Review: Just OK--not a mystery as it is categorized om amazon.com, it is a crime novel.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 15, 2014
Overall, not a bad read, some typos but nothing to deter you from reading the book (I think I found about 5 or so)...my biggest complaint is that some things in the novel just don't make sense, although finding out the author is Canadian may explain at least one of them....getting a message that a cell phone is turned off? I have never heard of anything like that, usually just goes straight to voice mail.  It also explains BBQ sauce on steaks, sour cream on knishes, and peanut butter and tomato sandwiches I suppose...LOLAs at least one other reviewer wrote, I too had issues with a cop trying to start a romance with a woman who's child is missing...cops would not usually do that when they are in the middle of an investigation (they can lose their job as well as it is just inappropriate)  and a woman certainly would not be receptive to advances when she is worried about her child.  She should have held off the romance until after the child was recovered...The author has the PI's child sounding like he is a young man by his language ( I had guessed 10-13 or so) but then they have the dad promise to come read him a bedtime story...and later on he is walking to school?  Just did not fit.  I don't think the author really decided what age this child was going to be and build his speech etc around his age.  None of it fit.Later on a comment is made about when the PI drives his car away a "bunny" hops out of the way? Sounds like author is a mom of a young child LOL Most would write a rabbit jumped out of the way...which added nothing to the story anyway, and just made you think "huh? a bunny?".  We got the picture when she said pedestrians jumped out of the way...The PI doesn't carry a gun...I have never read a crime novel where a PI does not have a license to carry and always have their gun with them...he is investigating a child's disappearance that is linked with a murderer for pete's sake...he would have a gun...and certainly would not go into a house, unarmed, knowing there is a killer inside with a gun waiting for him...just not realistic...There are lots of things in this novel that are just not realistic. It really should not be in amazon's category as a mystery (maybe that is the only option?) as you know all along who is doing the killing and why...the only question is whether the police and the PI's will find her alive and in time...several times she portrayed the police as bumbling idiots, which they can sometimes be, but not as bumbling as she portrays them by them not getting the security tapes of the parking lots necessary to investigate...and then  having the the stores just hand over the tapes to a PI? THAT would not happen. Just doesn't make sense.I suggest the next novel this author writes, that she think about the things she has characters doing and ask herself first "does this make sense" as there were just too many times when it didn't...While this book is OK, there is nothing special about it that would prompt me to buy one of her books...it just wasn't good enough.  The ending was clear all along, they were going to find the missing child...no surprises, no on the edge of your seat...just mild curiosity about when they were going to figure it out...the author needs to hold more back...you knew all along what the killer was doing, thinking and why he was...you need to give readers a surprise at the end of a crime or mystery book...there were no surprises at all.I would recommend that this author consider reading some Greg Iles books (be careful they are not all mysteries) to get an idea of how an author can totally take you in, and the depth with which a mystery can be written...after all I assume her goal is to be a GREAT writer, not just a ho-hum writer giving away her work for free, or for a pittance.