Review: Ho Hum
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 10, 2014
Solving Mossy Bog's first fire fatality could net police officer Laurie Ann Dinterman the promotion she desperately wants. When the state arson investigator arrives to take over the case, Laurie Ann is assigned to give the man everything he needs while keeping him alive. The fact he's the sexiest man ever to hit town shouldn't make a difference.Hot on the trail of a serial arsonist, Wyatt North demands justice for his partner, the arsonist's first victim. He'll find the murderer or die trying--no matter how distracting the tall, lithe figure of his local partner is.As the investigation zeroes in on a suspect uncomfortably close to Laurie Ann's life, her cop instincts conflict with her feelings for Wyatt. Worse, the arsonist will do anything to protect his identity. Can Laurie Ann accept the truth in time...or will she and Wyatt go up in flamesEnjoyable enough story.  Liked ti that Our Heroine was Episcopalian because I am also.  I've not seen that before and so thought it an original touch.  Liked it that Our Hero was an arson investigator as I have not seen that before either.Three things really bothered me  On the first page there was this "charred footprint of the restaurant."  That jerked me right out.  What does that mean? A restaurant can't possibly have a footprint.  Unless the author meant carbon footprint.  "Charred remains" would have made much more sense.  I can't stand it when the author's sloppy writing intrudes on my reading enjoyment.Another thing I did not like was that it was so obvious much too early in the story who was Our Bad Guy.  I kept hoping I was wrong and the author would prove to be skillful enough to have planted red herrings.  But alas, she was boringly predictable.  A romantic suspense novel ought to have some suspense in it, don't you agree?  Our Bad Guy's behavior was predicable, oh so predictable.The third thing I didn't like is that Our Bad Guy had no motive for his actions.  There was not enough backstory.  Our Bad Guy was there simply because romantic suspense needs a Bad Guy.  He had no personality, no character development.  He was just there to fill a plot gap.  To me that is just another example of sloppy writing.I am deleting this from my Kindle because it is just not worth keeping to re-read.