Review: Malicious
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 16, 2014
Malicious, by James Raven is a riveting page turner.  As I looked at the cover, I could tell that somebody was going to be up to no good.  Set in the great state of Texas, this is a murder mystery combined with love, trust, blackmail, and the devastating results of porn.  Detective Robyn Tate is a fairly new detective in the Houston Police Department and her partner, Tate has the utmost respect for her.  Ride with them as husbands, wives, therapists, and technology merge into a most fascinating case of “Who done it?”The partners get a call about a homicide and no one could foresee the chain of events about to unfold.  One murder leads to another and the investigation is at a standstill with all suspects eliminated and all clues checked out.  The job is stressful enough, but Robyn is facing some harrowing demons of her own.  As a detective she needs to give one hundred percent to her partner and to the murder cases, but her personal life threatens to overwhelm her mind as someone called the Slave Master intrudes into her life in the most private areas.  Apparently Robyn and the victim have a lot in common.In a surprising twist of events Robyn becomes a major player in the entire case while keeping it a secret.  Sharing her secret is not an option because it could cost the love of her family; the respect of her colleagues and possibly her job; not to mention that her life is a stake.  For the first time the responsibilities of being a detective clash with her personal life as she tries to deal with being a victim.  Time is running out for the murder cases and her life is spiraling downward at breakneck speed.Robyn desperately needs immediate help and decides to enlist the aid of her partner, hoping that she is not making a big mistake.  Tate’s reply to her plea for help comes as a big surprise.  Partners should have each other’s backs, but that is not written in stone.  The murders and the issue plaguing Robyn tie in together as all the players some full circle. The ending shocked me when both the murderer and the Slave Master get what they deserve.  I can usually guess what is going to happen, but the author got me this time.The action in this book moved along at a good pace.  I was never bored and I read it in one day because I just had to find out about the bad guys.  I personally like double spacing between paragraphs but this book only has one.  It did not drastically harm my reading experience, but it would have been nice.  The ending will surprise you and I do recommend that you add this one to your list of books to read!