The Second Goodbye

Sara Montaine walks into a gun shop one day and while the gun shop owner is on the phone, grabs a gun from the case, loads it, and kills herself. Right there in the shop. What comes next is the unraveling of a somewhat complex storyline. Who is Sara and what is it that made her feel that she had no choice but to commit suicide? Or rather, who is it?

Detective Davie Richards works this case alongside another unsolved mystery, that of the death of Javi Hernandez. Along the way, she interviews many people, digging into the past of both Sara and Javi only to realize people are not what or who they seem to be.

With a cast of bright and colorful characters, Smiley does a fantastic job of spinning together deception and mystery into a plot that ties up neatly in the end. I found her writing to be very easy to follow despite the many characters involved as well as the two cases that run parallel throughout the book. The relationship between Davie and her ex-partner Jon Striker was also a nice touch. Their subtle attraction at the beginning of the book develops nicely throughout the story without completely taking over the plot. The Second Goodbye is a well-written suspense and mystery novel that I would recommend to anyone who is a fan of this genre.