I won an ARC from Dee Henderson to review. I have posted this review on a couple of sites, but I thought it would be a good one to start off with. A caveat here, I will not always use spoilers in my reviews, so please don't let that turn you off. However, this was one of those books that I really couldn't review without using spoilers to explain WHY I didn't like certain things. That said, I still gave it a 3-4 star rating as it was well written.
***SPOILER ALERT!! SPOILER ALERT!!***
I'm sorry, but I can't fully review this book without spoilers. I am a die-hard Dee Henderson fan, so I was dying to read this book. I was lucky enough to be given an Advanced Reader Copy. I received it in the mail yesterday and finished it late last night. First of all, I loved the book.
"Midwest Homicide Investigator Ann Silver seemingly appears out of nowhere and drops the best lead on a serial murder case that Special Agent Paul Falcon has had in years. But she leaves him with more than just good evidence--he also has a strong desire to get to know this clever cop better. Is he prepared for both the case's and her secrets?"
***SPOILER ALERT!! SPOILER ALERT!!***
I'm sorry, but I can't fully review this book without spoilers. I am a die-hard Dee Henderson fan, so I was dying to read this book. I was lucky enough to be given an Advanced Reader Copy. I received it in the mail yesterday and finished it late last night. First of all, I really liked the book.
"Midwest Homicide Investigator Ann Silver seemingly appears out of nowhere and drops the best lead on a serial murder case that Special Agent Paul Falcon has had in years. But she leaves him with more than just good evidence--he also has a strong desire to get to know this clever cop better. Is he prepared for both the case's and her secrets?"
The book is well written with more than one twist. I'll admit, from the second the VP says a woman who he will not name was forced to write the diary for the serial killer, I knew it was Ann. That was kind of an obvious no brainer. Some of the others caught me off guard. However, there were a couple of things that dropped it down to a 4 star book instead of 5. The first thing I noticed is that Kate from the O'Malleys was there--but with a different last name. As I read further it made sense. The main female character, Ann, is a writer and she wrote the O'Malley books changing the names and fictionalizing the story. In fact, she "wrote" all of Dee Henderson's books. On one hand, that's kind of neat, but on the other, that takes all the books we love and makes you wonder what was "real" and what was not. Frankly, the further it went on, the more I was sure I didn't really care for that, but it's not enough to put me off the entire book. It's just a personal opinion.
Paul is intrigued by Ann, and starts asking mutual friends all about her. He never once asks if she's a Christian. He's surprised to discover that she "writes religious books". This man is supposed to be a Christian that wouldn't consider an unsaved person as a spouse (according to his friend), but when asking all these questions about her to see if this could be a relationship worth pursuing he NEVER asks the most important one?!? ...and seems surprised that she writes religious books? That didn't fit well for me.
To be honest,the thing that bothered me the most about this book is that Ann is touted throughout the book as a wonderful person, best friend you can have, etc. One person even says "You part ways with her in better shape than you arrived.", but when she and Paul are talking marriage it really turned me off. She has this whole list of demands of what SHE has to have and never once asks what he needs in a marriage. He can't even think about children--she refuses to have them as it would just be "outside what I can stretch to do". Also, she demands 4 hours a day, and one week a month of solitude. He's not even allowed to call her or see her. Say, what?!?!? First of all, that is a ridiculous and incredibly selfish demand. Secondly, she's already said she'll quit being a cop as that plus writing plus marriage would be too much. Paul will still be an agent, so of course he's going to be gone all day most days, therefore she can be alone to write or whatever. So where does the whole "I have to have 4 hours a day" of solitude demand come from? As for a week EVERY MONTH with her husband not allowed to call her or come see her--that really turned me off on her character. She never even gives him an opportunity for them to discuss what they can both give and take. She just lays her demands out on the table. If he doesn't like it or thinks he can't deal with those rules or whatever you want to call them, he can move on and try to find someone else.
All that being said, the book had a great story line and was well written as Dee's always are. I couldn't put it down! I couldn't wait to see the next turn in the road, how each piece of the story turned out. I can't wait for her next book--just hope she has a better female character next time.
