The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian: Book Review


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4 Stars out of 5

Title: The Double Bind
Author: Chris Bohjalian
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Mystery, Twisty
Audience: Adult
Format: Paperback
Content Warning: Sexual Assault

My Review:

Written December 7, 2008

There’s not really much I can say about this without giving anything way. The tension relentlessly builds all the way through to an amazing ending that left me flipping back through the pages to see what I had missed. The clues were there, but I hadn’t seen them. I do highly recommend this one.

Update July 30, 2023

This book still regularly crosses my mind. I don’t remember a lot of details (not unusual for me) but I do remember the ending and it is still one of my favorites.

My Synopsis:

The Double Bind opens with a flashback. Laurel Estabrook is out biking one day when she is viciously attacked by two men. Luckily, another group of bikers come along and saves her before anything too violent happens. Fast forward a few years and Laurel is a social worker at a homeless shelter. One of the shelter’s clients has just died, leaving behind amazing photos of celebrities, the area Laurel grew up in, and a girl biking in the woods. Laurel is intrigued and tries to find out exactly who Bobbie Crocker was. All she finds are cover-ups and denials, but she single-mindedly persists in her search for the truth.

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6 Comments

  1. It’s always so interesting to see what we think of books in the moments after finishing them versus if they stuck with us years later. This sounds like a good one.

    1. I’ve just gotten so far behind on writing reviews that I’m pulling old reviews from GoodReads. Lesley’s Book Nook does a semi-weekly post where she posts reviews from her old journals and adds her current thoughts.

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