Hello and welcome to my stop of the Never Coming Home Harlequin Trade Publishing’s Summer 2022 blog tour! A huge thanks to Justine Sha for inviting me to be part of this blog tour. I admit that I was intrigued as soon as I read the blurb and I simply HAD to read it because I love reading a story from the POV of the villain. And it definitely turned out to be a winner! Want to know why? Please join me while I share my thoughts…

Title: Never Coming Home
Author: Hannah Mary McKinnon
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
First published: May 24th 2022
Publisher: MIRA
Finished reading: May 10th 2022
Pages: 384

“They say someone with nothing to lose is the most dangerous among us. Incorrect. It’s the person who has everything on the line, who’s so close to realizing their dreams, and who’ll stop at nothing to make sure they come true.”

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by MIRA in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

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I can never seem to resist a story when it’s told from the POV of the villain, so of course I knew that simply HAD to read Never Coming Home as soon as I read the blurb. I mean, having the story told by the supposedly grieving husband who is actually trying to get rid of his wife instead in order to inherit her fortune? How on earth was I going to be able to resist that?! I’m glad I didn’t, because I ended up having an excellent time with Never Coming Home.

This story has everything I love in a story told through the eyes of a villain. It’s a tricky POV to get right, because the bad guys aren’t supossed to be all that likeable and thus are more difficult to relate too… But when done right, it can really take a thriller to the next level. This is definitely what happened with Never Coming Home. Lucas Forester is hands down one of my favorite villain main characters and he is surprisingly easy to grow attached to despite the fact he is actively trying to get rid of his wife and doesn’t have a considerate bone in his body. Seeing everything go down through his eyes and him turning from hunter to victim was absolutely fascinating… And I loved every single minute spent inside his head.

Never Coming Home is psychological thriller at its best, with the suspense building up when Lucas receives a mysterious note after the disappearance of his wife. He KNOWS she won’t be coming back because he ordered the hit himself and then covered all his tracks, but what if someone discovered what he did? The strange things happening to Lucas, the wondering if the hitman really kept up his part of the deal, the wife’s family issues with addiction and cancer… This story isn’t just about a husband-turned-villain and his missing wife, and the different elements brought more dept to the story.

The writing makes it really easy to keep turning those pages, and especially the first half of the story was very strong. I wasn’t sure what to make of the flashbacks to Manchester and the past of Lucas though; they didn’t flow as easily and kind of distracted from the rest of the plot. I think that I probably would have liked the story better without any part of the Manchester storyline including the characters… Although I do understand why it was incorporated. I also have to say that I guessed the big twist quite early on, which was a bit of a letdown for me. The ending was a bit over the top and I wasn’t too sure if it was all that credible; after such a strong start I somehow expected something more of those final twists.

That said, Never Coming Home was still a very satisfying thriller and if you love stories told through the eyes of a villain you will be in for a real treat with this one. Lucas Forester is the man of the hour and the main reason this story works so well!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hannah Mary McKinnon was born in the UK, grew up in Switzerland and moved to Canada in 2010. After a successful career in recruitment, she quit the corporate world in favor of writing, and is now the author of The Neighbors, Her Secret Son, Sister Dear and You Will Remember Me. She lives in Oakville, Ontario, with her husband and three sons, and is delighted by her twenty-second commute.

 

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