The writing sometimes seemed a tad disorganized and all over the place, but you can ignore it easily unless you are a nitpicker. The very first sentence that catches your attention:
“With all the items of value in here, who would break in to steal some old class photo?”
You now know that it is no ordinary theft! And from there, the book keeps you at your seat’s edge. I must say I was clueless about the actual culprit till the very end (actually I suspected the wrong people all along lol). Characterization-wise, I felt that Sheriff Jeff McQuede was a typical “Hollywood-type” sheriff; Loris is also quite the archetype female heroine found in these types of novels. What stood out for me was the characterization of Ganner – brilliant, simply brilliant. I suppose he was made to be unlikeable but I ended up liking him quite a few times in the ebook (I mean we all have been “shunned” by others one or other time, so his trauma is relatable). He’s a certain kind of charisma about him which pulls you in! When he says ” “I’ve always been a decent person,” you really feel for him in spite of what he did.
The dialogs are quite humorous at places, of which below I offer one sample passage:
“They changed the flyers he’s put up all over town from jack-of-all-trades’ to `jackass-of-all-trades.”‘
McQuede chuckled. “Same difference.
At other times they are more serious and somewhat sentimental:
“It’s Loris Conner” Ganner cast McQuede a disheartened glance, one of rejection sprinkled with a shred of hope. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, Mom. I proposed to her the night they held that raffle at the museum. She flat turned me down”
Suffice it to say that if you are looking for a typical mystery thriller that has a combination of everything from murder to blackmail along with a little hint of romance in-between and does not make you think too much, then you cannot go wrong with this one.