Book – The Locked Room
Author – RayeAnn Carter
Star rating - ★★★☆☆
No. of Pages – 75
Cover – Nice
POV – 3rd person, one character
Would I read it again – Not really.
Genre – LGBT, Mystery, Romance


** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **


So, this was a strange story for me. It was told in very short, stilted scenes that let us see the progression of Klin and West's relationship, but due to the lack of characterisation and description, the lack of detail and how short it was, it didn't really have the impact it could have had. They were also editing issues throughout, which didn't help much.

There is a big secret to the plot, but I not only figured it out early on, but I also kind of feel that it didn't fit with the character we'd been led to believe West was. There were no hints, other than one or two small things that Klin noticed, but certainly nothing in his personality or attitude that would explain that side of him or make it feel like a realistic expectation.

For me, Klin was a nice enough person, but the lack of real depth in characterisation meant that I didn't much care what he got up to, what the big secret was or anything else. The twins was also a mislabeling that tried to dupe the reader, but didn't really feel comfortable to me, either. Especially since they're meant to be the same age as Klin (since they're actually triplets) but the twins act like 12 year olds with serious ADD. Jack was the most immature, with Henry acting like the 12 yo ring leader of their little two-person gang, while trying to run his life.

Overall, it felt like a disjointed attempt at storytelling for a decent plot, that just didn't live up to the promise of the blurb. With a lacklustre ending and some too-convenient plot twists, it wasn't the exciting mystery I'd expected. I gave it 3 stars for the potential, though it wasn't met.

Interesting novella. At first I thought it was going to be more or less fade to black on the sex scenes, until the end. I don't know if this was a conscious decision on the author's part but it worked. The only scene we see in detail is the one where West has revealed the secret that he has been hiding, so we see and understand the importance of that one scene and of Klin's acceptance.
I think Klin's easy acceptance was helped by the way the first half of the book was written. The disjointed half scenes gave a great sense of stolen moments, and the broken up narrative showed the strength needed to stay together. And despite having spent more than a page or two on any scene, that start gave the relationship the solid foundation it needed to weather both West's secret and West meeting Klin's brothers.
I guessed West's secret long before the brothers broke into the locked room. Probably because I knew (hoped) it couldn't be either of the options the brothers put forward.
The brothers, twins Jack and Harry were hard work. Jack seemed sweet and accepting but he was easily led by Harry, who was smarter but manipulative. The way Jack was written implied to me that he had possible social or learning disabilities but this is purely my conjecture and wasn't written in the text. Both brothers certainly acted much younger than Klin, even though they weren't. Harry's manipulation seemed to stem from a desire to have both his brothers with him at all times and he was willing to wreak both their relationships (and anything else) to do this.
At 20,000 words this book was easy to read all in one sitting. It kept my attention throughout and was well worth an hour or so of my time.

While I really liked the premise of The Locked Room - an updated take on the classic Blue Beard fairy tale - this book just didn't work for me.

Klin (short for Franklin) meets West - a gorgeous man with dark hair and a full dark trimmed beard - they begin a relationship and eventually Klin moves into West's palatial estate (housekeeper, pool, movie theatre, vintage cars in the huge garage) with plenty of rooms. Each man has an off-limits room in the home but only West's room is locked, something that doesn't bother Klin until Klin's brothers come to visit and want to break into that room.

There is little character development in this story and I just could not get comfortable with the author's writing style. The narrative flow was very stilted and random information was dropped into the story with little background. The entire story was very disjointed. 2 stars.