Tuesday 30 August 2016

Review: A Living Grave by Robert E. Dunn

The first in a gritty new series featuring sheriff’s detective Katrina Williams, as she investigates moonshine, murder, and the ghosts of her own past…
 
BODY OF PROOF
 Katrina Williams left the Army ten years ago disillusioned and damaged. Now a sheriff’s detective at home in the Missouri Ozarks, Katrina is living her life one case at a time—between mandated therapy sessions—until she learns that she’s a suspect in a military investigation with ties to her painful past.

The disappearance of a local girl is far from the routine distraction, however. Brutally murdered, the girl’s corpse is found by a bottlegger whose information leads Katrina into a tangled web of teenagers, moonshiners, motorcycle clubs, and a fellow veteran battling illness and his own personal demons. Unraveling each thread will take time  Katrina might not have as the Army investigator turns his searchlight on the devastating incident that ended her military career. Now Katrina will need to dig deep for the truth—before she’s found buried…


Paperback, 268 pages
Expected publication: September 13th 2016 by Kensington Publishing Corporation 
Genre: Thriller/Mystery

Kristine's Thoughts:

** I received an advanced readers copy from Kensington via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!**

This book sounded like it would be full of twists and turns and that there would be enough excitement to keep me turning the pages. Early reviews (although I didn't read them) were all very positive so it was exactly what the bookworm in me was hoping to get.

I guess I must be the odd man out because I did not enjoy the book as much as others have. It felt like one giant identity crisis to me. I couldn't decide what kind of book it was wanted to be. Was it a murder mystery, an overcoming adversity story, a love story or a gang war story?

It started out quite strong with great writing and the discovery of a dead body. I was settling in for what I thought would be a great mystery. Just as quickly, the story got overpowered by the writing and rabbit trail after rabbit trail started appearing. It also felt like the dead girl was forgotten for quite a long time while numerous other plots appeared. In fact, the murder mystery was only a small part of the story and anti-climatic at best.

Throughout the entire book I felt totally disconnected from all of the characters. I really disliked Katrina and therefore found it hard to enjoy the book. She felt almost robotic and I couldn't relate to her as a woman at all. I did not feel that she was the tough heroine of the story that she was suppose to be. She had major issues and problems that were never fully dealt with and she got away with stuff as a cop that made me cringe. With everything going on in the news these days it was walking a fine line with the stuff she did and got away with. I didn't look at her as a good person at all.

This book was just too much yet not enough for me. However I do encourage people to form their own opinion. I seem to be in the minority (so far) with my opinion on this book. At this point I don't have the desire to read any more of this series.




About the Author
Robert E. Dunn is the author of the novels The Red Highway, The Dead Ground, and Behind the Darkness, as well as the novella Motorman. Before writing novels he spent more than twenty years as a film and video producer for both corporate and broadcast projects. A full-time fiction writer, he now resides in Kansas City with his daughters, an old truck, and an even older dog.


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