Book Review: The Night Olivia Fell

Christina McDonald's debut novel, The Night Olivia Fell, presents an intriguing premise and contains a significant moral against deception and infidelity. The police call single mother, Abi Knight, to tell her that her teenage daughter has had an accident. At the hospital she learns that Olivia fell from a bridge. Although the girl is brain-dead, they must keep her on life support because she is pregnant. Yet, despite bruises on Olivia's wrists, the police fail to investigate. Abi wonders why they are not investigating and sets out to unravel the truth. But truth is a rare thing for her. Indeed, Abi has hidden the truth from Olivia as much as Olivia has hidden the truth from her mother.

As debut thrillers go, it was a gripping story. I enjoyed the opportunity to walk a mile in someone else's shoes and to ask myself the difficult question: how well do I know my kids? The premise fully hooked me, but the two-dimensional characters and predictable actions were disappointing. The author kept me guessing, however, and I was wrong in several suppositions. In the end, for me, the mother was too clingy, the daughter too duplicitous, the background story predictable, and the ending unsatisfactory. Still, it was an engrossing tale with great potential. I think this author holds promise if she learns to paint her characters with a broader stroke and avoid stereotypes (wounded, controlling mother, quietly defiant daughter, power-hungry politician, etc.).