Review: Riveting but too brief
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 5, 2012
Title:  Life in DeathAuthor:  Harlow CobanReviewer:  George ShadowSummary:The death of a teenage girl sets off an investigation by detectives Cobb and Nicolet of the Ophelia Police Department. They discover the victim's name is Patience Dolo from one Kari Marchant, a social worker who had assigned the girl to a foster family some months back. However, something is not right with this particular foster couple, Andrea and Scott Frost. They seem to be hiding something, the detectives infer on a routine visit, because they have `new furniture at every turn' and `flat screen televisions in their bathrooms.' Judging from the meager salary they earn while taking care of six foster kids, the police officers wonder where they get the cash to pay for the extravagant opulence their home exuded. In addition, something is not right with some of Kari's co-workers at Social Services and a further series of bizarre murders lead the detectives nowhere until, that is, the killer makes a bold mistake, causing his hunters to face a very surprising conclusion to the entire life-draining saga in a quiet church at around 7 p.m.Social/Historical Context:Life in Death is a murder mystery, so to speak, where the killer is lurking in the cloak of a second life, adequately provided for him by society, itself. Set in a present-day American town called Ophelia, this creepy story is a troubling saga in which traditional magic meets its objectives in a developed western society despite the learned privilege the actors claim to have acquired in the course of their upbringing. The book is a passive glimpse into the twisted mind of a so-called `modern traditionalist' who killed not for the soul pleasure of sacrificing his victims to ancient deities, but for the joyous madness he thought he felt during that reprehensible act.Writing Style:The story is written in the third person narrating the experiences each character is going through as the drama unfolds. The chapters are rather brusque and straight to the point, leaving out the delay more thorough descriptions would have brought into the picture and hence missing the benefits of such an approach as well.My Thoughts:It appears everyone in this story has something to hide, including the seemingly passive Kari Marchant and her co-worker, Mina. This is fine in the actual sense, but I am a bit surprised at what the author dropped on my laps on the novel's last page. She must have deliberately done this and it could work for some people, but I think she should have resisted the temptation of indulging in this at that late an hour.Life in Death is an interesting read, but I feel the author was rushing it as the pages flew by, as if she was in a hurry to get somewhere, thereby cramming a lot of information into very few pages! I think she should have taken time to develop the story, thereby giving it a deeper breathe of life, but no, she must speed on, as if that alone would heighten the urgency and suspense she sought. Of course, this approach almost worked for her, if one decides to sit back and access the entire narration at once, but it also gave the book's chapters a somewhat lackluster appearance when each was individually considered. In the end, only very important details were successfully tucked into the book's short chapters and the vital descriptive depiction, which would have successfully fleshed out the story and greatly heightened the suspense up to the climactic ending in the book's last pages, is lost. Nice story, but left me thinking the author could do better.George Shadow is author of THE BLACK BOOK.