Review: One of Us Must Die

One of Us Must Die by Zelly Ruskin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

“Legally speaking, one of you must die.”

One of Us Must Die was a straight forward domestic thriller that showed what can happen when abusive people have the power. Sterling came from a very wealthy family where her parents, mother especially, didn't like her “attitude”. When Sterling meets Keith in college she starts to fall in love, even when warning signs of his demeanor towards her start to creep up. Sterling then learns that her parents have created a trust for her inheritance and the stipulations are she must marry before twenty-five years old and can never divorce her husband or she and any children she has will lose any claim to the money. Seems like this could cause problems in the future, but parents, am I right?

He was an illusionist, her husband, and she his reluctant assistant.

Readers get their first introduction to the dynamic between Sterling and Keith with Sterling driving her car towards Keith to run him over. After the rush of that moment, the story goes back six months to Sterling starting to wake-up out of the abusive fog Keith has put her in after years of cheating on her and gas-lighting her that she's just crazy. There's numerous flashbacks that show Keith's abuse and the always hovering trust legalities that keep Sterling trapped in the marriage. It's when her eldest daughter is about to get married, with the other two children now out of the house also, she decides that she's going to start gathering evidence of Keith's cheating. Sterling also brings a former friend that Keith made her drop to investigate Keith and get any more dirt on him. I was really disappointed when the friend's evidence never really gets revealed and the promise of all that juicy dirt never came to fruition, making it feel what was the point.

For better or for worse, for richer and by trust, they were forever bound.

When Sterling starts talking to lawyers, it's when she learns that getting out of her marriage and still retaining the money in her trust could be impossible that she starts to fantasize about killing Keith. The flashbacks showing Keith's abuse and constant cruelty towards Sterling wasn't exactly fun, thrilling reading, and it pretty much persists throughout the whole book. There wasn't much mystery to this, most of it was clearly spelled out with maybe a little ending murder mystery. As for a domestic thriller, it's that, but was kind of depressing to read with all the abuse towards Sterling, her at first just living through it and then how she had to take it because of the trust. The family aspects, Sterling's parents, brother, and children come in towards the second half more to give her character more loving support but this still didn't exactly deliver a feel good ending. This was straightforward to the point of not being thrilling and the way Sterling's parents set-up her trust was a little, you'll just have to go along with it, because it's the reason she's staying with Keith. This did have a just desserts ending though, so if looking for a domestic thriller with that requirement, this would meet it.

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