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the_naughty_booklover's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Fun and light with some mystery.
Always love how James Patterson writes that it seems like you can speed read it .
Always love how James Patterson writes that it seems like you can speed read it .
blueberry_33's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
dianereads54's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Many investigations happening at once! Mysterious main characters.
emilyrj's review against another edition
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
aj93xo's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
blemoine93's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
thebasiccritic's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail
emkral22's review against another edition
1.0
Free eARC was provided to me by NetGalley and the publisher for reviewing purposes.
Let me begin by saying that I am a mystery reader. I enjoy them. I love trying to solve it before the reveal. And to name your book and characters after two of the most famous literary detectives and one of the most famous mystery/horror writers of all time is really setting expectations high. I went into this book excited for a modern day mash up of some of my favorite detectives and I was sorely disappointed. Not only is the writing cheesy, the characters flat (Holmes is a drug addict, Poe is an alcoholic, Marple knits. That's about all you get from them.), the twists and reveals predictable, but some of the things that happen in this book are so far beyond reasonable or realistic that my suspension of disbelief was gone in the first 15% of the book. (SPOILER: Holmes' nose is so good that he solves a missing persons case by smelling a dead body buried in manure at a farm. This is not a joke or exaggeration). I wanted to quit then, but told myself to give it a chance and read to 50%- by that point I was skimming the text so quickly that the kindle bottom bar said I only had 30 minutes left in the book, so I decided to stick it out. This was a mistake. Reading the last half of this book brought it down from two stars to one star in my eyes.
To sum up if you don't want to read spoilers below: this was a waste of my time to read, and although it clearly wants to feel like dramatic, dark TV police procedural, I've watched many better written and more compelling episodes of SVU, Elementary, and NCIS.
SPOILERS BELOW but honestly I thought the solution to all the mysteries were so obvious this barely counts as a spoiler:
One of the last mysteries (the book is made up of several short story mysteries, some of which are intertwined) - a teenage girl moves from Texas to New York City to become a model. She is murdered by her ex-boyfriend who followed her there to "bring her back home". The female detective catches him and then feels sorry for him- WHY? This enraged me. There was no further background or reasoning why he killed this young woman who was clearly terrified of him (she reacted with anxiety after a photoshoot because he texted her "FOUND YOU" and the next thing we know she's dead). I cannot fathom why the detective felt sorry for an abuser who murdered a teenage girl.
Some other problems I had with the book: two serial killer brothers have prison and body disposal system that dissolves all the flesh, leaving only skeletons as evidence, at their house that is so perfectly hidden for 60 years that no one discovers them, and they also have a hideout in a mausoleum with tunnels under a graveyard and yet they choose to bury the skeletons in a subway tunnel rather than the actual graveyard?
Also, a man (who refused to adopt his wife's daughter) and his wife's daughter (who just turned 18) go missing, leaving the wife/mother behind to beg for the help of our detectives. Also missing are the girl's beloved dog, both their electronics and personal possessions. If you have already figured out that this is heading in a Woody Allen/Soon-Yi direction, congrats, you're doing better than all the detectives in this book.
Let me begin by saying that I am a mystery reader. I enjoy them. I love trying to solve it before the reveal. And to name your book and characters after two of the most famous literary detectives and one of the most famous mystery/horror writers of all time is really setting expectations high. I went into this book excited for a modern day mash up of some of my favorite detectives and I was sorely disappointed. Not only is the writing cheesy, the characters flat (Holmes is a drug addict, Poe is an alcoholic, Marple knits. That's about all you get from them.), the twists and reveals predictable, but some of the things that happen in this book are so far beyond reasonable or realistic that my suspension of disbelief was gone in the first 15% of the book. (SPOILER: Holmes' nose is so good that he solves a missing persons case by smelling a dead body buried in manure at a farm. This is not a joke or exaggeration). I wanted to quit then, but told myself to give it a chance and read to 50%- by that point I was skimming the text so quickly that the kindle bottom bar said I only had 30 minutes left in the book, so I decided to stick it out. This was a mistake. Reading the last half of this book brought it down from two stars to one star in my eyes.
To sum up if you don't want to read spoilers below: this was a waste of my time to read, and although it clearly wants to feel like dramatic, dark TV police procedural, I've watched many better written and more compelling episodes of SVU, Elementary, and NCIS.
SPOILERS BELOW but honestly I thought the solution to all the mysteries were so obvious this barely counts as a spoiler:
One of the last mysteries (the book is made up of several short story mysteries, some of which are intertwined) - a teenage girl moves from Texas to New York City to become a model. She is murdered by her ex-boyfriend who followed her there to "bring her back home". The female detective catches him and then feels sorry for him- WHY? This enraged me. There was no further background or reasoning why he killed this young woman who was clearly terrified of him (she reacted with anxiety after a photoshoot because he texted her "FOUND YOU" and the next thing we know she's dead). I cannot fathom why the detective felt sorry for an abuser who murdered a teenage girl.
Some other problems I had with the book: two serial killer brothers have prison and body disposal system that dissolves all the flesh, leaving only skeletons as evidence, at their house that is so perfectly hidden for 60 years that no one discovers them, and they also have a hideout in a mausoleum with tunnels under a graveyard and yet they choose to bury the skeletons in a subway tunnel rather than the actual graveyard?
Also, a man (who refused to adopt his wife's daughter) and his wife's daughter (who just turned 18) go missing, leaving the wife/mother behind to beg for the help of our detectives. Also missing are the girl's beloved dog, both their electronics and personal possessions. If you have already figured out that this is heading in a Woody Allen/Soon-Yi direction, congrats, you're doing better than all the detectives in this book.