate - those who gossip and keep secrets from each other. When Camille starts to suspect her husband of cheating though, there's a whole ordeal that goes down. Camille is pretending to be someone she isn't and she's catfishing married men on dating apps. One of the men is her next door neighbour's husband and she tries to play it smoothly until everything threatens to collapse in on itself. All the while, her husband is acting suspiciously more and more. A lot of the time, the reader puts this down to Camille's own paranoia but because we're hooked on to her, we cannot help but to see things from her point of view as well.

Then there's the dead body at the start of the book. In the opening scene of the novel there's a dead body in Camille's garage. She doesn't know what that body is doing there, who killed the person or why. She just knows she has to get rid of it before her husband comes home from work or things aren't going to look good. Camille didn't kill them. Her husband didn't kill them. The kids are somewhere else entirely and now, we are left in limbo until the end of the book. Yes, it will feel a bit forced and a bit matter of fact, but it is a fun realisation nonetheless.

All in all, as I have already said, I have purchased the third instalment and I'm really looking forward to where Camille's story goes now. I know I have complained about bits and pieces in this story but it is still intriguing to me. I have kind of been lured into what could possibly happen next and though I'm not going to tell you exactly what takes place at the end of the second book, I will say one thing: I hope we finally get to meet this elusive mother Camille has been talking about all this time.