Review: From An American Point of View
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 8, 2012
This was a difficult book for me to review.  I'll start it by saying that Mel Comley and I have become friends on Facebook and other social medias.  She did not ask me to read or review her book.  I did so because I wanted to, and I'm glad I did.  I will say, though, I do not write bad reviews, however, I write honest reviews that are my opinion.  Some may agree with me, and some may not.  I don't write bad reviews simply because if I don't like a book, I normally don't finish reading it, and I won't write a review on a book I haven't read completely.  I actually read Impeding Justice some time ago, but have been pondering for weeks how to write a review from an American standpoint.  I've finally decided to just go with it.When I first started reading this I found myself looking at words and thinking "Oh, my God, there's typos here."  I'm a little slow sometimes so it actually took me a chapter or two before I realized "Oh, Mel Comley is a British author!"  These aren't typos, nor are they errors in punctuation.  I have since found that some of the rules of writing, punctuation and spelling change in other countries.Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I would like to say that by the third chapter spelling and punctuation no longer mattered to me.  I was totally captivated by the story.  I found myself in empathy with Lorne Simpkins, a strong-willed female in a mostly male dominated profession.  It was easy to see that Lorne would have to work harder, longer and go beyond the normal one hundred percent to even get noticed.  Add to that trying to be a good wife in a not so great marriage, a good mother to a rebellious teenager, and still somewhere deep down inside wanting to be a desirable woman, and you have a well-developed character that you want to see succeed in all those areas.Having worked with and for both law enforcement agencies and the judicial system in the US I was amazed to learn the differences in the American and British systems, and appalled that British officers could not carry firearms.This is not a cozy mystery, and not for everyone.  The subject material deals with a sick criminal, and material some may find offensive.  However, if you like an action-packed thriller that is hard-boiled in every sense of the word, you'll love it.  I realized after reading Impeding Justice that I had started the series in the middle.  I just purchased Cruel Justice and look forward to starting at the beginning.Thank you, Mel, for an entertaining evening (yes, I read this book in one evening, because I couldn't put it down and had to find out what happened next).