Although they have been best friends since childhood Clementine and Erika have totally different personalities and outlooks on life and their relationship with each other is somewhat strained.
When Clementine and her family attend a spur of the moment backyard barbecue at Erika's neighbours' house a fun afternoon turns to tragedy.
Can the adults and children who were there that afternoon ever recover from that day and continue with their normal lives?
I have to admit that although I like the way that Liane Moriaty writes - her books are certainly very readable - I don't love her books. They are easy breezy beach type reads but there is usually something that fails to resonate with me. Such was the case with Truly, Madly Guilty. I liked it, enjoyed it even, but I found it a bit of a slog to get through. The first part of the book flashes back and forth from the day of the barbecue to the present. The reader knows that there was an incident at the barbecue but doesn't know what it was until about half way through the book. The second half of the book deals with the aftermath of that incident.
This book reminded me a lot of the author's previous books (especially The Husband's Secret and Big Little Lies) and it felt a little formulaic. I felt that the pace of this story was very slow compared to these other two books and it failed to enthrall me. The characters and their lifestyles didn't come across as being very realistic and when the barbecue incident was revealed it wasn't as dramatic as I had been anticipating.
I can't quite put my finger on it but there was something that simply didn't work in this story overall the book felt a little flat. I didn't hate Truly, Madly, Guilty but it was a rather disappointing read for me.
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