Fifty Fifty - Steve Cavanagh

 

"“911 what’s your emergency?”

“My dad’s dead. My sister Sofia killed him. She’s still in the house. Please send help.”

“My dad’s dead. My sister Alexandra killed him. She’s still in the house. Please send help.”

One of them is a liar and a killer.

But which one?"

This is one of those books where the concept is really straightforward - two sisters accuse each other of the murder of their father - and it is expertly executed. I'd say if you are at all intrigued by that set-up, then you should pick up this book.  Full stop.  No notes. 

When I saw this on NetGalley, I had never heard of Steve Cavanagh nor the Eddie Flynn series.  I didn't do any research prior and only found out this is book #5 in the Eddie Flynn series when I went to get the cover art from Goodreads. There were a few spots where Eddie was mentioning his past that I wondered, briefly, if there were previous books but those wonders were quickly dismissed as the book addressed those points in such a way that felt more like book 1 in a series instead of book 5.  I didn't feel like I was out of the loop on anything and would still recommend this read if you've never read any other Eddie Flynn books.  I do plan on going back and reading the earlier books in the series.

The characters in this were great - we get 5 different POVs - and each of them felt very well developed and distinct.  Our POVs are both sisters, Eddie, another lawyer Kate, and then the POV of the killer who we know per the premise is one of the sisters but the specific sister is never named in these killer POV chapters.  I loved that these different characters also all interacted with each other throughout the read so we not only get Eddie's view of Kate but also Kate's view of Eddie.  I think this was a great way to get character development into the story while keeping the main plot moving ahead quite quickly. 

The mechanic of the killer POV was fantastic.  The first time it showed up, I thought it was obviously referring to one specific sister and maybe this read was going to turn into the type where the reader knows more than the characters.  But then the next time we got the killer's POV, it seemed to point to the other sister. It continued like this, flip flopping back and forth between the two sisters, for the rest of the book.  We got so much information, but it was still muddied all the way until the end for me.  

I haven't read a lot of legal thrillers, so I don't have a lot to compare this one to.  I did like that it wasn't too focused on the actual court proceedings and instead felt more like a PI investigation/detective fiction.  The legal stuff we do get on page is very well explained that I think even someone not versed in this genre could follow just fine.

Overall, this was a great legal thriller and I very much enjoyed the characters and POV mechanics.  I will 100% be reading the back books in this series and look forward to reading on in the series as well.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC.  Publication date was June 3, 2025.