(50)False Step by Victoria Helen Stone

Sunday, May 31, 2020



Jonny and Veronica Bradley lead a perfectly normal life in Denver, Colorado.  They worry about money, divide the household chores, and worry about their ten-year-old daughter, Sydney.  And then one day Johnny goes for a run in the mountains outside of Denver and finds the missing grandson of one of Colorado's wealthiest residents. Overnight, their lives have changed, as Johnny is hailed as a hero. Veronica knows that while Johnny found the missing three-year-old, he is no hero. And she lives in fear of the cracks of their marriage being exposed. The police then come out and say that the child did not just wander off, but was kidnapped. When Veronica finds Johnny's secret phone, she starts to wonder if her husband is hiding something more than just an affair.  Could he have been involved with the kidnapping of the little boy?

False Step was appealing to me because it is set in Denver, my general area of the country. I was immediately disappointed in the predictable nature of the book. I had figured it all out fairly early in the book, but I stuck with it because I wanted to see how Veronica was going to handle her marriage. I felt that it was a huge cop-out that she was staying in her bad marriage for their daughter because "family is really important to her."  It is a bad message to send, in my opinion. I also thought that it was incredibly hypocritical for Veronica to treat her father the way she did. She was brutal. Maybe it was a projection of her own self-loathing, but geesh.  I really did struggle with this one. There was absolutely nothing surprising about the end of the book. - CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS

Bottom Line - I am always disappointed when I read a book that is just so predictable. I know the author did the best she could and I applaud her for even putting her work out into the world. I know that I am not that brave, so thank you, keep it up. 

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