Review: Suspenseful Thriller, A Quick Read
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 31, 2012
I really wanted to like this book, and I did in many ways, but enough things detracted from the story that I only gave it three stars. It's the story of Aaron Coleman, recently widowed and recently retired, who moved to a farm in rural Missouri, hoping to live his life in peace and tranquility. This dream came to an abrupt end after Aaron hired young Robert Lee to do some maintenance on his farm. Robert Lee was trouble after the first few days and Aaron made the decision to fire him, invoking Robert Lee's murderous wrath.This started out as an interesting story with good character development for both Aaron and Robert Lee, who made an excellent villain. When Aaron's daughter, Ellie, comes to her father's side to support him, they slowly work to heal their damaged relationship. Ellie's character never did fully develop, which was too bad as she played a strong role in the story.****SPOILER ALERT*****At this point, it seemed as if the author needed to add extra pages, filling what amounted to probably over 20% of the book with reminiscing and meaningless details that added nothing to the story. So, the book stalled for quite awhile before picking back up again when torrential rains threatened the community. When flooding seemed imminent at the farm from the swollen stream, Ellie strongly encourages the two of them to leave for higher ground. Makes perfect sense - but why then does she take the time to apply "a touch of make-up" before heading out to her vehicle when every moment mattered? It was out of character for this take-charge, sensible woman. Later, there is a very improbable scene that sets up the grand finale - the return of Robert Lee. He needed to make a return, but the circumstances that let this occur could not possibly have happened in real life.****END SPOILER*****The book had very few grammatical mistakes and was generally well-written, but the author really could have used a professional copy-editor to cut back on details and re-work some of the scenes. I see that he doesn't have any other books listed on his Amazon page - perhaps this is his first, in which case, he's off to a great start. I would read another book by this author.I was given this book in exchange for providing a fair and honest review.