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A review by pattilandia
A Life of Death by Weston Kincade
3.0
A Life of Death begins with Alex, a detective, telling his son about his childhood for a school project. Alex’s life was far from normal; most would call it horrific. He tries to stay out of his stepfather’s way but the man beats Alex on a regular basis. One day, while he is walking to school, Alex touches a fence outside of an old house and has a vision of a woman being murdered. He soon has other visions and finds out that they are all real. He can see the last moments of a death just by touching any object the victim was touching at that time. This new power, if you want to call it that, allows Alex to help put the dead to rest by solving their murders, as well as finding out what happened to his stepfamily.
The premise of this story is very interesting and parts of it were full of suspense and excitement. I appreciated how Alex did not take his new power lightly; he often felt weighed down by the responsibility of helping these victims but knew that he could not ignore them. It felt true to character and realistic. I loved reading about the visions. They were heartrending and beautifully written. I wanted to know more about the victims’ lives, not just their murders, and was always disappointed when the visions were over, even though they were always brutal.
My only issue was with the pacing of the story. It was a bit uneven and there was a lot of telling, not showing. For example, Alex’s friendships and the love story felt rushed and while Alex says that Paige is his friend, it did not really seem like they were more than acquaintances and before I knew it they were going out. But other than that, Kincade has a knack for suspenseful writing.
Kincade wrote a sequel, The Golden Bulls. In it, Alex is older, a detective, and he still has his powers. He’s chasing a serial killer who kills a victim every year on September 20th.
The premise of this story is very interesting and parts of it were full of suspense and excitement. I appreciated how Alex did not take his new power lightly; he often felt weighed down by the responsibility of helping these victims but knew that he could not ignore them. It felt true to character and realistic. I loved reading about the visions. They were heartrending and beautifully written. I wanted to know more about the victims’ lives, not just their murders, and was always disappointed when the visions were over, even though they were always brutal.
My only issue was with the pacing of the story. It was a bit uneven and there was a lot of telling, not showing. For example, Alex’s friendships and the love story felt rushed and while Alex says that Paige is his friend, it did not really seem like they were more than acquaintances and before I knew it they were going out. But other than that, Kincade has a knack for suspenseful writing.
Kincade wrote a sequel, The Golden Bulls. In it, Alex is older, a detective, and he still has his powers. He’s chasing a serial killer who kills a victim every year on September 20th.