Welcome to Litsy!

I am VERY confused by how I feel about this book & I DO NOT like it!

Make no mistake, the writing is awful. Cheesy, Cringey & Cliche - the 3 horrible Cs of bad fiction. The MC is the Mary Sue-est Mary Sue EVER. Half the dialogue is people telling her she's "good." The on-the-spot profile of a colleague - noooo!!!

Oh but I liked it.

I was interested, engaged, enthralled even! How? Why?! What for?! Well, there's a decent story in there!

Shook.

Starting this one tonight. But having read some lukewarm reviews, I will be ready to bail if it doesn't grab me.

I also have Covid ... who even gets that these days?!? 🙄🤣😷

After reading this, I‘m not sure if I even want to continue in this series. It wasn‘t a terrible read but it was certainly not compelling. Ziba was an interesting character and I was sorry for the loss of her husband but more of this story focused on her loss than I would have expected for a thriller. Then there was Ziba‘s ridiculous expressions for every person she crossed. She was very crass and unnecessarily so. I wasn‘t a fan of the dialogue.

Following up on my previous post a few minutes ago: I turn the page and get an example of the MC being praised for being able to count the number of letters in the name the murderer uses for her! Really? I wish I were praised that often for doing a job that hasn‘t made one iota of progress. Ugh. Not ready to bail, but we may be getting there.

This all feels so sexist too; she‘s the only woman on the case. Does she need all this male approval?

This MC has become very annoying & I blame the author. The MC is a profiler and of course profiles the subject-of-the-book serial murderer. Her colleagues continually tell her how brilliant she is even though it‘s led no closer to finding the culprit. Is the author trying to convince us the MC is good at her job? When the murderer finds her apartment she says she doesn‘t need protection. How idiotic. It feels like a manipulative plot device.

”Put the book down and get some sleep, Zeebs. It‘s the middle of the night,‘ Duncan used to say, adjusting his snore strip and rolling on to his other side as I sat up reading until stupid o‘clock.”

Me right now, reading till “stupid o‘clock.”

It was a quick read, but there were a few too many extraneous plot threads that weren‘t important to the story. The main mystery kept me guessing, but I wish the writing and/or editing had been a little tighter. I‘ll still read the second book when it comes out.

Heh. It‘s like Criminal Minds! Ziba delivers this Hotchner-esque monologue to another cop who doesn‘t believe in profiling. I‘m loving this book so far.

This book was a quick read. I found some of the situations a little unbelievable (she is former special ops but ignores many of her instincts?) but the author kept me guessing about the identity of the killer until the end. I enjoyed this book and would definitely read the next book in the series.

Next!

It‘s been a while since I read a mystery, but I guess my subconscious wanted something a little dark tonight. I figure it‘s okay if I don‘t really sleep, because my partner had oral surgery today and is a swollen painful mess. So at least I‘ll be awake if she needs me during the night.

Ziba Mackenzie profiles killers. Now one is profiling her...

Ziba scrambles to profile the killer in the hope of predicting his next move. But time is running out. And the closer she gets to uncovering his identity, the closer he gets to destroying hers.

Jumping on this free kindle book bandwagon! My son broke my kindle a year ago but I have the app on my phone. I don't know if this will work out because reading on devices was giving me headaches but we'll see. It'll be nice to be able to read here and there when I forget my physical book. Although I'll look pretty dumb staring at my phone but I shouldn't care about other's judgement.