What readers think of People Like Us, plus links to write your own review.

People Like Us is bold and unlike anything I’ve read before. It follows a black author on a surreal book tour trailed by a mysterious figure known only as The Kid. A parallel narrative follows an unnamed writer in NYC unraveling under the weight of memory and isolation. Mott weaves humor, grief and the mysterious into a multilayered novel on identity, authorship and being seen.

It’s been a while since I’ve read anything by Denise Mina, but I’ve liked the ones I’ve read. I’m adding this one to the list. The plot was solid, the characters fully fleshed out. Dr. Claudia O’Sheil is about to blow the lid open on how her forensic evidence falsely accused a man and led to his conviction in a double murder one year earlier. Claudia was behind a blood spatter analysis program that became the industry standard and was a key component in the case. Now what she has to say will destroy not just her life but that of several others.

The story veers back and forth between the present day and the time of the murder investigation. It moves at a nice steady pace and there’s a constant underlying sense of tension. Mina’s writing is descriptive without being overly wordy - that ability to nail a character or a scene in just a sentence or two. The book delves into class, corruption and power. Claudia is a great main character. She’s dealing with her husband’s untimely death and some serious family issues. And she’s finally trying to grow the spine she lacked the year before. She let herself get sucked in by her ego, her desire to maintain her reputation and a lifestyle she’d never had before. It’s unclear until the bitter end whether she’ll have the strength to do the right thing.

This will not appeal to those that want their mysteries to be all about action. My one complaint was that Mina wasn’t consistent about using first vs. third person narration.
My thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown & Co for an advance copy of this book.