{"id":9707,"date":"2023-04-06T14:21:33","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T18:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=9707"},"modified":"2023-04-06T14:23:37","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T18:23:37","slug":"the-den-by-cara-reinard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/the-den-by-cara-reinard\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Den by Cara Reinard"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Den <\/span><\/i>by Cara Reinard<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas and Mercer, Dec. 2022<\/span><\/p>\n

ISBN: 9781542039765<\/span><\/p>\n

Availability: paperback, Kindle<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cara Reinard’s <\/span>The Den<\/span><\/i> recycles a tried and true plotline used countless times, and keeps it entertaining enough to ignore that there really aren’t any original twists to the plotline.\u00a0 Y<\/span>ou know exactly what you’re getting ahead of time, but it’s fun enough that you don’t care about the lack of originality.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In this case, the plot is the trope”‘rich dad with estranged children is about to die and leave inheritance to offspring, all of whom have reason to want him dead.” If you’ve seen the movie <\/span>Knives Out<\/span><\/i>, then you know the majority of the book plot.\u00a0 In <\/span>The Den,<\/span><\/i> the only stab at something new is that if any of the four siblings die before the old man, their share of the inheritance is split among the other siblings.\u00a0 The rest is standard fare in the book: all the kids have financial problems, and they are all screw-ups in one way or another.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Any of “inheritance plotline” books just need to follow some simple rules to be worth reading.\u00a0 One, everyone needs to be a suspect and have motive.\u00a0 Two, the killer or killers’ identities are well hidden until the end of the book.\u00a0 Three, the author can’t get carried away with their own cleverness and make the mystery too convoluted.\u00a0 Finally, the book needs to be entertaining.\u00a0 With <\/span>The Den<\/span><\/i>, the author succeeds on all four counts.\u00a0 There are other suspects besides the siblings: the housekeepers, servants and their families all have reason for murder, so there’s a big enough cast of characters to keep the reader guessing.\u00a0 The identity of the villain(s) is well-concealed until the very end: the majority of readers probably won’t guess correctly, and that’s what is supposed to happen in a book like this.\u00a0 The plot is twisting enough and clues are scattered throughout, but it doesn’t get too difficult to follow.\u00a0 Readers will get to the end and feel it made sense. Most importantly, the book is entertaining.\u00a0 The pacing is quick enough with no wasted time or pointless plot offshoots, and it’s enough to keep the pages flipping.\u00a0 With a book like this, that’s all you’re looking for.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bottom line: this is predictable fun.\u00a0 Readers who enjoy mysteries are likely to enjoy this one.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Den by Cara Reinard Thomas and Mercer, Dec. 2022 ISBN: 9781542039765 Availability: paperback, Kindle   Cara Reinard’s The Den recycles a tried and true plotline used countless times, and keeps it entertaining enough to ignore that there really aren’t any original twists to the plotline.\u00a0 You know exactly what you’re getting ahead of time,<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2474,5366,4573,4851,749,5368,2325,5367,5369,3502],"class_list":["post-9707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-review","tag-cara-reinard","tag-family-secrets","tag-horror-book-review","tag-horror-books","tag-inheritance-plot","tag-mystery-fiction","tag-the-den","tag-thriller-books","tag-thriller-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9707"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9710,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9707\/revisions\/9710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}