Book Review: Real Easy by Marie Rutkoski

A Two-Minute Book Review

From the publisher: “A compulsive, tenacious, and unexpectedly hopeful thriller set in a midwestern strip club, told by New York Times bestselling author Marie Rutkoski in the spirit of Gillian Flynn and Tana French.”

Told in 14 different POVs (!!), this character-driven police procedural/thriller was compulsively readable. Did I learn more than I wanted to know about stripper culture? Yes, but it was interesting. Did I figure out the killer early on? Yes, but several credible red herrings kept me on my toes.

I thoroughly enjoyed the impressive character development and solid plotting. The complicated and flawed characters were fully fleshed out (even those that only had one chapter) and wonderfully diverse. While there was crude language and situations, they reinforced the realism of the setting. I devoured the book and am looking for more by @marierutkoski.

The audio version featured the narrator interviewing the author about her book and process as a bonus. Can this become the standard, please? I loved that.

I read this as an audiobook purchased from Libro.fm, with proceeds going to @Blue_Cypress_Books, an independent bookstore in New Orleans, LA.

Have you read REAL EASY? What did you think?