Former Chicago detective Jackie "Jack" Daniels spent much of her career putting away criminals. She felt she achieved the best results when she was able to remove psychotic and deranged killers who preyed on helpless women.
This story is segmented into three parts. Once Jackie is a police officer, in the segment twenty one years ago she goes undercover in attempt to find a serial killer who was dismembering and murdering women.
The next segment covers the time period of three years ago when Jack and her partner Herb were following John Dalton when a body of a woman was found and a car matching Dalton's was observed leaving the scene.
In the present day segment, Jackie has been abducted from her home and is bound and awaiting torture by the killer, Mr. K.
Having a story move through different times is difficult. In this novel, the action moving between three time periods resulted in the loss of the story's momentum and suspense. Some of the segments were only one page and resulted in a somewhat confusing flow of events.
There was lots of torture and evil people in this novel and many instances where the reader must suspend their sense of logic. In the time twenty-one-years ago, Jackie is abducted by the killer and finds herself naked in his home. It ends with her fighting against him. Prior to that, she had told someone that she was a size six, so probably about one hundred pounds. The killer was said to be about two-hundred twenty. Overpowering her captor stretched belief.
In the three-years ago segment, the killer taunts Jackie and her partner. He leaves clues and tells her that she isn't good enough to catch him.
When she is abducted in current time, she is taken from her home while sleeping with her boyfriend. How likely would this be for an attempt and for success. I don't know.
Finally, the ending was unrealistic and highly unsatisfying. Deus ex machina is defined as a plot device where a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly solved with a contrived and unexpected intervention of some new character. This is never acceptable in literature and the author disappoints his reader by using it here.
I've enjoyed J.A. Konrath in the past but this novel was a disappointment.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2VKJECQFXXK03/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
Check my Amazon review and if you agree, please indicate the review was helpful.
Thanks
This story is segmented into three parts. Once Jackie is a police officer, in the segment twenty one years ago she goes undercover in attempt to find a serial killer who was dismembering and murdering women.
The next segment covers the time period of three years ago when Jack and her partner Herb were following John Dalton when a body of a woman was found and a car matching Dalton's was observed leaving the scene.
In the present day segment, Jackie has been abducted from her home and is bound and awaiting torture by the killer, Mr. K.
Having a story move through different times is difficult. In this novel, the action moving between three time periods resulted in the loss of the story's momentum and suspense. Some of the segments were only one page and resulted in a somewhat confusing flow of events.
There was lots of torture and evil people in this novel and many instances where the reader must suspend their sense of logic. In the time twenty-one-years ago, Jackie is abducted by the killer and finds herself naked in his home. It ends with her fighting against him. Prior to that, she had told someone that she was a size six, so probably about one hundred pounds. The killer was said to be about two-hundred twenty. Overpowering her captor stretched belief.
In the three-years ago segment, the killer taunts Jackie and her partner. He leaves clues and tells her that she isn't good enough to catch him.
When she is abducted in current time, she is taken from her home while sleeping with her boyfriend. How likely would this be for an attempt and for success. I don't know.
Finally, the ending was unrealistic and highly unsatisfying. Deus ex machina is defined as a plot device where a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly solved with a contrived and unexpected intervention of some new character. This is never acceptable in literature and the author disappoints his reader by using it here.
I've enjoyed J.A. Konrath in the past but this novel was a disappointment.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2VKJECQFXXK03/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
Check my Amazon review and if you agree, please indicate the review was helpful.
Thanks
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1 comment:
This book sounds confusing, I'm so grateful for your honest review becuase books like these drive me up the wall. Thanks : )
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