A review by beate251
Dead Heat by Keane Jessie

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Wow. I read this in one sitting, until deep into the night. It is a totally absorbing but harrowing story. Poor Christie lost her parents in a car accident at 4 years old and is forced to live with her aunt and uncle, cold people that take her in for appearances' sake but don't protect her. She marries a criminal just to get away from them, but it wasn't a good choice. Now Kenny accuses her of murdering his pregnant bit on the side, and the only one who can help her seems to be the police officer she had a crush on when she was young.

There are a lot of unpleasant people in this story, and I laughed out loud when they all turned up at her house to harm her and then basically annulled each other. That was lovely karma. I had thought from the beginning that there was more to her parents' accident - her uncle's family's irrational hatred of her was too weird not to mean something.

Also, no one ever reads the pages of acknowledgements at the end, right, because they are boring and no one cares? These ones simply read "Huge thanks to the team that supports me. You know who you are." Kudos Jessie,  you badass. 🤭
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