Perdition by R. Jean ReidMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
*I received this book from the publisher and NetGalley in return for a fair review.*
This is both the second book in this series, the Nell McGraw series, and the second book with this author’s name on it. Which is important to note, the name part, because this is also the 13th book I’ve read by this author. The other 11 books (which includes two rereads) were put out under the J.M. Redmann byline.
This book here is a mystery – like all of Redmann/Reid’s books. Specifically one that stars Nell McGraw – a relatively recently widowed newspaper owner/editor and single mother of two children.
So, naturally, I was really eager to read this book, another mystery by an author I’ve rather enjoyed. I stress this because the prologue is kind of tough to get through. Because of the subject matter – very tough to get through. Sexual and physical abuse of two youngsters by a very bad man – their father. It is quite possible that if I hadn’t read and enjoyed (for the most part) 11 books by this author (under two different names) I might have stopped reading before I even got to the non-prologue part.
This is a good competent enjoyable little mystery. Solid characterization. Surprisingly there are even some background LGBT people – quite important to the story they are.
The mystery involves several murdered young children who had been found over a longish period of time in the small Mississippi town (well the outskirts of the town). The first one was put down as a unsolvable – she had just been in the water too long to determine if foul play was involved in her death (did she slip in by accident? Murdered? The evidence is no longer there). That was the young girl –I note because the rest of the murdered children were boys and at least one person thought that only boys were being targeted (for reasons).
It’s unfortunate when you meet and get to know someone before they are killed. Happened twice in this book – a third person is also talked about and meet but the reader doesn’t really get to know them before they die. Unfortunate in that I get to know them, feel them, get attached to them, and not want them to die. But die they did.
Several complications pop up in this book – 1) someone, probably the murderer, has taken to calling Nell late at night (or very early in the morning) – putting Nell on edge and stuff; 2) the local police forces are currently in something of a macho pissing contest when the story starts – the long time sheriff and the relatively new police chief do not really get along, both personally and professionally (for example: the sheriff set up a roadblock in the police chief’s jurisdiction and didn’t tell the chief that he was doing that); 3) one of the police officers that had popped up in the prior book, and is one of those kinds of people who really shouldn’t have been given the badge and uniform – ends up kicked off the force and blames Nell – adding more stress and complications to her life (since that officer, ex-officer, came within inches of physically attacking Nell and appears to be still hovering around the edges of her life, watching, waiting to attack again).
I liked the book though I had certain issues with it. A) couple of issues with word choice and formatting that I assume will not actually show up in the final published version (like Nell’s male child, Josh, once or twice gets referred to by the wrong name – once as Tom); B) Nell seemed to alternate between being annoyed with having a teenage daughter (anticipating her being bad and stuff), and forgetting she exists (several occasions finds the child locked out of the house because Nell simply forgot . . . well that she existed – constantly worrying about Josh, constantly forgetting her daughter existed unless she wanted to complain about her (to herself or others); C) this author seems to have a tendency to kill certain types of characters – when writing as Redmann and writing Lesbian fiction, it isn’t as . . . annoying, when writing mainstream ‘straight’ fiction as Reid – those kinds of deaths seem to be blinking neon exclamations and not in a good way (view spoiler). LGBT characters – dying for the growth of straight people/for the advancement of plot in straight books/television shows. Unfortunate. D) I can't really mention D. Because . . . spoiler reasons. Trying to be as vague as possible - some of the clues that were dropped in the book do not match up 'correctly' ((view spoiler)).
Despite some of the things I’ve noted in this review, this was a good solid book that I enjoyed reading. I will note that it is better to read the first book in this series before reading this book here – for many reasons. Least of which, of the reasons, being the changing dynamic of the characters present in the series.
Rating: 3.88
April 19 2017
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