Genre:
Romantic suspense
Description:
“Reggie
Corcoran lost more than her memory when she was abducted at the age
of twelve: She lost her family. When her new psychic abilities
manifested, her zealot mother proclaimed her a demon changeling, and
the twelve-year-old girl was subjected to shameful exorcism and
painful ostracism. The home in which she’d once derived comfort
became a hostile environment as, one after another, Reggie’s
parents and siblings turned their backs on the girl who’d survived
a kidnapping and returned... different.
All but one. Detective Stephen Corcoran, Reggie’s brother, joined the police force because of his determination to bring justice to the little sister he’d watched progressively withdraw into herself, transforming from a cheerful child into a cautious woman. For thirteen years, Stephen has investigated the abduction that took from both of them a loving family. Now he and his partner, Detective Zack Grafton, are investigating a murder that might finally provide the answers to both Reggie's abduction and transformation.
Zack Grafton, a veteran detective with a long-standing antipathy toward so-called psychics, resists Reggie’s involvement in their case, but even he is won over by the woman’s dignity and strength. When her input on the murder goes well beyond educated guesses, he realizes that all trails lead to Reggie. Detectives Grafton and Corcoran must solve the case of her kidnapping before they can solve the homicide, and when the body count rises, the two detectives realize it’s only a matter of time before the perpetrator hones in on his real target: Reggie.”
All but one. Detective Stephen Corcoran, Reggie’s brother, joined the police force because of his determination to bring justice to the little sister he’d watched progressively withdraw into herself, transforming from a cheerful child into a cautious woman. For thirteen years, Stephen has investigated the abduction that took from both of them a loving family. Now he and his partner, Detective Zack Grafton, are investigating a murder that might finally provide the answers to both Reggie's abduction and transformation.
Zack Grafton, a veteran detective with a long-standing antipathy toward so-called psychics, resists Reggie’s involvement in their case, but even he is won over by the woman’s dignity and strength. When her input on the murder goes well beyond educated guesses, he realizes that all trails lead to Reggie. Detectives Grafton and Corcoran must solve the case of her kidnapping before they can solve the homicide, and when the body count rises, the two detectives realize it’s only a matter of time before the perpetrator hones in on his real target: Reggie.”
Author:
“Grace Jelsnik
earned her M.A. in English with an emphasis on creative writing at
the University of South Dakota. She lives in North Dakota with her
husband of fifteen years, their three children, two dogs, and three
cats. Her novels emphasize plot, characterization, and setting, but
each possesses an element of romance that takes a down-to-earth
approach to the natural give-and-take emotional interaction between
two characters, addressing the sparks that lead to heat, not the heat
itself. Her targeted audience is late teen and older, readers who
enjoy suspense and mystery.”
Learn more about
Ms. Jelsnik on her Amazon Author page or follow her onFacebook.
Appraisal:
I recently
read and thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Jelsnik’s novel Sparrow.
So I was excited to read another of her stories. Although Ms. Jelsnik
is an excellent writer, unfortunately, this tale didn’t hit the
spot for me.
BigAl once
told me that romantic suspense can be up to 80% in favor of either
romance or suspense. This one falls much closer to the romance end of
the spectrum than I prefer.
The story
began with a simple premise of the cops chasing down a mysterious
antagonist, but the antagonist was never well defined. In fact, he
featured barely at all, and when he did, it was as an unseen menace
whose vicious acts were reported rather than experienced.
I didn’t
really engage with the main character, Reggie. I think this was
because there were so many threads woven into her background — her
family issues, her psychic abilities, her gypsy blood, her illicit
wedding, the FBI, the clichéd concept of the detectives protecting
her losing their badges and guns and going rogue, her falling-in-love
story. Extensive time was spent on these details, which, while
interesting, yanked me away from the main story line. I ended up
feeling confused and, indeed, toward the end of the book when an
italicized flashback sequence was intended to explain the “truth”
about Reggie’s psychic powers, I didn’t fully understand what the
author was telling me.
Format/Typo
Issues:
Very few.
Rating:
*** Three Stars
Reviewed
by: Pete Barber
Approximate
word count: 85-90,000
words
