Madness of Sunshine

A Madness of Sunshine- Nalini Singh
Berkley Publishing/Penguin Group
Release Date: December 3, 2019 

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: On the rugged West Coast of New Zealand, Golden Cove is more than just a town where people live. The adults are more than neighbors; the children, more than schoolmates. 

That is until one fateful summer—and several vanished bodies—shatters the trust holding Golden Cove together. All that’s left are whispers behind closed doors, broken friendships, and a silent agreement to not look back. But they can’t run from the past forever. 

Eight years later, a beautiful young woman disappears without a trace, and the residents of Golden Cove wonder if their home shelters something far more dangerous than an unforgiving landscape.  

It’s not long before the dark past collides with the haunting present and deadly secrets come to light.

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A Madness of Sunshine is a departure from Nalini Singh's usual paranormal romance (Wolf Rain, Archangel's War).  A psychological thriller with a bit of romance on the edges, Sunshine dives deep into the darkness that is people.  Whether small town or large city, rich or poor, everyone has their secrets- and suddenly those secrets could mean the difference between life and death in Golden Cove, New Zealand.  When Anahera returns to Golden Cove and a young woman disappears, Anahera and her friends find themselves remembering the disappearances of three hikers when they were teens.  The disappearances were a decade apart so they couldn't be related. Could they?

 Singh does her usual masterful job in creating three-dimensional characters (whether primary, secondary, or brief walk-ons) and Golden Cove, the surrounding jungles and beaches, and New Zealand itself become as much a character as any of the people. The sense of place is incredibly strong, and the reader is instantly drawn into the wild West Coast of New Zealand.  Anahera is a strong and wonderful person- damaged and trying to piece herself together again, she is trying to find ways to deal with the loss of her mother and husband, her husband's betrayal, and coming back to Golden Cove both opens old wounds and helps heal them. Will, Golden Cove's only police officer, is an outsider who was moved in to deal with tourists after his superiors worry he's burned himself out on a case that ended in flames and still haunts him.  He's smart enough to know the locals may be friendly, but they aren't going to share secrets with someone from outside- even before danger hits.  He may be hiding and piecing himself together as well, but he worries some parts of himself have burned away for ever.

The mystery is full of clues and red herrings, hints that seem like red herrings until the end and shocking twists and turns the whole way through.  Full of descriptions of lush jungle trails, crashing ocean waves, and both the best and worst of human nature, A Madness of Sunshine will be a joy for long-time Nalini Singh fans and a revelation for new-comers.  A book you won't be able to put down once you've started, A Madness of Sunshine shines bright among new thrillers.    

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review