Official Review: Bitter Nothings by Vicki Tyley

RussetDivinity · Post by **RussetDivinity** » 30 Jul 2014, 19:44

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Bitter Nothings" by Vicki Tyley.]

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Bitter Nothings by Vicki Tyley is exactly what her “About the Author” statement at the end of the book says: a fast-paced mystery/suspense novel. It’s about Dervla Johns, a woman whose stepmother and two stepsiblings have just been murdered in their beds, and everyone suspects her father. She and her two brothers, Gabe and Emmet, do their best to uncover what could have happened, and in the process, Dervla learns that her father had many more secrets than she had imagined. For its compelling story and believable characters, I rate Bitter Nothings 4 out of 4 stars.

The story starts off with the gunshot in the prologue, and the plot doesn’t stop or detour until the denouement in the epilogue. This isn’t to say there aren’t subplots or that the novel is nothing but darkness and murder. There are three minor subplots, one of Dervla’s best friend Sophie, dealing with her ex-husband Martin, which intercedes in Dervla’s story at just the right points. The next largest is a romantic thread. It never gets in the way of the story, but I wish I had gotten a bit more closure with it by the end. The third is very small and largely tied into the main plot and involves Dervla trying to keep track of her half-sister Alana, who lives with her boyfriend Toxic. Dervla’s relationship with her siblings and surviving half-sibling works out very well. Her brothers love her and each other, though they sometimes have difficulty showing it past all the arguing they do (which was very well written out and not at all typical sibling banter), and Dervla clearly does love Alana, even if Alana is too bitter to accept it. Each sibling has a distinct personality, one that feels real rather than simply like a type, i.e., the protective older brother, the delinquent, etc.

Speaking of things feeling real: Life goes on. Dervla’s life doesn’t stop with her stepfamily’s murder. She still has clients for her design business, and even though there are points where she would likely be perfectly happy to do nothing but mourn their deaths or find out what happened, she has other things to deal with, including Sophie’s problems and being with her brothers. There are moments in the novel where she even laughs, which is incredibly refreshing. Tyley has written a protagonist who can be sad, and determined, and happy, all without feeling like three different people.

Bitter Nothings isn’t perfect. There are some places where the dialogue or narration feels stilted, and several of the chapters cut off prematurely, and it takes a bit into the next chapter to find out what we missed. However, the mystery is well-constructed, and the twist at the end (because isn’t there always one?) took me by surprise but didn’t seem to come out of nowhere. Even if I would like to know more about what happens to specific characters at the end, I’m quite satisfied with the ending.

If you’re looking for a book about a woman going off and working on her own investigation separate from the law, this may not be the book for you. Dervla Johns behaves, in my opinion, perfectly rationally, which means that she does end up cooperating with people, even if she does a fair bit of work herself. However, I’d suggest you give it a shot anyway. It’s one of the best mysteries I’ve read recently.

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