Review: Disappointed and dismayed
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 19, 2014
I gave this book 3 stars because it is basically a good mystery and is well written. There were just so many things that I found unnecessary. I actually found it quite depressing and almost stopped reading at one point. The book is about a young woman, Dianna, who is killed by a stalker, but due to the nature of the injury it is initially seen as a possible suicide. Julie is the first one on the scene who discovers the body and just does not buy into the whole suicide thing. Then Joe is employed by the victim's family to look into her death because they are also not buying the whole suicide aspect. So of course Julie and Joe do their thing and investigate. The book is very similar to Castle Cay in it's layout. We have all of these different characters that are part of Dianna's life and in order to understand how she got to the place and time of her demise we have to learn all about the other players and how they relate to Dianna. We learn about an old boyfriend from her teenage years, we learn about a married beau, and an angry previous client who could all be suspects. We learn about Dianna's not so happy childhood, especially her adolescent years and her contentious relationship with her father. So one of the biggest parts of the story that I just found unnecessary and distasteful was the story of Dianna's first love and what happened to him. I don't want to give too much away but he ends up in prison and there is way too much description of his life in prison-from his point of view. His life after he gets out is also unnerving. This is not a light hearted story in any way. This was not my cup of tea.There is no romance between Joe and Julie, this is REALLY disappointing. We learn all about Dianna and Hoyt in quite a few details. But poor Joe and Julie are left out AGAIN. Yes they are still together, but their relationship is the one thing that has no description, it just is. As much description goes into telling about all of the other characters, the relationship aspect is very disappointing. I was hoping that this second book would give more time to Joe and Julie's romance, but it didn't. I do not plan to read anymore of the books in this series. They are just too complicated, depressing, and lacking in romance.