This is a tight crime novel which is somehow bracketed into
a romance.
Riley Flynn is an artist on the cusp of her first solo show.
She specialises in drawing urban cityscapes of her hometown, Dallas. She
belongs to a group of artists who have regular artist jams where they meet,
draw together for a few hours, critique each other’s work and end up at a pub.
Riley has a strained relationship with her mother and a non-relationship with
her father, Frank Flynn, who has been in prison for fifteen years accused of
murdering a 24-year-old woman. New evidence points towards his innocence but
Riley wants to have nothing to do with him because even before her was sent to
prison he’d become an absentee father who was cheating his wife with a TA and doing
drugs.
The dead body of a young woman turns up with one of Riley’s
sketches in her pocket and Detective Claire Hanlon starts her investigations.
During the course of her investigations, two more young ladies are murdered and
Riley’s sketches are found on both bodies. On the path to a promotion, Claire
is being pressured to find a connection between one of the Flynns (Riley or her
father) and the murders by her boss who was one of the investigators in Frank
Flynn’s bungled case.
The story is taut and well-paced but the romance was
unnecessary. It slowed down and marred the thriller aspect. Also we couldn’t
really feel the chemistry between Riley and Claire and the sex scene was way
too abrupt and forced.
Riley and Claire are fair enough characters not evoking any
strong feelings either ways. But then, to be fair, this is more of a
story-driven book than a character-driven one. We felt a lot of loose ends were
left particularly with the investigation in Frank Flynn’s case. If Claire
would’ve somehow unravelled that one, it would’ve been a stronger book. Also,
the murderer and his motive wasn’t very convincing. Why serial kill three young
ladies when his beef is with someone else? Made no sense.
Basically a just about okay read.
PS: Doesn't the gorgeous woman on the cover look exactly like Nick Jonas' wife, Priyanka Chopra?
⭐⭐
