Review: Spouse Sap (3.5 Stars)
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 11, 2014
Yes, the story does grip you right out of the gate. That's good. However, it's like meeting a hot blind date, only to find out as the evening wears on that you really don't have that much in common. The divorce plot is good, but all of the sub-plots are very poorly fleshed out. We see no motivation for why she would become hitched to one of her old boy-friends on the rebound (who himself is a one-dimensional character, just put in the book so she could have a foil). There are no real flashbacks for happier times so we could really feel any anguish over Maddie being dumped by her husband, who is himself a one-dimensional character. In fact, none of the secondary characters in the book are developed in their own right at all, they are all just "window dressing" for Maddie to react with. Thus, when other characters die throughout the book, we really don't care. Our blood doesn't boil. There is no feeling of "I can't wait until they find the guy who did this and bring him to justice." Worst of all, the "climax" is a huge let-down. I'm not sure if the author had a deadline to meet, or simply was tired of writing and wanted to "wrap it up." Nevertheless, after (for example) boring us with details about all the wigs Maddie tries on  trying to find a disguise, the author doesn't even bother to write the scene where the bad guys get their comeuppance. It's all just handled with a jump to an epilogue style last chapter where Maddie is starting her new life--very disappointing. If the author could fill in some back stories for her other characters, and take the effort to enhance the most poignant scenes instead of writing everything at the same clip-clop pace, this could be a good (dare I say Stephanie Plum-ish) new series. Else, this book is good enough to read once, but I wouldn't read a second one.