What’s interesting about this book was I’m not sure if it was a murder mystery or a general fiction about odd locals in Nantucket. (A Hilderbrand special.)

I did enjoy the way readers indulged into alternating thriller storyline and how the locals handle these new people. But I still don’t really get it. 

I picked up this book wanting to get away from the thrillers and mysteries. I wanted a break from the overly formulated story lines of mysteries/thriller/suspense novels that I had been falling into. (We all need these type of breaks, right?) So my headspace was immediately disappointed when it felt like the book was going to be completely focused on the missing assistant, Coco. 

This is part of a series, but like other reviewers mentioned, I feel you didn’t need to read any of the other books in the series to pick up this book.

Surprisingly, this is also Hilderbrand’s final novel. Not just final in the series, but final final. She’s going into retirement! This alone was pretty mind blowing for me. So I will leave you with this warning…

If this is your first Hilderbrand‘s novel, put it down right now. This is not Hilderbrand‘s best work. In hindsight, knowing that she’s retiring, it’s sad that this is her finale of her career. Hilderbrand is excellent at character building and creating unique but believable characters that readers will fall in love with. The character building here is left hanging. Not only were all the characters slightly unlikable, which happens. The characters were, excuse my French, half assed. Whether you like this book or not from the story perspective, everyone agrees that this is not Hildebrand’s best work.

So again, if this is your first Hilderbrand book, please put it down. Choose literally any other book in her 30 book back catalog to pick up first. I guarantee you, you’ll enjoy literally any of them. Then once you fall in love with her writing and the world of Nantucket that she has expertly put on paper for boring land dwellers, you can come back to this book and read her finale.

In the end, it was a lovely story. It was odd. It was interesting. And I’m really going to miss future books by this absolutely wonderful author.

Amazon Link – Swan Song By: Elin Hilderbrand

Stats: 400 pages – First published June 11, 2024