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A review by chimerraaa
Deadly Messengers by Susan May
1.0
This book wasn't worth my while. Why? I'll explain right away.Let's begin with the plot:
Plot
A wave of mass murders has struck a peaceful town. Two detectives and a freelance writer are trying to find out why. A powerful drug is involved - drug which gives one person the opportunity to control other people's minds and make them do the killings in spite of their own will. Which sounds like the perfect crime but the execution of the idea was beyond poor. When I read crime/mystery/ thriller I expect some suspense. Not predictability. Given that there was only one suspect (who turned out to be the bad guy.Surprising, heh?) the book really gives the reader nothing to dwell on beyond a stupid cheesy love interest.
Characters
Kendall Whatever-her-name-was
She is the freelance writer, not very talented from what I gathered. What we know about her: she has blue eyes, nice hair, her mother was killed in robbery gone wrong, she doesn't do her dishes and doesn't wash her clothes. It's actually mentioned a few times like it's the most important thing about her. Somehow she stumbles upon a witness of the first mass murder while she writes an article about the event although her sphere is writing fluffy pieces for women's magazines - you know "Hollywood lips without effort" and such.How she ended up investigating and writing about the killings is beyond me. She was so out of place. It didn't suit her character at all. While writing her first article Kendall stumbles upon the file of another mass killing in their city which happened 20 years earlier. And this is the point (about 30% in the book) when the reader already knows who the real murderer -the puppet master- is. I don't like knowing who the perp is before the detective. I like being surprised in the end. I like the unexpected when I can tell: "Oh, it really blew my mind". It isn't the case with this book. Also, we are constantly reminded that Kendall's mother was killed 8 years ago and Kendall's still fighting her grief and whatnot but this story line isn't explored in depth. It's all too shallow like the author had this really good idea but couldn't exploit it.
Detective Lance O'Grady
He's one of the detectives. What we know about him: he has beautiful eyes, he has nice hair (what's with people's hair and eyes in this book?), his brother was driven to suicide by journalists so it's insta-hate/love between him and Kendall. He isn't a good detective as far as I can tell. All he did was have a hunch, watch some videos, read a folder, check something in Google and complain about the lack of sleep. Then he somehow he put 2 and 2 together and it equaled "the perp wasn't really trying to escape justice". Isn't he a genius? He's not exactly your star-detective. And all the time he and Kendall have those internal monologues: "Why I like him/her so much? Why is he/she constantly in my mind? He is rude/ she is bottom feeder journalist. Why can't I stop thinking about him/ her?" Oh, I don't know, you tell me, Einstein! I hate it when they do that. At this point I was ready to take the infamous axegive them both a nice new haircut...maybe trim a little bit of their heads....When I like a man's hair, a man's eyes, when I think he's sexy I at least admit it to myself like: "Oh, he's cute and I would really love to jump his bones, but I'm married so I won't act on it but I like him all the same." It isn't difficult, you should try.
Trip Lindsey
Detective O'Grady's other half. What we know about him: he's bald! What does it mean - Kendall doesn't really like him. But he likes Kendall. Surprise!... Not really.
Overall, all the book was very shallow. The author was clearly out of her depth. This is the first Susan May's book I ever read, so I don't know what her usual genre is but I highly recommend for her to stick to it and don't try to write thrillers which aren't thrilling at all. The idea was good. Really good. Imagine what a real vicious killer could do with a mind controlling drug. He could wreck all kinds of havoc! Impressive. Instead... we have this unexplored in depth plot, those shallow characters and the author's detached tone of writing. As I said - not worth my while.
Plot
A wave of mass murders has struck a peaceful town. Two detectives and a freelance writer are trying to find out why. A powerful drug is involved - drug which gives one person the opportunity to control other people's minds and make them do the killings in spite of their own will. Which sounds like the perfect crime but the execution of the idea was beyond poor. When I read crime/mystery/ thriller I expect some suspense. Not predictability. Given that there was only one suspect (who turned out to be the bad guy.Surprising, heh?) the book really gives the reader nothing to dwell on beyond a stupid cheesy love interest.
Characters
Kendall Whatever-her-name-was
She is the freelance writer, not very talented from what I gathered. What we know about her: she has blue eyes, nice hair, her mother was killed in robbery gone wrong, she doesn't do her dishes and doesn't wash her clothes. It's actually mentioned a few times like it's the most important thing about her. Somehow she stumbles upon a witness of the first mass murder while she writes an article about the event although her sphere is writing fluffy pieces for women's magazines - you know "Hollywood lips without effort" and such.How she ended up investigating and writing about the killings is beyond me. She was so out of place. It didn't suit her character at all. While writing her first article Kendall stumbles upon the file of another mass killing in their city which happened 20 years earlier. And this is the point (about 30% in the book) when the reader already knows who the real murderer -the puppet master- is. I don't like knowing who the perp is before the detective. I like being surprised in the end. I like the unexpected when I can tell: "Oh, it really blew my mind". It isn't the case with this book. Also, we are constantly reminded that Kendall's mother was killed 8 years ago and Kendall's still fighting her grief and whatnot but this story line isn't explored in depth. It's all too shallow like the author had this really good idea but couldn't exploit it.
Detective Lance O'Grady
He's one of the detectives. What we know about him: he has beautiful eyes, he has nice hair (what's with people's hair and eyes in this book?), his brother was driven to suicide by journalists so it's insta-hate/love between him and Kendall. He isn't a good detective as far as I can tell. All he did was have a hunch, watch some videos, read a folder, check something in Google and complain about the lack of sleep. Then he somehow he put 2 and 2 together and it equaled "the perp wasn't really trying to escape justice". Isn't he a genius? He's not exactly your star-detective. And all the time he and Kendall have those internal monologues: "Why I like him/her so much? Why is he/she constantly in my mind? He is rude/ she is bottom feeder journalist. Why can't I stop thinking about him/ her?" Oh, I don't know, you tell me, Einstein! I hate it when they do that. At this point I was ready to take the infamous axegive them both a nice new haircut...maybe trim a little bit of their heads....When I like a man's hair, a man's eyes, when I think he's sexy I at least admit it to myself like: "Oh, he's cute and I would really love to jump his bones, but I'm married so I won't act on it but I like him all the same." It isn't difficult, you should try.
Trip Lindsey
Detective O'Grady's other half. What we know about him: he's bald! What does it mean - Kendall doesn't really like him. But he likes Kendall. Surprise!... Not really.
Overall, all the book was very shallow. The author was clearly out of her depth. This is the first Susan May's book I ever read, so I don't know what her usual genre is but I highly recommend for her to stick to it and don't try to write thrillers which aren't thrilling at all. The idea was good. Really good. Imagine what a real vicious killer could do with a mind controlling drug. He could wreck all kinds of havoc! Impressive. Instead... we have this unexplored in depth plot, those shallow characters and the author's detached tone of writing. As I said - not worth my while.