Hairpin Bridge by Taylor Adams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars**
Lena Nguyen’s twin sister, Cambry, is dead. The official story is that while on a cross-country solo road trip, she stopped 60-miles outside of Missoula, Montana, and jumped from a bridge.
That’s the story, that she chose to end her own life.
The problem is, Lena doesn’t believe that’s true. A number of things about the official version just do not add up for her.
There’s the state trooper, Corporal Ray Raycevic. He found Cambry’s body, but he had also pulled her over in a traffic stop just an hour before she died.
After the traffic stop, there’s the 16-attempted 911-calls from her cell; unfortunately, Cambry was in a dead zone at the time, so it’s never been determined what sort of assistance she was seeking.
Lastly, and most troubling to Lena, is the fact that Cambry mentioned Corporal Raycevic by name in her final, cryptic text message to her sister. This text is believed to be her suicide note.
Why would she mention the name of an officer she had only met once, in a reportedly brief, traffic stop?
It just doesn’t make any sense and Lena is going to get to the bottom of it. Driving her sister’s old car, armed with a tape recorder, Lena heads off to Montana to confront Officer Raycevic.
This book kicks off with a bang and really never lets up. As Adams did with No Exit, he is able to steadily build and hold the level of intensity throughout.
There’s never a lull in his stories. You are in it, gripping your seat until the very end.
Taking place over the course of just a few hours, this narrative is quite focused in its scope. I think it would translate very well to the big screen.
There are some fantastic stand-offs, chase scenes, fierce cat-and-mouse moments; it had a lot going for it.
But there were also some aspects of the story that didn’t quite fit my tastes. I found the format to be a tad wonky and towards the end, as the pace increased, it became a little disjointed and I found it hard to follow at times.
For example, I would have to keep looking back a little bit to give myself a reminder from what perspective I was currently reading from. Out of context, this comment probably won’t make much sense to you, but if you read it, you may encounter the same issue.
Additionally, while there were a few interesting revelations, there were also some that toed the line of eye roll territory for me. A very hard territory to work your way out from.
With this being said, this is an entertaining story. I have a feeling there will be mixed reviews, but as always, it all comes down to personal taste. It’s subjective; certain tropes work better for some Readers than others.
There’s a book for every Reader and a Reader for every book. While I won’t be marking Hairpin Bridge down as a new personal favorite, I still had fun with it and am glad I gave it a shot!
Thank you so much to the publisher, William Morrow, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I certainly appreciate the opportunity to provide my opinion and look forward to picking up more from Taylor Adams!!
