Review: Well done, but hardly a series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 4, 2014
Bottom line is I liked it a LOT and was excited (until I looked further - see below) to see there are more in the series. I know some think there was too much time spent on character development, but putting most of that in the first book leaves more time for the subsequent investigations with a little left over for character growth from the sleuthing process. I liked the way the characters worked together but I could easily have done without the puppy and the young officer's mother in particular, who added little to the story.Some scenes were a little less than believable - setting up elaborate boobytraps takes time when the FBI is hot on your heels, and how could you do that on your home turf without risking the safety of parents who shared that space, and I think (altho I may be wrong here) there was a note "welcoming back" the former agent to the chase before the character who left the note was even introduced and would have no way of knowing who was in pursuit.(POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT) I think a particularly gooey "giftwrapped" body part, even after only a day or so, still would have alerted its unknowing caretaker by its smell, two characters were introduced as the Longtons and then inexplicably became the Longmores, and I think it's unfortunate that the author chose to give Ann Arbor officer Hadderly the nickname "Had", as a couple of other low-star reviewers mentioned. Although I didn't suffer the same confusion issues over this as some reviewers, perhaps if they'd spelled it Hadd it would have been less troublesome.Had's mother starts out somewhat amusing, but the 'cute' wears thin in a hurry and she ends up nothing short of chronically annoying. I would have to question whether ANY professional - let alone a police officer on loan to the FBI - would have not cautioned his mother that she was not to interrupt him when he was involved and on the clock in a serious crime investigation. I know file clerks who wouldn't have put up with that kind of behavior, mother or not.I thought it was at the very least a shame that none of the most recent victims were identified or IDs even attempted, nor their backgrounds investigated for possible connections and clues, and for me the end seemed a bit too much of a "snap-back-to-normalcy" in view of the dramatic climax to the manhunt.Nuts and bolts structure, you'll find the odd misplaced word here and there.The prologue, of course, was the perfect setup for the rest of the nursery rhyme murders to follow. Sadly, I won't be reading them, and here's why: because I did the math. According to the "boxed set" description there are a total of seven books in the 881-page set. Starting with Humpty Dumpty at 462 pages, that leaves 419 pages to distribute among SIX "books", roughly 70 pages each, which in my view makes them barely more than short stories. I hate this type of merchandising manipulation, and as I rarely if ever crack the cover of anything less than 300 pages, as far as the rest of the "series" goes - for just this simple a reason, I'll angrily but firmly opt out.For those who are keeping score, here are the standings: (1) Zero paranormal/supernatural/magic components; (2) Mild/infrequent profanity; (3) No gooey romance; (4) No explicit sex; (5) No explicitly gory or protracted violence; (5) Mild bodily injury but pretty clean; (6) Other than non-descriptive murder, no child abuse; (7) Barely noticeable animal abuse (one fast and non-serious incident); (8) No religious/alternative lifestyle agenda or promotion; (9) Grammar and punctuation police, come ahead on: I know you'll find something.