Richard Montanari

Play dead

Sian Wadey

** spoiler alert **
           This is my second Richard Montanari novel, but the fourth in the series. The Rosary Girls I enjoyed, but I didn't particularly warm to Kevin Byrne, but after this one I have changed my opinion of him.
The story is an interesting one, about Ludo and his magician's tricks and the lives of seven teenage runaways.
It's a clever idea, one of the more original ones I've come across, but I still feel like they didn't use it to maximum effect. Montanari describes this fantastic house with rooms that move and secret hatches. It's a brilliant opportunity for the characters to get lost inside with the victim and the murderer but nothing like that happened, instead the house got burnt down!
At the start of the novel, I found it annoying that the author constantly mentioned how hot it was and what it was like in Philly, which although was interesting, got irritating pretty quickly.
Montanari never fails to provide a quick, exciting read, but doesn't retain in the memory very long.

Play dead

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