The Shadow of Memory (A Kate Hamilton Mystery)

Although I loved the basic storyline of The Shadow of Memory, the book ended up being so long and drawn out that I lost interest quickly and just wanted it to be over. A man named Will Parker is found dead in the street from an allergic reaction to bee venom. Kate Hamilton and fiancee DI Tom Mallory work together to discover that Will and several of his childhood friends have had suspicious deaths. Will was in town to see Vivian Bunn, a friend of Kate’s and one of Will’s childhood friends. Kate helps Vivian recall memories of her childhood having to do with a house called Monkey Puzzle House and playing a real-life Clue game in which Vivian, Will, and their friends tried to solve the case of a local family whose Matriarch and Patriarch were poisoned and killed.

Overall, the characters were a great bunch as they were interesting and Kate had a lot of digging to do on each one of them, taking her down the rabbit hole. There are just too many pieces to the puzzle including counterfeit paintings, auction houses, the Cliff House project and Board of Directors, and a mental institution called the Netherfield Sanatorium. I found the details hard to follow and this made the book quite boring after a while.