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A review by emmasbibliotreasures
Little Girls Sleeping by Jennifer Chase
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley, Bookoture and Jennifer Chase for the chance to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.
The book opens with an unknown man who is creating his masterpiece: a grave. We then jump to four years later when Katie Scott is flying back home after two years in the army in Afghanistan working with the K9 unit finding explosives. Unsure what career path to take now she’s home Katie takes a temporary position at the Sheriff's Office. One day she happens upon the cold case of missing eight-year-old Chelsea Compton. Reminded by the disappearance and murder of her childhood friend, Jenny, and feeling the crime was improperly investigated, she begins her own search for the girl.
When Katie locates not just Chelsea’s grave, but a row of graves in a remote area, the case becomes more than anyone had first thought. When another girl goes missing Katie vows to find the killer before it’s too late.
This was an easy read but it felt predictable. The elements for a great thriller were all there but that magic element was elusive. Katie was a whiny character that I just couldn’t take too. Though she was lavished with praise in the novel her discoveries were written as accidents instead of the result of her investigative techniques so I failed to agree with the consensus that she was a skilled detective. Only surface details were given for all the characters with Katie’s ptsd not even managing to provide depth for her character and becoming repetitive.
On a positive note, the crime scenes were chilling and the killer began as someone eerie and sinister. His twisted ideology made him a killer I was excited to read but again I felt like his character was underdeveloped and there was no real climax, just disappointment at the way it concluded. It felt like the author tried to do too much so the story and characters were rushed in exchange for packing a lot in. Crime fiction is a saturated market and sadly this one just didn’t stand out among the quality that is out there.
The book opens with an unknown man who is creating his masterpiece: a grave. We then jump to four years later when Katie Scott is flying back home after two years in the army in Afghanistan working with the K9 unit finding explosives. Unsure what career path to take now she’s home Katie takes a temporary position at the Sheriff's Office. One day she happens upon the cold case of missing eight-year-old Chelsea Compton. Reminded by the disappearance and murder of her childhood friend, Jenny, and feeling the crime was improperly investigated, she begins her own search for the girl.
When Katie locates not just Chelsea’s grave, but a row of graves in a remote area, the case becomes more than anyone had first thought. When another girl goes missing Katie vows to find the killer before it’s too late.
This was an easy read but it felt predictable. The elements for a great thriller were all there but that magic element was elusive. Katie was a whiny character that I just couldn’t take too. Though she was lavished with praise in the novel her discoveries were written as accidents instead of the result of her investigative techniques so I failed to agree with the consensus that she was a skilled detective. Only surface details were given for all the characters with Katie’s ptsd not even managing to provide depth for her character and becoming repetitive.
On a positive note, the crime scenes were chilling and the killer began as someone eerie and sinister. His twisted ideology made him a killer I was excited to read but again I felt like his character was underdeveloped and there was no real climax, just disappointment at the way it concluded. It felt like the author tried to do too much so the story and characters were rushed in exchange for packing a lot in. Crime fiction is a saturated market and sadly this one just didn’t stand out among the quality that is out there.