The trouble with a lot of whodunits is that the characters and their unique compelling personalities are not as important to the story as what happens to them. Nothing happens because of them; they are usually caught in the throes of some evil machination that seems to come from the world at large instead of coming from the specific circumstances of their lives. I hate those kinds of books. Thank the Book Gods that YOU CAN TRUST ME by Sophie McKenzie is not one of those cookie-cutter novels. Its story is personal, putting it head and shoulders above the crowd of mysteries and thrillers trying to make their way into your beach bag.

First we meet Livy, suffering through a low point in her marriage, who gets a text from her best friend, Julia. The message is simple: Please call me. But Livy is at a dreaded dinner party with her formerly cheating spouse, Will, and a call to her friend is not in the cards at the moment. When Livy goes to see her for lunch on Saturday, she makes a gruesome discovery: Julia is dead. The official ruling is suicide, but Livy knows this is not possible --- the young woman who has left her behind was loud, bawdy, funny, full of joy and life, and bold, but not depressed. So what is going on?

"Thank the Book Gods that YOU CAN TRUST ME by Sophie McKenzie is not one of those cookie-cutter novels. Its story is personal, putting it head and shoulders above the crowd of mysteries and thrillers trying to make their way into your beach bag."

Livy starts digging for new information, and eventually it becomes clear to her that the  individual who may have done in her best friend also took her sister’s life 18 years ago. As she begins to relive the saga of Kara’s death, she realizes that the killer is someone close to or even in her family. Every man is a suspect, even her own philanderer husband. A lot of sadness and painful revelations later, Livy finds herself facing the killer. But is she strong enough to trust herself, do the right thing and survive?

The backdrop of marital infidelity gives YOU CAN TRUST ME a sordid but strong foundation. Who can trust anyone else completely? Isn’t there always going to be something you don’t know about someone or some side of him or her that doesn’t make itself clear to you? Livy’s explorations into the killings of two of the closest women in her life bring her face to face with not just the killer, but also the idea that no one ever knows another person fully. This sad conclusion informs every part of the book and Livy’s search for the killer. But when she finally finds the right person, it’s clear that her humanity may be the one thing that can’t save her from the evil that has surrounded her all along.

McKenzie’s style is very simple: She tells the story like she’s talking to you. There are no fancy maneuvers, just a steady British-inflected walk from one discovery to another until the inevitable showdown of hunter and killer. Livy is an interesting character, if only because her situation is so dark at the beginning of the book that we can’t help but stick with her to make sure that somewhere, somehow, she ends up with something positive after all the negativity that has infiltrated her life throughout the story and her history.

YOU CAN TRUST ME is a perfect beach read --- a book that will get passed from beach reader to beach reader for a long time to come. Enjoy!