4 out of 4 stars
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Amy is at the top of her career. Working as a partner at a big accounting firm such as Pearson Malone is not easy. It has its challenges and the top of which, for Amy, is the fact that her boss seems to loathe her. Ever since coming into the firm, Smithies (her boss) has done nothing but pressure her to do things that she would never had ordinarily done, including passing up her deserving best friend's promotion to an undeserving junior employee
Things change and become personal when a junior colleague is murdered. Amy takes it upon herself to try and get to the bottom of the murder as she is paranoid that her boss and JJ might have caused, partly, the death. Is it her paranoia or is there some truth to it? Will Amy survive this shakedown? And will her sanity and employment status remain intact? These are the questions that Concealment tries to answer within its pages.
To begin with, I have to recognize the author's commitment to writing this novel. I learned that she worked 'undercover' in accounting firms just to get the real picture of what goes on within the 'glass offices' so she could narrate the story better. All this hardwork is easily noticeable when reading Concealment. For one, you realize that she committed herself to give details, however small they were. For instance, the size, design and the daily happenings in Amy's office were all described in a very detailed fashion. The devil is in the details, they say.
The author's writing style is one of the best aspects of the novel. She uses a lot of humor, irony and sarcasm which make the reading of the novel more delightful. Amy's 'little voice' almost gets her into trouble while talking to her boss considering how rude it becomes when asked the type of questions that she does not want to answer. Amy also questions, quite satirically, the question of hypocrisy in the firm's diversity policy which seems to overlook the real reason behind the discussion of diversity and inclusion in decision making.
I have read books with out-of-this-world plot lines but not many of them can hold a candle to the execution of this novel's story line. It is a very simple story line and is one that happens quite frequently in the real world. However, the author managed to spice it up by bringing in unexpected twists and turns and by holding us (the readers) in suspense from the onset of the novel. We are made to expect a lot which is almost all the time delayed fo our benefit and enjoyment.
Concealment deserves a 4 out of 4 stars rating. I can say this confidently given the simple fact that it entertained me and did not have a lot of grammatical errors. It is a book that will be enjoyed by a wide audience but more specifically those that enjoy crime thrillers and detective novels.
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Concealment
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