Review: Sadly Not For Me, It Lacks Substance & Depth
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 07 9, 2014
I do not enjoy writing negative reviews but for integrity sake and the good of potential readers, I will do so when I truly believe the situation warrants one.  I just finished the last book in the Mudbug Ghost-in-Law Mystery/Romance Series so I was looking for another good cozy mystery.  In the latter genre paranormal cozy mysteries are my favorite.  I've read and love the Mary O'Reilly Series by Teri Reid, The Haunted Series by Alexie Aaron, The Experiments in Terror Series by Karina Halle and the Ghost Dusters Mysteries series by Wendy Roberts.  Unfortunately, to compare this book to any of the aforementioned  books would be like comparing a beautiful and fierce lion to a prematurely born, sickly, unweight kitten.Death Comes to Town felt like an author's rough draft or outline for a book idea.  Tons of potential but sadly inadequate execution.  The story and the characters and the setting lack development, depth, logic, credibility and believability. As one reviewer wrote it just read and felt like "a Piece of fluff... Short, sweet and easily digested."  However, I disagree with the "easy to digest" part of the reviewer's description of this piece.  For me, the piece was a bit gag worthy and not so easily digested.  I guess that explains why the aforementioned reviewer gives this book 3 stars while I only give it 2.  In all honesty, I vacillated between the two rating for quite a bit before making my decision.  I think part of why the 2 star rating seemed more appropriate is because based on the outline clearly the author has some measure of creativity but the poor execution and inept writing style indicates that he/she should have sought some beta readers, if an editor isn't feasible and I can't phantom how he or she couldn't ascertain that this "idea" or skeletal presentation was not ready for publication.  Reviews indicated that the fundamental literary elements lacking in this 1st attempt aren't improved as the series progresses, alas, I don't anticipate reading another book in this series.However, given that reviews are totally subjective, some other readers apparently liked the book, it is free, at least at the time of this posting it is, and it's a short read one only risks losing a little time by reading it.  Then you can form your own opinion.  Either way Happy Reading!  I'm off to continue the hunt for an exceptional paranormal mystery or cozy mystery.