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bethpeninger 's review for:
The Dark Lake
by Sarah Bailey
Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for this reader's copy. In exchange, I am providing an honest review.
I ran across a review of this series and the reviewer posted the question, "Why do authors always make detectives so messed up and complicated? It distracts from the actual mystery." They have a point. Whether it is in print or on the screen, most detectives have messy personal lives that spill over into their professional life. Gemma Woodstock is no exception. She's pretty messy personally.
We meet Woodstock in the shower and getting called to a murder scene. She arrives on the scene to discover the dead woman is someone she knew in high school. Is this a conflict of interest? Woodstock doesn't think so and works hard to prove it isn't. Can you sense the "but?" BUT. But Rosalind's death renews Gemma's memories of when her boyfriend, Jacob, killed himself at the end of high school and suddenly it's like Gemma can't see the forest for the trees. Adding to the dead ends of the case are Gemma's partner at home pressuring her about marriage and her partner at work, whom she is also sleeping with on the side. Christmas is drawing close and the heat is on, both literally and figuratively, to resolve this case. Rosalind, alive, was quite a mystery so her death doesn't make tracking down the killer any easier.
Maybe the point of messy lives in the brilliant detectives' authors create books around is the actual point of the book and the cases described are secondary to the detective? Or maybe not. I think, either way, it takes finesse to be able to equally develop a character in their personal and professional lives for a reader (or viewer). Bailey's Woodstock is pretty messy and I felt like her personal mess was incredibly intrusive to her professional life. Of course, sleeping with your partner isn't going to help that. But I think that part of the story is much more realistic than other parts. When you work that closely with someone I feel like it is bound to happen - or the temptation of it is always going to be present. I was slightly put off, annoyed, with Woodstock and the story dragged a bit for me. She feels very unstable to me and it felt like her hunches were more luck than talent. I ended the title feeling ambivalent, would I continue with the series or leave it be? After reading summaries of the next two books in the series and seeing that Gemma Woodstock continues on in her messy ways I decided to not continue on.
I ran across a review of this series and the reviewer posted the question, "Why do authors always make detectives so messed up and complicated? It distracts from the actual mystery." They have a point. Whether it is in print or on the screen, most detectives have messy personal lives that spill over into their professional life. Gemma Woodstock is no exception. She's pretty messy personally.
We meet Woodstock in the shower and getting called to a murder scene. She arrives on the scene to discover the dead woman is someone she knew in high school. Is this a conflict of interest? Woodstock doesn't think so and works hard to prove it isn't. Can you sense the "but?" BUT. But Rosalind's death renews Gemma's memories of when her boyfriend, Jacob, killed himself at the end of high school and suddenly it's like Gemma can't see the forest for the trees. Adding to the dead ends of the case are Gemma's partner at home pressuring her about marriage and her partner at work, whom she is also sleeping with on the side. Christmas is drawing close and the heat is on, both literally and figuratively, to resolve this case. Rosalind, alive, was quite a mystery so her death doesn't make tracking down the killer any easier.
Maybe the point of messy lives in the brilliant detectives' authors create books around is the actual point of the book and the cases described are secondary to the detective? Or maybe not. I think, either way, it takes finesse to be able to equally develop a character in their personal and professional lives for a reader (or viewer). Bailey's Woodstock is pretty messy and I felt like her personal mess was incredibly intrusive to her professional life. Of course, sleeping with your partner isn't going to help that. But I think that part of the story is much more realistic than other parts. When you work that closely with someone I feel like it is bound to happen - or the temptation of it is always going to be present. I was slightly put off, annoyed, with Woodstock and the story dragged a bit for me. She feels very unstable to me and it felt like her hunches were more luck than talent. I ended the title feeling ambivalent, would I continue with the series or leave it be? After reading summaries of the next two books in the series and seeing that Gemma Woodstock continues on in her messy ways I decided to not continue on.