Eeny Meeny Miny Moe (Kate Linton Series) [Kindle Edition]

This isn't a bad book by any means but I found it rather unsatisfying in many ways. Eventually I realised that's because it is really a sort of chick-lit flirtation/romance set in a rather run-of-the-mill crime investigation.

The story concerns two police officers, our heroine DC Kate Linton and her boss, DI Brown. The tone is firmly set on page 10 when Kate "...turned to face him, flinching at the familiar jolt in her stomach as she took in the rugged face, the tousled blond hair, the intense blue eyes." Later on the same page she finds herself "...desperately trying to keep her gaze off Brown's improbably pert backside but failing." I imagine you get the picture. The plot itself is reasonably well done if rather uninspiring, but it seems rather like a backdrop to Kate's almost adolescent infatuation with Brown and the complexities of their never-quite-on relationship, not to mention her girlie blushes around other men which in an experienced CID sergeant seemed pretty silly to me. All this did get a bit trying, I'm afraid, and Joanna Price isn't afraid of a hackneyed device from time to time, like Brown's phone distracting him (again!) just at the moment when he is about to tell her his true feelings. It's all just a bit stereotyped and, while it would be unfair to accuse it of being cliché-ed it did all feel a bit tired to me, and I confess that I got to the eye-rolling stage when, after someone is charged, Kate says "There's still one thing that doesn't add up..."

I don't want to be too critical. Joanna Price can write very decent prose, her dialogue is generally believable and her plotting more than adequate. It's just that it didn't really impress as a crime novel and I'm not very interested in modern romances, so for me it's only a rather lukewarm recommendation, I'm afraid.

Relying mostly on plot rather than action to carry it along, this could be described as a very British mystery thriller novel. Equally, though, the strength of the romantic subplot could almost put this book into the romance genre, but with added murders. Don't let this put you off, though, as the mystery element is still compelling.

Fortunately, the book tends to focus on the reactions of the living rather than gruesome descriptions of the dead or their murders, so avoiding the voyeuristic style that many novelists seem to like at the moment. That's not to say that the book is gore-free, but it doesn't dwell in the mortuary longer than is necessary, instead building up tension more subtly to raise the reader's heart rate.

There's nothing really new and ground-breaking here, but the whodunnit is suitably twisty, even though the central misdirection is obvious to the reader long before it is to the fictional police within the story, and the book is a good, solid read.

The characters in the book are really well described, and their interactions are mostly very believable. The story is interesting, a few separate strands coming together to make a very satisfying denouement. The switch of the perpetrator from nice to nasty is extremely well captured. the only thing I didn't like was the 'romance'. Too many longing looks, heartfelt sighs, and imagination of 'hair drawing the eye downwards' for my liking. Cliches all round. Shame really, as the rest of it was a good story. I may try other book by this author, but the erotic bits should add to the story, not detract from it.