The Start of Everything by Emily Winslow

A special thank you to Edelweiss and HarperCollins for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The body of a young girl has washed up just outside Cambridge, England and we are introduced to the detective team of Chloe Frohmann and Morris Keene.  The detectives each are battling their own issues while trying to solve the case before the press takes off with the story.

Told from five points of view in first person narrative, we hear from Chloe, Morris, Mathilde, Grace, and George.  Where Winslow falls down is through the introduction of too many other characters that really muddy the waters; while I realize this might have been intentional because of the thriller/mystery genre, but there were a lot of unnecessary characters that disrupted any momentum she had with the plot.

This story had so much potential and could have really benefited from a substantive edit.  The characters could've been developed more and the story line tightened up.  There were times where I had no clue what was going on and I had to go back and try to figure out who was who and what was going on, again because there were simply too many characters that were not developed.

I was intrigued because it was marketed for fans of Kate Atkinson and Donna Tartt.  I don't think anyone should have their work compared against Tartt, I feel that she is in a league all her own.  That being said, I will definitely check out the other two books that feature Frohmann and Keene, I'm not ready to give up on them, I just think that Winslow hasn't hit her stride yet.