#BuddyReadsToDieFor – #ATBR2021 – Hairpin Bridge by Taylor Adams

The July 2021 #BuddyReadsToDieFor selection!

HAIRPIN BRIDGE – Taylor Adams (Released June 15th, 2021)

The Instagram Live was so fun with the author – if you missed it then you can watch it on Chandra’s Instagram page!

Here’s the synopsis:

From the author of the “full-throttle thriller” (A. J. Finn) No Exit—a riveting new psychological page-turner featuring a fierce and unforgettable heroine.

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…

Chandra’s Thoughts: 4/5 stars

Ok Taylor, you got me.  I’m hooked.  I am one of the very few people who haven’t read NO EXIT yet and I have no excuse.  Clearly I have it .. but like with a lot of readers, you buy a book, you add it to your shelf and feel the longing gaze from it from your shelves for the next few months (or years)… it’s a struggle.  HOWEVER, I DID read HAIRPIN BRIDGE and was fully engaged within the first few chapters.

Now, I did think there were a LOT of coinky-dinks happening throughout the read and felt a bit of a lull in the middle until we get to the part where shit starts to go down and then my focus was fully back into the storyline.  There was a part of me that wished Cambry’s chapters were directly from Cambry in flashbacks rather than as Lena writing Cambry’s story as a book. BUT, then the author explained that once people die .. that’s it.  We don’t get a chance to actually speak to them again and we can only put together the pieces the best that we can and as such, Cambry doesn’t get that voice.  Legit appreciate this view on it!

You’ll definitely need to suspend some reality on this maniacal bridge and at some of the reveals that we get towards the end.  Yes, it’s madness at its finest.  Yes it takes place strictly through the hours of one action packed night.  Grab that popcorn, sit your ass and put on your seatbelts. 

My Thoughts: 4/5 stars

I read, and loved, NO EXIT by Taylor Adams, so the bar was set kind of high for HAIRPIN BRIDGE. There were zero disappointments here and I already can’t wait for his next book. There’s just something about thrillers that take place in a single location and a single day or short amount of time. I think that the inclusion of the other formats to tell the story really added another layer to it.

Lena receives a message from her twin sister Cambry: “Please Forgive Me. I couldn’t live with it. Hopefully you can, Officer Raycevic.” When Cambry’s body is found from an apparent suicide, Lena isn’t buying it. She knows there must be something else that happened and she is determined to figure it out by going to the man mentioned in her message, Officer Raycevic.

The last 100 pages of this book were insane. Everything culminates in one hell of a climax and I couldn’t put it down. I liked the author’s approach to the chapters of Cambry, despite them not being from her direct POV and being told through Lena, they still filled in a lot for the story and helped us understand her better. What led her to Hairpin Bridge? What really happened that night? I highly recommend adding this to your TBR if you want something quick and action packed!