Leah, the only
detective in the small town of Alvin, Alabama, is raising her two
children, Abe and Carry, by herself. When Carry asks for a visit to a
psychic for her Christmas present, the whole family goes. Before
doing Carry's reading, the psychic focuses on Leah giving her clues
to a murder that is about to occur.
Leah doesn't quite
believe what she's been told, but when the body of a woman turns up
in a local lake and the clues match the psychic's cryptic
description, she wonders if there is a connection.
I had several
problems with this book. The characters, particularly Abe and his
friend Dewey, are engaging. However, the dialog imitates the speech
patterns of the characters in this southern Alabama town making if
difficult to read. It also makes the characters, including Leah,
sound uneducated.
The mystery is much
too easy to figure out. The author gives it away in the preface. Once
you read the introduction every clue is obvious. I think it would
have been a better mystery without the preface. The police procedures
are also poorly done. This is a small town police station, but even
so, putting the picture of a maimed victim on the front page of the
newspaper seems out of line.
The author tries to
give a humerus twist to some of the action, particularly the scenes
between Abe and Dewey, but
even this pales because the dialog is
so poorly done.
I reviewed this book
for the Amazon Vine Program.
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