Book Review: Rumors

Book: Rumors (The Rumor Series book #1) by A.C. Arthur

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Description:

Her death tore them apart. Will solving her murder bring them back together?

Best friends Landy, Tenile, Nicole, Nathan, Justin, and Kareem were the golden children of Tanner University. Their paths were set: doctors, lawyers, business moguls, they were going to light the world on fire. Then, two weeks before graduation, Landy was murdered—and Nathan was blamed. Though he was never charged, vicious rumors drove him from town, and the circle of friends broke.

Ten years later, Nathan is back in Tanner, determined to clear his name. He’s asking questions no one wants answered, and soon rumors threaten to divide the community once more. Everyone in this small town is keeping big secrets—especially Landy’s old friends—and someone is willing to kill to keep their darkest deeds buried.



Rating: 2 stars

Review:

What is with these ethnically ambiguous covers? This story centers around a group of old college friends who are now in their early 30s and late 20s who just so happen to be Black. But looking at the cover you would think this was a Young Adult novel. Why are the publishers so afraid to represent diversity on the covers of books? Do they think they will scare off readers?

It makes me wonder with all these covers including two other books I've recently read His Work of Art and Taste of Sake, if publishers (as well as the author if on the rare occasion they actually get to take part in the decision making) don't realize how bad it is to make covers that don't represent the characters in books. I know there are some who think that covers don't matter but I think they do.

As for my review, this mystery centers around a group of old friends (Tenile Barnes, Nicole Stanfield, Dr. Nathan Hamilton, Dr. Justin Grant and Kareem Winston) who had attended Tanner University, and ten years later are still dealing with the horrific murder of their friend Yolanda "Landy" Connor. At the time, Nathan Hamilton had been accused of the crime despite his claims that he didn't do it. Although he wasn't charged with the crime, in the eyes of the people of Tanner he was a murderer. Ten years later, he is now a prominent doctor in New York city. He received an anonymous note stating that they know he didn't kill Landy but unless he stopped the real killer, he would kill again.

That note prompted Nathan to return to the small town of Tanner to not only clear his name but to find Landy's real killer.

I have a pet peeve with mystery books that take forever for the mystery solving to begin. This book first focused on introducing the characters and their shared history and current situations before it eventually started to focus on the 10 years old murder. That wasted so much time.

I was disappointed because after the author did such a good job of building up the murder, the story then started to focus on what was going on with these characters with the mystery falling to the wayside. The story spent more time unveiling the characters' secrets and lies and romantic entanglements and relationships instead of focusing on the murder. This was moving way too slow and the characters' secrets and lies didn't interest me, I wanted to find out who had murdered Landy and why.

I got tired of reading about Nicole's inability to get over her crush on Justin who has pretty much been using her for sex ever since they met back in college. Justin who is engaged to Tenile but he still can't get over his attraction to Nicole. Meanwhile, Tenile still has unresolved feelings for Nathan who still has feelings for her. Tenile younger sister Tracy is keeping a secret that also involves Nathan.

There were some great plot points in this story that the author could have spent even more time on such as: Who was sending Nicole threatening texts? Could college Professor Maclain Richards be behind the murder? Especially since Landy knew he was extorting sex from female students in exchange for them passing his class and she was planning to reveal his secret.

It wasn't until I would say the last 60+ pages that the mystery started to really unfold but even that was pushed aside for continued focus on the characters. I thought the writing was good but this just wasn't the mystery I thought it would be. It felt more like a soap opera with sex, lies and secrets being the main focus instead of the mystery.

This story also ends with another pet peeve of mine, ending with a cliffhanger. That is so frustrating because I felt like nothing got resolved and it was just a way to set up for the sequel. Perhaps it would have been better to cut out so many unnecessary details and scenes to combine the two books into one fast paced engaging story.

Even though I do want to know who the murderer is, if the sequel moves along at such a slow pace as this one, then I think I'll pass on reading it. A few of the secrets that were revealed did answer some of my questions such as I found out why Landy's stepbrother Donovan was still hanging around town causing trouble. And I also found out what Nathan had been doing when Tenile couldn't reach him during the time of Landy's murder but aside from that, this wasn't the mystery I hoped it would be.