Review: Shots in the Dark
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 29, 2013
This is a traditional murder/suspense tale with many of the familiar ingredients. The protagonist, a man named Sam, is a burned-out ex-cop with nightmares about a tragic personal loss. Set adrift, he needs a job, and hires out to protect a client who has been receiving death threats. Concurrently, he meets an attractive woman and a romance blooms. The client dies in a fire at his business and Sam becomes a murder suspect, dogged by reporters. He investigates, follows leads, develops theories, runs them up the flagpole with police, who treat him with disdain. Lucy disappears, apparently abducted by bad guys who want him to cool his investigation. Sam, of course, continues, eventually closing in on the bad guys. A confrontation--several, actually--occurs, then a BIG surprise, shots are fired, and . . . nuff said. The early part of the tale is mostly investigative. Action heats up toward the end. The chapters are short, and it has a fairly long cast of a characters, so I had to pay attention to keep track of the names. One other challenge was tracking point of view, which tended to jump around during the early chapters.