Title: The Fair-Weather Friend
Author: Jessie Garcia
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
I started this domestic thriller expecting to love Faith Richards, the sunny TV meteorologist who vanishes one night and turns up dead. Instead, I found myself trudging through a maze of unlikeable characters, struggling to care about anyone's fate as Garcia's multi-POV storytelling left me constantly scrambling to piece together connections.
For the first two-thirds, I'll admit I was tempted to DNF as I couldn't find a single character to root for. But something shifted in that final act and I became caught up in twists I never saw coming. Garcia's rapid-fire style finally clicked, pulling me deep into secrets that had been lurking beneath Detroit's surface all along.
The ending stung a bit as I wanted that satisfying justice. But sometimes the bad guys do win, and Garcia doesn't shy away from that uncomfortable truth.
Despite my initial frustration, "The Fair-Weather Friend" won me over when it mattered most. It's the kind of book that makes you forgive its flaws because those final revelations are so good. Garcia knows how to craft a mystery that stays with you, even when the journey there tests your patience.
A big thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
