Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Review: Sinister by Lisa Jackson, Nancy Bush, Rosalind Noonan

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Title: Sinister
Author: Lisa Jackson, Nancy Bush, Rosalind Noonan

Read copy: eBook
Published: November 26, 2013
Publisher: Zebra
ISBN: 1420125788
ISBN-13: 9781420125788

A Killer's Patience

Twenty years ago, a fire ravaged the Dillinger family's old homestead, killing Judd Dillinger and crippling his girlfriend. Most people blamed a serial arsonist who'd been seen around town. But strange things are happening in Prairie Creek, Wyoming, again.

Will Be Rewarded

Ira Dillinger, the family's wealthy patriarch, has summoned his children home for his upcoming wedding. Eldest son, Colton, and his siblings don't approve of their father's gold-digging bride-to-be. But someone is making his displeasure felt in terrifying ways, setting fires just like in the past. Only this time, there will be no survivors.

In Blood

As fear and distrust spread through Prairie Creek, soon all the Dillingers, and those closest to them, are targets--and suspects. A killer has been honing his skill, feeding his fury, and waiting for the moment when the Dillingers come home--to die. . .

My rating:

A killer is waiting on the periphery of a ranch in Wyoming, stalking the Dillinger family. Because now is the perfect time to strike, with all the Dillingers gathered on the ranch to attend their father's wedding.


This book started off great, thrusting the reader straight into the mind of the killer...Unfortunately it quickly fizzled after that.

At the beginning I was rather apprehensive because of the three-author collaboration. Such stories don't often work for me, because it's rather obvious which author wrote which part. This one helped matters by clearly delineating which part was written by which author...And the fact each part dealt with a different couple (for the requisite romantic storyline).

Unfortunately I was only interested in one couple (the first one—the part written by Lisa Jackson), and the way that conflict was resolved left much to be desired. Actually, it required too much suspension of disbelief for me.
show/hide spoiler
Eighteen years ago he split, leaving her heartbroken (she was 18 at the time, he 20). He's obviously moved on since then, married, had a kid, though they both died in a car crash. Now he's back (EIGHTEEN years later), finds out he has a kid from a short affair after he skipped town (the kid's mother is marrying the guy's father), and is determined to try again with his first sweetheart who's apparently carried a torch for him for half of her life. And she's actually okay with it, boinking him two days after he returns to town. And contemplating marriage at the end of the book. Sorry, but there's just something not very okay with this picture for me.
The other two stories involving the first story 'hero's' sisters and their intended somehow didn't measure up to the first one.

Now, onto the suspense which was the strongest point of this book. Or so it seemed from the beginning. There were snippets of the killer's POV thrown in between everything else (the romance, the investigation, the dysfunctionality of the two rival families, the Dillingers and the Kincaids), and although those snippets were short, they were 'sweet'. And I was really looking forward to discovering the identity of the killer and his motives.
Unfortunately they both came out of the left field for me. I just couldn't buy it and since it all ended rather iffily, if you ask me, it made the entire book end on a very 'meh' tone.

Maybe if it was shorter, more concise (there were just too many story-lines in there) and if the suspense resolution was a bit better though-out and executed...I don't know. I just expected more. The prologue and first chapter were promising, but then it all went downhill. Pity.

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