Review: Good start that slowly deteriorates
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 09 15, 2012
After exhausting many of the greats in romantic suspense like Christy Reece, Pamela Clare, Cindy Gerard, Linda Howard, Maya Banks, Laura Griffin and a few others, I've been having a hard time finding that next great author for this genre, so I've essentially been trying everything which leads me to this story.  I read the reviews of the Tall, Dark, and Deadly series and wanted to give it a try, and what better way than to read the Prelude story.  It started out very strong and I liked the chemistry between the H/h and the backstory of how Lindsey, a powerhouse attorney lost her mojo on a case gone wrong, went to work for the FBI, and reluctantly comes home to help her sick father with his law firm, only she can't do it alone and needs the help of her father's former law partner, Marc Reeves. She's also the target of a serial killer who's wrapped up in the case that killed her career as a lawyer.Now, I'm a sucker for smart, capable women as heroines who aren't sitting around waiting for a man to rescue them and what better segue to do that than have an incomparable legal brain along with some gun toting FBI skills?I guess it all boils down to having a great idea for a story does not equate to writing a good story.  It's almost as if this author woke up one day and said, "I have an idea for a great story" and then proceeded to write said story without any research.  The fact that the story includes lawyers and FBI is completely irrelevant since there's nothing in the story that reflects knowledge or experience with laws and/or criminals.  There's a serial killer with hits in three major cities with the same modus operandi and there's no mention of VICAP and each murder is being handled by local law enforcement, separately, with no FBI involvement.  Gun are just guns, no make or model, and apparently the FBI hardly even wears them, nevermind uses them. I also have no idea what division of the FBI these people even work for. When in Vegas, the payout for hitting single number in roulette is 35 to 1, not 20 to 1.  All that aside, it was still an okay story, but when you add in an obnoxious headstrong woman, with some serious daddy issues, who is supposedly smart but constantly does stupid things over and over again and blames everyone but herself for her problems, well, it slides downhill from there.  That and I found myself angry by the ending based on a blatant display of complete ineptitude.She does get the definition of a hero right and I felt sorry that Jake was stuck with Lindsey by the end of it.  Without the research and depth to the characters, she should stick with something neutral like meeting on a beach or something, not a story where careers, procedure, training and details matter.