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A review by christi_books
Always Time to Die by Elizabeth Lowell
3.0
I was hoping this would be a good suspenseful mystery book and the start of a good series. After all the blur promises "a riveting tale of dark family secrets ready to explode with the devastating force of a Southwestern earthquake" and deems Lowell, "one of today's top masters of suspense".
The book opens with the murder of a New Mexico senator who left behind a wife in a coma, a spiteful sister-in-law and a son with Presidential aspirations. The sister-in-law hires a genealogist to write her family's history. But someone wants to stop any investigation of the family secrets.
It sound good on paper. But the execution just didn't match the set-up.
I enjoyed the genealogical parts of the story when Carly was sorting through pictures and records to piece together the Castillo family tree. I didn't believe that she could cross-reference birth and death records of children with suspect parentage so quickly to narrow down the suspect pool AND that said records would include height, weight and coloring.
The plot drags along with lots of nothing happening between small incidents related to the mystery. There's nothing to draw you into the family to want to learn more. Why don't we learn more about Sylvia? What happened to her? What caused the stroke? The grandson was shipped to rehab quickly and never heard of again. Why write him in at all then?
I found it very unlikely that people would befriend and confide Carly so quickly. Especially in a small town where everyone knows about everyone else's family business and the Quintrells are the biggest name around. How random that the one guy to help her 1) is the brother of the newspaper editor 2) is the only guy who knows how to work the archives and 3) has some sort of spy/law enforcement/military/secret clearance training and equipment that will come in handy later in the book. Oh, and of course he'll be hunky, brooding and wounded.
I also found it implausible that Carly and Dan became an item in a matter of minutes. The romance seemed forced and trite. Is it a requirement for novelists to give all amateur girl sleuths have curly hair so she can wind a long curl around her finger when she's nervous, pensive or horny??
I didn't find the conclusion very plausible because the villain just couldn't have been in all those places.
I listened to the audiobook version and the narrator was wonderful. I enjoyed her characterizations and style. I just didn't enjoy the book she had to read.
The book opens with the murder of a New Mexico senator who left behind a wife in a coma, a spiteful sister-in-law and a son with Presidential aspirations. The sister-in-law hires a genealogist to write her family's history. But someone wants to stop any investigation of the family secrets.
It sound good on paper. But the execution just didn't match the set-up.
I enjoyed the genealogical parts of the story when Carly was sorting through pictures and records to piece together the Castillo family tree. I didn't believe that she could cross-reference birth and death records of children with suspect parentage so quickly to narrow down the suspect pool AND that said records would include height, weight and coloring.
The plot drags along with lots of nothing happening between small incidents related to the mystery. There's nothing to draw you into the family to want to learn more. Why don't we learn more about Sylvia? What happened to her? What caused the stroke? The grandson was shipped to rehab quickly and never heard of again. Why write him in at all then?
I found it very unlikely that people would befriend and confide Carly so quickly. Especially in a small town where everyone knows about everyone else's family business and the Quintrells are the biggest name around. How random that the one guy to help her 1) is the brother of the newspaper editor 2) is the only guy who knows how to work the archives and 3) has some sort of spy/law enforcement/military/secret clearance training and equipment that will come in handy later in the book. Oh, and of course he'll be hunky, brooding and wounded.
I also found it implausible that Carly and Dan became an item in a matter of minutes. The romance seemed forced and trite. Is it a requirement for novelists to give all amateur girl sleuths have curly hair so she can wind a long curl around her finger when she's nervous, pensive or horny??
I didn't find the conclusion very plausible because the villain just couldn't have been in all those places.
I listened to the audiobook version and the narrator was wonderful. I enjoyed her characterizations and style. I just didn't enjoy the book she had to read.