Born to Die by Lisa Jackson
This one is heavy on justice, with some twisted vengeance, and maybe even some redemption in love. It’s also a little dated. Published in 2011, I actually read the paper copy of this book.
It’s a good suspense. Dr. Kacey Lambert is disturbed because women that look uncannily like her keep dying in accidents. But are they accidents? The divorced, childless doctor has returned to her hometown of Grizzly Falls, Montana because in Seattle she was attacked and nearly killed. She’s trying to leave that memory and her broken marriage behind her and start anew. Not really interested in love again, she meets cowboy Trace O’Halleran His wife, who also resembles Dr. Lambert, left him and their son. The strange deaths bring these two together.
This book has a couple interesting features that make it unique. It’s number three in the Selena Alvarez and Regan Pescoli series. But the two Grizzly Falls Sheriff office detectives play minor parts in this book. The main characters are Dr. Lambert and Trace O’Halleran. This story also gives us many chapters from the killer’s point of view. Of course, the reader doesn’t know who the killer is. I am not a fan of this technique. I’m sure there are many who like it, but for me, it’s a cheap way to try to heighten suspense and really didn’t add anything.
The book is at least a hundred pages too long (473 total). I read that Lisa Jackson has published over seventy-five novels when this one came out. Seems her publisher thinks her novels don’t need editing. They do. This one could easily have shed those hundred pages and been even more fast-paced and suspenseful. Ms. Jackson likes to describe scenes to infinite detail. I prefer description that is character revealing or plot foreshadowing. This book takes place in winter, and we are reminded constantly of this. Ms. Jackson has some wordiness a good editor could have pared down. Like using thought tags within the point of view. Not needed. We know who is thinking. We don’t need to be told.
There was a gaff in the end of the book during the climax scene. A rifle becomes a shotgun, then becomes a rifle, then has shells, then cartridges, then shells again. A shotgun is not a rifle. And rifles don’t shoot shells. And finally, the killer is described as mentally ill. I’m not a fan of calling serial killers mentally ill. They are psychopaths. Evil exists and serial killers are incarnations of evil. Mentally ill are generally not organized well enough to be this cunning and careful. This killer’s motive may be twisted but lumping him in with those who are truly ill isn’t fair to them or to the reader.
Despite the problems I found (comes from writing myself) the book is a good read and kept me interested. I definitely wanted to find out who the killer was and why he was killing. And other than wordiness, the writing was good.
This book has profanity scattered throughout. Most curse words are used. One on page sex scene. Not graphic, though. There is violence but it’s not gratuitous.
I’ll put this one at number eight for books I’ve read this year.
- The Letter Keeper by Charles Martin
- Right Behind You by Lisa Gardner
- Moonlight Awakens by John Matthew Walker
- Win by Harlen Coben
- Murder Board by Brian Shea
- Anna: A Cliff Ford Mystery by Terry Toler
- The Man Burned by Winter by Pete Zacharias
- Born to Die by Lisa Jackson
- The Mechanic by Tom Fowler
- Into the Flames by Liz Bradford
- You Are Invited by Sarah A Denzil
- Girl, Alone by Blake Pierce
- One Night in Sedona by Carrie Latimer.
- Coffin Cove by Jackie Elliott
Commission earned
Recent Comments