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A review by jemimah11
A Date to Die by Anne Laughlin
3.0
I've been sitting on this review for a week now because I'm not sure if it's gonna do the book justice. I wanted to see if I'd feel better about the book after a while. I don't. As I see it, I think my feelings about the book, and consequently my rating is a victim of the high expectations I had based on the blurb, or this is a case of me being in a glass-half-empty mood, so excuse the rants. Anyway, here goes my thoughts from last week, immediately after reading:
The biggest reason I read lesfic is the depth of emotion I get to experience whenever I pick one up, whatever the sub-genre. Even more so than the romance and sex. It's such an intrinsic part of lesfic that I've always just assumed that it's gonna be there. It's my personal connection to the characters. Without it, I'd feel about as much pleasure as reading a fancy restaurant menu.
This book is a police procedural, and as such it is competently written. But the main character is a stoic, which, in lesfic, as I realized after the end of the book, might as well be the emotional equivalent of asexual in an erotica book :)
Let's see. Kay is a thirty something hotshot senior detective. She's legendary for having the highest rate of cleared cases. And there's a good reason for that. Aside from being smart, thorough and dogged, she's fiercely stubborn and can be downright reckless in the pursuit of bad guys. However, Kay picks up a case where her relatives and friends are being targeted. The only connection seems to be Kay herself. The usual suspects are the exes in her life. In this case, an ex-husband and an ex-felon she helped put away.
The police procedures are commendably thorough as clues and suspects are methodically chased down and eliminated. The wiliness of the perpetrator also helped to put the detectives and the reader constantly on their toes. I could see why Kay had to be so emotionally detached as the victim count kept rising and case spiraled closer and closer to her. However Kay is so stoic every time her emotions well up or she finds herself on the verge of tears, the walls come up and the reader is effectively shut out of her psyche. I know she is written like that but there's no fun (and character development) if the ice queen never thaws. Not even when she was hit by love from the most unexpected direction. It might be because that the love interest is another stoic, as Kay wryly observed. These two ladies are the epitome of cool and hardass. No histrionics, no tears, no vulnerability. At least, none that lasted longer than a sentence or two.
What was perplexing (for me) was the racecar-like speed with which their romance went--from zero to 100 mph in like, 4 seconds flat. From intense rivalry to grudging coop to....bed. Fast enough to cause whiplash on lesfic readers like me used to a more realistic pace. And these two are supposed to be stoic! I guess the silent ones do run the deepest. Or in this case, the fastest. :)
On paper, I should have loved the two ladies. The idea of cool, sexy, knight in shining armor Jamie swooping in to rescue proud, independent, stubborn Kay from the many dragons in her life is the stuff of which great romance is made of. But this is first and foremost a crime thriller. The dry, serious tone employed in the storytelling was just too matter-of-fact and well, too flat. Still, even assuming this was intended as a crime thriller with an understated romance, it would have been nice if reader could feel some emotional connection with the characters. In addition, we are told both Kay and Jamie come with lots of baggage but there was never any serious attempt to resolve or explore their issues. There are occasional touches of wry humor, though the moments are rare.
The case itself, while generally believable, felt a bit like it's....I don't know... rigged, somehow. But very subtly. Contrived seems too strong a word. You know, like it's been carefully plotted by an invisible hand to be just bad enough but not too horrific. For example,
Bottom line, this book had a lot of potential to be a good read or at least, an entertaining one. But the execution just fell flat for me. Read as a straight police procedural though, it's solid.
3.4 stars
ARC from Netgalley and BSB
The biggest reason I read lesfic is the depth of emotion I get to experience whenever I pick one up, whatever the sub-genre. Even more so than the romance and sex. It's such an intrinsic part of lesfic that I've always just assumed that it's gonna be there. It's my personal connection to the characters. Without it, I'd feel about as much pleasure as reading a fancy restaurant menu.
This book is a police procedural, and as such it is competently written. But the main character is a stoic, which, in lesfic, as I realized after the end of the book, might as well be the emotional equivalent of asexual in an erotica book :)
Let's see. Kay is a thirty something hotshot senior detective. She's legendary for having the highest rate of cleared cases. And there's a good reason for that. Aside from being smart, thorough and dogged, she's fiercely stubborn and can be downright reckless in the pursuit of bad guys. However, Kay picks up a case where her relatives and friends are being targeted. The only connection seems to be Kay herself. The usual suspects are the exes in her life. In this case, an ex-husband and an ex-felon she helped put away.
The police procedures are commendably thorough as clues and suspects are methodically chased down and eliminated. The wiliness of the perpetrator also helped to put the detectives and the reader constantly on their toes. I could see why Kay had to be so emotionally detached as the victim count kept rising and case spiraled closer and closer to her. However Kay is so stoic every time her emotions well up or she finds herself on the verge of tears, the walls come up and the reader is effectively shut out of her psyche. I know she is written like that but there's no fun (and character development) if the ice queen never thaws. Not even when she was hit by love from the most unexpected direction. It might be because that the love interest is another stoic, as Kay wryly observed. These two ladies are the epitome of cool and hardass. No histrionics, no tears, no vulnerability. At least, none that lasted longer than a sentence or two.
What was perplexing (for me) was the racecar-like speed with which their romance went--from zero to 100 mph in like, 4 seconds flat. From intense rivalry to grudging coop to....bed. Fast enough to cause whiplash on lesfic readers like me used to a more realistic pace. And these two are supposed to be stoic! I guess the silent ones do run the deepest. Or in this case, the fastest. :)
On paper, I should have loved the two ladies. The idea of cool, sexy, knight in shining armor Jamie swooping in to rescue proud, independent, stubborn Kay from the many dragons in her life is the stuff of which great romance is made of. But this is first and foremost a crime thriller. The dry, serious tone employed in the storytelling was just too matter-of-fact and well, too flat. Still, even assuming this was intended as a crime thriller with an understated romance, it would have been nice if reader could feel some emotional connection with the characters. In addition, we are told both Kay and Jamie come with lots of baggage but there was never any serious attempt to resolve or explore their issues. There are occasional touches of wry humor, though the moments are rare.
The case itself, while generally believable, felt a bit like it's....I don't know... rigged, somehow. But very subtly. Contrived seems too strong a word. You know, like it's been carefully plotted by an invisible hand to be just bad enough but not too horrific. For example,
Spoiler
the people who were murdered, coincidentally, weren't particularly close to the lead character. The ones dearest to her were spared the worst fates. The consequence being that Kay was spared the kind of heartbreaking grief that can melt even the most stoic of readers. I also found it hard to believe how easily Kay and Jamie dispatched their respective targets at the end of the book.Bottom line, this book had a lot of potential to be a good read or at least, an entertaining one. But the execution just fell flat for me. Read as a straight police procedural though, it's solid.
3.4 stars
ARC from Netgalley and BSB