Finished Reading September 4, 2014

Meh

Purchased from Amazon September 4, 2013

Trigger Warning: Child Abuse

A fairly standard suspense thriller about missing children, featuring a cop and a survivor. A great many of the plot points seemed easy to figure out long before their reveals. But this book stands out because of its characters who seem far more realistic than those in the standard suspense thriller. The cop barely makes it past cardboard, but the former victim, Holly, who saw her sister kidnapped at a very young age, shines.
( )

3.5 stars
Romantic suspense centering around a detective in search of a pedophile and one of his victims.
Romantic scenes, while we'll done, seemed out of character for a woman who heretofore had led a sheltered life. ( )

Maggie Shayne's "The Gingerbread Man" is a pretty good romantic suspense novel. The preliminary setup was quite well done and we understand from the start that Detective Vince O'Mally is flawed and haunted. So too is young Holly Newman, whose baby sister was abducted many years before. The mystery itself kept me guessing right up until the reveal, which is a good thing in this genre.

The romance between Vince and Holly was somewhat trite and predictable - and there is some graphic sex that didn't bother me at all. I did find myself irritated at the two fragile female victims though and the incessant harping by Vince that he wouldn't get involved with a needy woman, that plus his over coaching Holly to be strong. It was just too repetitive.

Then the surprise ending was telegraphed too early and seemed unbelievable to me.

I doubt I'd rush back to this author, but it was an okay crime novel that whiled away a few hours. ( )

This mystery was a Kindle freebie and the first I've read by this author. After a slightly slow start for me, the story moved pretty quickly for the most part, and I enjoyed reading it in snippets on my iPhone Kindle app. I'd definitely try more books by this author. ( )