police thriller – Classic Bhaer

Book Review

*Book given by the publisher via aWunderkind PR in exchange for an honest review*

Description:

When committed female police captain Linda Turner, haunted by the murders of two small children and their pastor father, becomes obsessed with solving the harrowing case, she finds herself wrapped up in a mission to expose a fraudulent religious organization and an unrepentant killer.

Despite her years of experience investigating homicides for the force, Captain Linda Turner is haunted by the murders of the Hansen family. The two small children, clothed in tattered Disney pajamas, were buried with their father, a pastor, in the flower garden behind a church parsonage in Lincoln, Nebraska. But Mrs. Hansen is nowhere to be found—and neither is the killer.

In St. Louis, the televangelist Ray Williams is about to lose his show—until one of his regular attendees approaches him with an idea that will help him save it. Despite his initial misgivings, Ray agrees to give it a try. He can’t deny his attraction to this woman, and besides, she’d assured him the plan is just—God gave her the instructions in a dream.

Multiple story lines entwine throughout this compelling mystery, delving into the topics of murder, religious faith, and the inherent dangers in blindly accepting faith as truth. While Reverend Williams is swept up in his newfound success and plans for his wedding, Captain Turner can only hope that she and her team will catch the Hansens’ cunning killer—before more bodies surface. goodreads.com

What I Liked

I will openly admit that thrillers that involve police detectives are normally not my thing, but Kathryn Schleich has managed to write a book I enjoy that deals with a police captain. The I was drawn in within a few pages, you don’t need to wait for the story to start up. This story has a very ghastly murder of two children and their paster father and a mother that has gone missing. One of the threads through this book follow the investigation. The second main thread throughout this book a church in desperate need and starts to follow the direction of one of its members.

The main things that stood out to me was the authors ability to portray the work put in by the police to help solve this crime. It felt like the characters care and really wanted to having this murder solved, not just a plot device and the story continuing. The second thing that stood out to me about the plot was the authors ability to deal with the difficult topic of religion. In this story there is discussion of a church that is cult like and the things those in charge will do for power and esteem.

Now, I don’t want to say much about the plot because this is a thriller and it is best to know the least as possible about it to get the full affect. But, I will say the authors writing was surprising. The effort and talent is apparent in the quality of the writing. There was not a point where I was very aware of a plot-hole or where I felt the characters were, well out of character. This is something many talented authors who have many books under their belt sometimes still struggle with. This thriller flowed nicely and I was not jarred by anything or shaken out of the story.

What I Didn’t Like

Honestly, this point is a very personal thing and I kind of mentioned it above. I am not a huge fan of reading thrillers that deal with police. But, like I said earlier Schleich has still written a book so well that I still liked it quite a bit.

Overall Thoughts

Overall, I found this novel to be very interesting and pulled me in very early on. I really enjoyed the different points of view/perspectives and I felt they were balanced very well. It is common when I read a novel that has various points of view and I feel like I want to skip a section, in this novel I did not want to skip at all. I needed to know everything that was happening. The writing was so wonderful that I want to read more of her works. If you enjoy thrillers I would suggest that you look into this one and see if it is write for you. It was enthralling, page turning, and an all around wonderful thriller.

4stars