Hairpin Bridge by Taylor Adams

Publication Date: June 15, 2021

Summary from NetGalley:

Three months ago, Lena Nguyen’s estranged twin sister, Cambry, drove to a remote bridge sixty miles outside of Missoula, Montana, and jumped two hundred feet to her death. At least, that is the official police version.

But Lena isn’t buying it.

Now she’s come to that very bridge, driving her dead twin’s car and armed with a cassette recorder, determined to find out what really happened by interviewing the highway patrolman who allegedly discovered her sister’s body.

Corporal Raymond Raycevic has agreed to meet Lena at the scene. He is sympathetic, forthright, and professional. But his story doesn’t seem to add up. For one thing, he stopped Cambry for speeding a full hour before she supposedly leapt to her death. Then there are the sixteen attempted 911 calls from her cell phone, made in what was unfortunately a dead zone.

But perhaps most troubling of all, the state trooper is referred to by name in Cambry’s final enigmatic text to her sister: Please Forgive Me. I couldn’t live with it. Hopefully you can, Officer Raycevic.

Lena will do anything to uncover the truth. But as her twin’s final hours come into focus, Lena’s search turns into a harrowing, tooth-and-nail fight for her own survival—one that will test everything she thought she knew about her sister and herself…

ARC provided by William Morrow via NetGalley for an honest review.

Confession:

This book was amazing! So full of action, twists and turns and a heroine that will not give up no matter how hard things get. This is one that you will not be able to put down once you start.

Lena is in the end quite a strong young lady, although you would never think that at the start. I felt sorry for her from the beginning, she just wants some answers as to what happened to her sister, but as the story goes on I began to have my doubts about her. I found myself at times not liking her that much, but she was determined and did what she needed to to survive. Although I did question her motives and her need to put herself knowingly in harm’s way.

Lena’s relationship with her sister is complex. They are estranged, but they were never close even in childhood. There were times when they almost seemed to be total opposites of each other. People always expect twins to be similar to each other, but this is not always the case.

Raymond Raycevic was also a tough character to like, and I don’t think any one will. He was a sympathetic character in the end though. He also had a drive to survive no matter what, and this certainly colored his perspective on the world. I do believe there were times that he could be good and selfless, but this story was not one of those times.

The book is basically told through Lena’s point of view. However there are parts that seem like they are from Cambry’s viewpoint, but if you are paying attention, you will realize they are not. This part of the story is Lena trying to piece together what happened to her sister. Which makes it hard to rely on whether or not this part of the story is true, you will be left guessing this until the end. There are a few parts told from other character’s points of view, and those were actually more believable and reliable than Lena’s parts.

I can’t speak much about the story without spoiling anything. It is a little slow to start as the story needs to be set up quite a bit before it can really start going. There are so many twists to this one that it will most definitely keep you guessing as to what really happened to Cambry. I really liked that there were really only about 4 characters involved in this whole story, and only two of them for most of it. Cambry’s character was sort of like a ghost, she was there, but we only saw her through both Lena’s and Ray’s voices, so we never really get to know her. I will warn you that there are some rather gory parts and there is gun violence. The gun violence was realistic, and by this I mean that at one point Lena is crouched behind a car when she realizes that this isn’t really a good shield, even though Hollywood would certainly have you believe otherwise.

If you liked No Exit, which was my favorite thriller from 2019, then I think you will really like this one as well. While there were a few moments in this one that seemed less plausible, it is easy to forgive those because the rest will blow you away.