Book Review: HAIRPIN BRIDGE by Taylor Adams

 

Title: HAIRPIN BRIDGE

Author:  Taylor Adams

Publisher:  Joffe Books

Read: June 2021

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟1/2

 

Book Description:

 

Three months ago, Lena’s estranged twin sister drove to a remote bridge in Montana, exited her car, and jumped two hundred feet to her death. She left behind a vague suicide note and no answers.

Lena suspects murder. Armed with an audio recorder, she travels to that very bridge to interview the highway patrolman who allegedly discovered her sister's body – and catch him in an incriminating lie. But as her twin's fateful last hours come into focus, Lena's search for the truth turns into a harrowing, tooth-and-nail fight for her own survival – and one that will test everything she thought she knew about her sister.

She wants the truth. Even if it costs her life.

 

My musings:

 

Yeah, yeah, I know! Before you comment on the lack of stars in my galaxy, just let me say that this was always most likely going to be a “it’s-not-you-it’s-me” type of read for me, considering I am one of the few readers on here who wasn’t overly enamoured by NO EXIT.

 

I remember a biking holiday on a small Indonesian island a few years ago, where the road was so full of potholes that even going at 10km/hr felt like risking life and limb. We took it as a challenge, but it just wasn’t all that enjoyable. How is this relevant, you ask? Well, I felt a little bit like this here, dodging the plotholes, expecting yet another farfetched twist or stereotype to hit me every time I rounded the corner.

 

HAIRPIN BRIDGE is a story which played out over a few hours, starring only three (almost four – or five, if you count the reptilian kind) characters and one single setting. To fill 320 odd pages with a very minimalist cast was never going to be an easy feat. Not only would the characters have to be very complex and enigmatic to pull the reader in, but they also had to have a multi layered and intriguing backstory. That was a lot of pressure on our main protagonist Lena Nguyen, a young woman investigating the apparent suicide of her estranged twin sister Cambry. Basically, the whole book revolves around Lena’s meeting with the police officer who found her sister’s body, and her multiple theories of what could have happened to Cambry in the days and hours leading up to her death. I give bonus points to the inclusion of blog entries, in which Lena shares her findings and theories with her followers. The rest is one epically long stand-off between Lena and two other characters, which I shall not name because this is the only mystery element you are going to get here!

 

My personal views are that if you have a slightly built female who will turn action hero, sharp shooter and indestructible bionic powerwoman, she needs to have a) a plausible history of what made her this way; b) very powerful motivation; and c) some sort of genetic mutation that makes her immune to assaults on her body that would incapacitate, maim or kill the rest of us mere mortals. Google “action movie tropes” and you will find most of them in the scenes on the bridge (bonus points for the snake, though!). Some stereotypes were so crass that I am surprised no other readers commented on them (the small Asian “girl” turned ninja vs the big ugly brutish badies – pleaaaaseeee! *eye-roll*).

 

Okay, let’s just cut a long rant short by saying that this book was never going to be a good choice for me. If it had not been a buddy read, I would have DNF’d very early on and moved on with my life. As it was, I did a lot of sighing and eye rolling and wishing that I was enjoying it as much as the other readers in the group. However, if you love action movies, car chases, an indestructible badass female lead and badies who are almost caricatures, and aren’t put off by lots of graphic violence and stereotypes, then you will probably love this book (I must admit that the first car chase did ratchet up the tension because who doesn’t love a good car chase?). I can see that for readers attracted to the premise of the story and those able to suspend disbelief, this might be a fast, entertaining and adrenaline fuelled read. Best go and judge for yourself.

 

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Joffe Books for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.