Poison by Galt Niederhoffer

Poison by Galt Niederhoffer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Cass was left on her on raising her two young children she thought the dream of a perfect family life with a loving husband was quite out of her reach, that is until she met Ryan. Ryan was unlike other men that Cass had known when he didn’t run away from the mere thought of her young children and instead proposed marriage and having more of their own someday. The two came together and formed the perfect little family and eventually did have a third baby added to their lives.

After their family expanded Cass and Ryan bought a fixer upper of a home to grow into with their children and with the two working and raising their family everything looked picture perfect for them. Things slowly began to do downhill for Cass though when she would find evidence that maybe, just maybe her husband might not be fully invested in their charming little family. Instead of denying though Ryan would always turn the tables onto Cass until on drunken night he let it slip that he would kill her.

Poison by Galt Niederhoffer is a psychological thriller that was a tad different than most. This story lacks the usual twists and turns and keeping a reader guessing at who done it with the fact that there really could only be two outcomes, either Ryan poisoned his wife or he didn’t. But with knowing from early on it was an either or situation the story still gives the reader plenty to follow along as it unfolds and has built a much bigger message into the book.

What this book has done is fit into it the idea of our society being one that immediately questions victims of crimes and turns the tables onto them instead of the accused. In this story it’s a matter of poisoning but that could be replaced with numerous other crimes that are suffered every day in society. Victims of rape or abuse for instance could really be living Cass’ entire roller coaster ride as she brought the allegations up in the story. This deeper message of victim shaming or blaming is one that society deals with daily and that is what made this one an intense ride while waiting for the answer in the end.

Cass was the perfectly flawed character that she needed to be to make this story work and keep readers guessing all throughout. From one moment to the next I had no clue whether to trust her narrative or to question her side of the events being given in the story. That is exactly what the author seemed to be going for with the deeper meaning to the book and it was done wonderfully in my opinion. In the end I’d definitely recommend checking this one out.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.