Published: 14th December 2014
Publisher: Self published
Pages: 280
Format: ebook
Genre: Romantic suspense
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars
Caroline Bready is being watched. Someone has posted a photograph of her on a mysterious website.
Still struggling to rebuild her life after the unsolved death of her husband, Caroline tells herself that the photo is unimportant. She drifts into an affair with a colleague; the relationship begins casually, but quickly becomes intense and disturbing.
After Caroline discovers the first victim of a serial rapist who has begun to attack women in Sydney, another photograph appears. Are the online images a threat, or simply coincidence?
Against a backdrop of deception and lies, Caroline finds herself drawn to an enigmatic stranger. Is he protecting her, or does he mean her harm?
If Caroline cannot distinguish friend from foe, it could cost her life.
Note: I was provided with a copy of this book for review.
Krall’s story is one that is filled with suspense and the unexpected which makes it a wonderful read. She is great at misdirection and red herrings and creating multiple mysteries to solve. The plot is fascinating and a wonderful approach for a mystery. There is a range of things happening in this story; romance, crime, suspense and intrigue, and Krall links them together aptly and intersects them with ease.
The characters are curious, certainly odd and peculiar, and unfortunately for some I didn’t have much of a connection with. They are not flat per se, but they were bland and despite a few being given a chunk of back story, it didn’t help bring them to life.
There is the good detective who stays awake worrying about the case he cannot solve, main character Caroline who is naive and a little foolish, she isn’t the brightest person for someone working in IT, and there is the emotionally abusive fling who Caroline has no misunderstanding about his relationship with her but she still manages to be blind to some of his faults despite it being clear to others.
The characters seem to be connected to the roles they play in the story which means they have little to them when examined on their own. They are at times simple and one dimensional but I appreciated them in the story and the support they provided in continuing the narrative. The mystery and the compelling plot pull you along so in that sense the characters play their roles well which adds to the suspense.
The events of the story appear to be unconnected but with overlapping events and characters coming together, soon the unconnected becomes connected and everyone becomes a suspect. Not knowing what to expect makes this an exciting read and Krall is skilled at leading the reader in one direction only to have it stop at a dead end or veer off entirely.
Krall’s strengths are in her ability to create a captivating story that offers suspense and intrigue and an ongoing whodunit story that never is what it seems. After a reasonable beginning the events of the early chapters come together in an exciting and fast-paced conclusion that even when secrets are revealed remains a suspenseful and thrilling read.
There is sexual content in this story, some of it rougher than most, and the threat of the Redback Rapist is an ongoing topic but Krall limits her descriptions and does not describe outright the sex scenes or makes it too graphic to read. Reece’s behaviour is clearly emotionally abusive and Caroline cannot see that which is frustrating as a reader but it makes the story believable in a way. As annoying as it is, it does show how manipulative people can be in abusive relationships and makes the victim feel like they are in the wrong. Krall uses dialogue quite cleverly to show how Reece twists Caroline’s words and makes himself out to be a nicer guy than he is. From very early on it is clear that Reece is a horrible person, but the way Krall works with this is on another level entirely and makes gripping reading as a result.
The problem I have is with the ending. On one hand it was a great resolution to the story, it was unexpected and intense, but on the other hand, around a different matter, it seemed wrong. I know Krall tries to justify it, but I still think that there could have been a better direction than the one taken. Other than that this is a great story, there is enough intrigue from the beginning to get you interested and it is maintained until the last pages.
You can purchase In Your Sights via the following
I Truly Lament—Working Through the Holocaust is a varied collection of stories: inmates in death camps; survivors of these camps; disenchanted Golems complaining about their designated rounds; Holocaust deniers and their ravings; collectors of Hitler curiosa (only recently a few linens from Hitler’s bedroom suite went up for sale!); an imagined interview with Eva Braun during her last days in the Berlin bunker; a Nazi camp doctor subtly denying his complicity; and the love story of a Hungarian cantor, among others.
