Rating: Good
Source: Publisher
Description: When small-town police officers discover the grave of a young boy, they’re quick to pin the crime on a convicted felon who lives nearby. But when it comes to murder, Officer Susan Marlan never trusts a simple explanation, so she’s just getting started.
Meanwhile, college professor Eric Evans hallucinates a young boy in overalls: a symptom of his schizophrenia—or so he thinks. But when more bodies turn up, Eric has more visions, and they mirror details of the murder case. As the investigation continues, the police stick with their original conclusion, but Susan’s instincts tell her something is off. The higher-ups keep stonewalling her, and the FBI’s closing in.
Desperate for answers, Susan goes rogue and turns to Eric for help. Together they take an unorthodox approach to the case as the evidence keeps getting stranger. With Eric’s hallucinations intensifying and the body count rising, can the pair separate truth from illusion long enough to catch a monster?
Genre: Mystery
Why I Picked This Book: This premise reminds me a bit of a TV show I used to like (I think it was Perception? Whatever it was called it was on TNT a few years back)
My Impression: I have some mixed feelings about this one. For starters I really liked the characters. Susan is smart and tough but still human and likable and I sympathized with Eric and liked him. I found it to be an interesting combination of personalities and the mystery was really interesting. It was very readable and the author did a great job of making the characters and the setting really come alive.
BUT, there's a LOT of setup. Like a lot. It took almost half the book for Eric and Susan to become the crime fighting duo I was hoping for. Prior to that (and some during) we get a lot about Eric's divorce and dealing with his illness as well as Susan's struggles with internal politics. All of this pushed the mystery out of focus at times and made the book just feel too long. Because it is a fairly complicated setup I see why this had to happen but I feel like I'll enjoy the 2nd book quite a bit more because hopefully there will be more focus on the mystery.
Would I Read More of this Series/Author? I'll definitely be looking for the 2nd book in this series as I think there's so much potential for this series and I'm curious to see how it continues.
Would I Recommend this Book? I think I'll wait for the 2nd book before I really recommend it but if you mentally prepare yourself for all the setup and side story I think you'll enjoy it.
* I received this book in exchange for an honest review. As always my opinions and impressions are completely my own. *
It must be great to have patience as a reader, for when a book takes longer to really get to the main point of the story! I don't have that patience sadly!
ReplyDeleteThis does sound pretty good (and a little creepy) even though it's slow to get going. The mystery sounds great!
ReplyDeleteLiking the charactees helps when it takes that long to get to the meat of the story.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I might have to read this one just for the names -- my name is Susan and my husband is Eric, LOL. We're hardly a crime-fighting duo, but it might be fun to read about this alternate Eric and Susan :)
ReplyDeleteI imagine it can be hard to find a good balance with set up and story. Some authors seem to be better at it than others. Hopefully the second book in the series will be better on that front. It sounds though like this book had a lot going for it otherwise. I will have to give this one a try!
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