Laurie Norlander

When I received this book for review, I was expecting a typical contemporary mystery. Unfortunately, this book did not have much of a plot and what existed of the storyline was very foolish. The intriguing blurb lured me into a disappointing, silly story. The heroine, Madison Kowalski, a photojournalist with a degree from Yale, decides to plunge herself into an investigation when she realizes that her ex-boyfriend's twin has died. Certain attending the funeral of the deceased Chris will lead her to her ex, she tracks her old love down, vowing recompense because he stole thousands of dollars from her years ago.

At times I wondered if this author was writing this as a parody of predictable genre fiction, but sadly I think she might have been quite serious. The threadbare characterization soon dragged the plot into a meandering, vague series of human relationships that flatly defied credibility. For instance, when Madison discovers Chris's secret records on the back of his daughter’s coloring pages. He's a millionaire. The daughter lives in a huge mansion with every luxury on earth--why would she not have her own coloring book instead of just happening to draw on her father's incredibly incriminating papers?? Madison was stupid and inordinately vain. She spent far more time imagining every single man in town was eyeing her suggestively than making any headway in the contrived twins mystery--and the romance? The romance. Oh dear, the "romance." She picked up a greedy drifter with no job, took him home, let him waste her money on beer, beer and more beer, put off her dreams of a family because he hated children, and agreed to take freezing Chicago walks with him, in the early morning, while he quoted poetry to the skies. Even after she thought he stole all her money, she was still into this guy. Also, he had long hair and weird eyelashes. Yep, you heard that right. Really weird eyelashes. By the end I was convinced he was about as handsome as a chicken and I no longer cared about what was left of the plot.

I was given this book by BookLookBloggers in exchange for my honest opinion.… (mer)