Cynthia Harrison (2)

I picked up "Blue Heaven" via the Amazon free book day a few weeks back and finally got around to reading it this weekend.

The story's main protagonist is Eva Delacroix who comes back to her family's former vacation cottages on Lake Huron determined to turn them into the dream tourist destination that her father dreamed about before he died. Daniel Bryman the local banker also has a connection to the cottages and wants to keep Eva from destroying what he considers his family's legacy.

This novel was a hybrid of chick lit with romance thrown in but I found myself unable to really get into it.

I think the main reason that I really didn't enjoy this novel was that there seemed to be very little depth to any of the characters (Eva and Daniel were supposedly attracted to each other but I really didn't get it or find it believable) and there were so many side plots going on (runaway teen, renovation storyline, Eva making friends, etc.) I just found myself slogging through the novel.

By the time we get to what I considered the novel's main denouement, the novel went on for several more chapters after that. Frankly, this novel could have been broken up into a sequel instead of just painstakingly going along until it sputtered to the ending.

Another issue I had was the shortness of the chapters, for a moment I felt like I had stumbled into a James Patterson novel (that is not a compliment). Due to the shortness of the chapters I think that hindered the author's ability to actually tell a novel with well rounded characters. I really didn't get Eva as a person and Daniel just seemed like a heavy handed jerk throughout up until the almost ending where he seemed to have a total personality change.

The grammar in this novel was technically correct I just wish that the writing had provided more detail on characters, food, descriptions of settings, something to make it stand out better.… (mais)

If you ask someone the worst thing their partner could do to them, most of them would probably say "cheating."

Lily White opens the story by stating she once had a different name, a different life. She recalls a time when she was hired by Jimmy Heyl as a private investigator. He wanted her to catch his wife, Roseann, cheating.

Lily views Roseann with co-worker Thomas Kennedy and notices Roseann has a stalker. Lily reports this to Jimmy and he informs her to forget about the stalker and focus on his wife's infidelity.

Soon after, Lily witnesses Rosann's murder. Lily calls the authorities and Detective Derrick Paxton arrives at the murder scene. This is not their first meeting. Sadly, the psychological and emotional concept of murder is something Lily has dealt with before.

The crime scene investigators are called into work on pinpointing things on Lily’s surveillance video like; the type of bullet, killer’s stance, and facial recognition. They have a suspect and shortly after this, they learn of another murder and there's a connection between the two.

After Lily's kidnap, she focuses on the kidnapper and double homicide. Meanwhile, detective Paxton is reminded that it takes constant retraining to do good detective work. Together, they are challenged to solve these murders.

This book was a quick read and it has an intriguing set up that keeps one guessing. The references to Detroit and the adjacent coastal area were an added bonus. With its personable protagonists and a slew of seedy characters, this mystery will appeal to a wide spectrum of readers.

I received a copy of this book from the author, Cynthia Harrison, for an honest review, An interview with Cynthia is on my blog.… (mais)