The Necklace by Matt Witten follows the journey of Susan Lentigo, the mother of a young girl named Amy who was killed and raped. Twenty years later, Susan finally ventures out of her small town in New York to attend the execution of Amy’s killer, hoping that she might finally break free from the guilt and trauma that has haunted her for so long.
However, it is Susan's same lack of closure that hints that there may be something more to Amy's death. On her journey to witness the execution, Susan makes discoveries that suggest the prosecutors might have gotten the killer wrong all these years.
The Necklace is a tightly-crafted and well-paced novel that certainly makes for a gripping and entertaining read. The use of Susan’s journey to the execution as the backbone of the narrative was clever since it tied the story together and gave us a clear picture of Susan's strong and likable character. The alternating perspective between present-day events and the day of Amy's murder added just the right amount of suspense to the novel. Nevertheless, there are three main flaws with the plot.
First, some key elements of the story were quickly introduced without being sufficiently backed up or "prepped for." For example, there is an insinuation very early on that rape was involved and the suspect would be male, based on the fact that Amy reported being uncomfortable around her grandmother's boyfriends. But the timing of this information is just too early. The story had not yet reached the point where forensic evidence was introduced, making this a difficult logical jump to make. The author's attempt to push the story in a given direction is at times too obvious.
The story could have benefited from having more secondary characters to obscure the killer's true identity. As it is, the possible suspects became narrowed down very early on. What the novel does well is it keeps us guessing who—between the two main suspects—is truly guilty.
And when the true killer is finally found, his motive for killing Amy is not adequately explored. Clues are laid down to expose shortcomings in his character, but it is never explained how these shortcomings wouldn’t simply manifest in some other manner, and why in the end they materialized as the desire to murder Amy.
The Necklace is an intriguing and logically sound mystery murder novel, and we are rewarded with satisfaction when the truth is finally revealed. However, from a narrative perspective, certain weaknesses keep it from living up to what the best of the genre has to offer.
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