The Sinner by Petra Hammesfahr

(Photo courtesy of Amazon)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I just finished listening to an audiobook version of The Sinner by Petra Hammesfahr. In the story, we follow Cora Bender and the inner workings of her mind as she struggles to remember and cope with pieces of her past that both elude and haunt her. When Cora and her husband take a visit to the beach with their young son, her life spirals wildly out of control after she murders a newlywed young man. Upon being taken into custody for questioning, the disturbing story of her youth slowly begins to unravel, along with her mind. In order to discover her motive for murder, the Chief Inspector will have to travel the dark and twisted intertwining paths of Cora's woven web of lies and broken memory.

I quite enjoyed this story. As an audiobook, I loved that the narrator created a different voice and persona for each of the characters. It would have been helpful, however, to have a print copy for rereading some of the crucial moments and key turning points. The whole story was really like a puzzle. The further Cora seemed to break, the more that dark place in her memory let in a little light of truth. It was amazing to learn something new each chapter that added depth and understanding to Cora, yet it was challenging to determine (due to her unstable nature) which pieces of her story were simply just stories and which were remembered truths of a past she'd rather just forget.