Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As a way to welcome you to Hope’s Peak, North Carolina, we start with a brutally slain girl in a cornfield. It happens close to this small tourist town where every so often a black teenaged or early-twenties girl gets brutally raped and murdered. Well, on the official town record, only two—three at the most—girls suffered that fate over the last several decades. But there have been 10 or so others hidden from the news by town officials and the police chief who didn’t want to hurt the tourist trade. Sounds a little trite. So we throw in a growing love attachment between the two main detectives, Jane Harper and Stu Raley. The head detective, Captain Morelli—where have I seen that trite Italian cop before? He is best ignored. The number of detectives and cops in this small town surpasses those of most major towns. And yet, they’re all kind of dumb when it comes to hunting down a serial killer who leaves enough clues for Father Brown to track down in a few days. So this book begins as a mystery—but a third way through we’re introduced to the killer. So now it’s a detective story. But wait—after much talk back and forth and getting lost in the clues—we segue into pornography, or the semen-filled episodes of cops and criminal cohorts. But now—we need a psychic named Ida to add mystery and a twist. She helps the cops clue-in on the clues because they can’t do it on their own. Yet, she is the most endearing character and one we can sympathize with. The ending—to some a twist perhaps. To me—I’ve seen ones like it too often. And all that sugary sweet talk at the end about death and life – too much molasses. There are only touches of atmosphere and the locale, as if written from “across the pond.” Which, perhaps, it was. When I chose this book, I was hoping to write a positive review and enjoy doing so. After all, I only get one chance to choose a selection from this month’s Kindle Firsts. I too was a sloppy detective and did not choose what I consider to be a winner. So sorry.