Aarav Rai’s mother, Nina, has been missing for 10 years. Nina was accused by his father of emptying the family safe of $250,000 and abandoning both father and son on a rainy night, never to be heard from again.

Until now, the when her missing vehicle is found just miles away from the family home, in the prestigious “Cul-de-Sac” home to a number of wealthy families, all with secrets of their own.

Rai is currently recovering from his own car accident, which left the famous author with a bum leg and serious head injury. While recovering at his family home, he tries to delve deeper into his mother’s history and tries to recover his own memories of the night that she was last seen.

This novel started off a bit slow but picked up fairly quickly. I enjoyed the writing and the perspective. The only thing I found off was the transcript sessions (listed at the start of each chapter) were never fully explained.

This was a different book for Nalini and whilst I enjoyed it I did not find it hard to put it down which I never ever do with Nalini’s books.

A book about a mystery that comes unraveled throughout the pages. I loved this book. It was absolutely riveting until the last page.

This book was dark and twisted and I loved it! I loved Aarav's investigation into his mother's death. He was such an interesting character with a few mysteries hidden in his depths. Plus he had a complicated relationship with her, given that he is her son, but he's also the son of a guy she has a pretty awful marriage with.

The cul-de-sac was a web of secrets and lies, connections between characters that were hidden, or not all what they seemed. And Aarav has to navigate them, to find out if any of these secrets are the reason why his mom is dead which was a fun investigation to read about.

There's also more than one mystery. There'd be a line, and it it'd be like, what the heck? And then we got the reason why, but that didn't stop it from happening. And it complicated things, added an air of do we trust what is going on? It was such a great element in this book!

But man, was I not expecting that ending. I mean, I had suspicions because there were just a few things not adding up, but I didn't put them together and get that ending before it happened. And it was such a satisfying ending!

This was another great stand alone mystery from Nalini Singh, and I would love to read another! New Zealand is just the perfect atmosphere for this type of story!

Okay! This is good! This is fascinatingly riveting, twisty, mind spinning!

Unreliable, young, billionaire, fogged minded, broken 26 years old hero who had unhealthy relationship with his mother: the same woman: socialite Nina Rai disappeared with millions a decade ago and now her corpse has been found in the woods. The same clothes she wears the day she had disappeared! That means she never left her family! She had been brutally murdered.

And only person in the family who is dying to find the truth is her traumatized son, our tormented hero Aarav Rai: walking with his crutches : after the accident he survived from medical induced coma. He’s also recovering alcoholic, talking to his loyal shrink about his childhood traumas, dysfunctional mother and son relations with Oedipus complex vibes.

Nina was not an angel. She was drunk, cheater, blackmailer. She was vicious, passionate, voracious! But she was also loyal to her loved ones, doing everything to protect them. She wasn’t an exemplary great mother but you cannot deny her true love for her son.

Everyone has motives to kill her. Anyone can be perpetrator! Cul de sac neighbors Aarav knows for years give him suspicious vibes. All of them can have motives. As I told you: Nina wasn’t the kindest decent human being you can mourn after her loss. Even her douchebag, cheating husband didn’t waste any time to divorce her after the sudden disappearance and found a new loyal, ideal wife, step daughter to build a respectful family for public disapproval.

Aarav grew up without a mother, waiting for her come back for a decade. His inner turmoil, guilt, anger, resentment made him a great thriller author. With only one smashing hit novel, he already became a millionaire thanks to his nonstop royalty checks.

But now he’s obsessed to solve his mother’s case, physically and mentally incapable, consuming sugar products and gallons of Coke ( I wish he preferred real coke: Mexican one!!) , suffering from short term memory loss, dizziness, forgetting his appointments with his psychiatrist!

He finds his legs covered with dirt in the mornings as if he’s taken a walk at Pet Sematary! He confuses things and as we read the parts of his seances with his psychiatrist, we start to wonder if he could be a real psychopath!

Anyone could be the murderer of his mother. His father, his cul de sac neighbors including her ex best friends, lovers, the guy she blackmailed! Also Aarav can be the one who brutally murdered her! He needs to dig more to find the truth. But more he digs, more he starts to fight with his delusional mind. It seems like his story has no happy ending!

I’m giving 4.5 stars and rounding them up! The ending was a little predictable but it was still well executed. I only guessed some parts of it. Entire mystery was more complicated that I expected.

I loved the character analysis of the cul de sac neighborhood. They were well crafted, well depicted, fascinating!

It’s such a great traumatic, psychological thriller which is full of mind games, pushing us hard to differentiate the dreams and realities.

I loved this author and her previous works in fantasy genre. She proved that she can be also hell of an amazing thriller author with this gripping, unputdownable book!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this incredible arc copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Nina Rai was considered a runaway, a woman who had tired of her role as trophy wife and who had taken off when she got bored. But the discovery of her bones proves otherwise. Her son heard a scream the night she disappeared and he knows someone in their ritzy neighborhood knows the truth; he won’t rest until he uncovers the truth