Author : J.A. Jance
Date Read : 25 - 26 October 2010
Ratings : ***1/2 (3.5 stars out of 5)
You know you're reading a book you like when you can hardly put that book down. I read this book in less than 24 hours. I only managed to put this book down to have dinner, take a shower, sleep (at 2 am in the morning), and work the next day. I read the last 40 pages as soon as I finish work, and manage to finish it in 20 minutes.
This is one of those books that keeps you wanting to read the story more and more. It was really hard for me to put this book down from the start. If it were not because of sleep and a couple of hours of no electricity at night, I would have been able to finish this book last night.
This is my first book by Judith Ann (J.A.) Jance and I believe I'll read many more by her. I like her writing, short chapters, and fast paced read.
This is also the first book of the new series from Jance. The main character is Alison Reynolds, who is a reporter/news caster for a local TV network, who was recently fired because she's over 40 and is considered too old to appeal to a younger audience (aahhh Hollywood and its image crazy audience). She then finds herself out of a job, with a rocky marriage, a cheating husband, and a best friend from her hometown in Arizona who went missing and is presumed dead by suicide.
The story follows Ali's return to her hometown in Sedona, Arizona, to a parents who own a little family diner called Sugarloaf, who is famous for its sweet rolls for the breakfast crowd. Reading the way Jance tells of this story makes me want to visit Sedona, go to Sugarloaf and try one of the sweet rolls made by Mrs Edie Larson, Ali's mother. It just sounds so yummy.
That's just the way Jance writes the story and the characters, whom I like and I can connect with. I hate Ali's husband's character, Paul Grayson, who is the type of guy that I absolutely despise. Ali then start writing a blog created by her son, to vent her story to her audience, called cutlooseblog.com, where it deals with not just her own story, but of ALS (which Reenie is diagnosed with before she died) and of domestic violence.
Overall, I would have given this book a 4 stars, but there are several things in the storyline that were a little loose and went unresolved until the book ends. Maybe it's going to be continued in the second book, Web of Evil, I don't know. I have to find out. But this is definitely an enjoyable read that I would recommend to lovers of mystery thrillers out there.