Something to mull over...


Friday, October 28, 2016

At Rope's End by Edward Kay - Welcome new Profiler Dr. James Verraday!



The story jumps right into the action.  There isn’t any dull moment.  Due to the brevity of the story, the fact that Dr. Verraday agreed to be a profiler and help out the police after one after-school conversation with them, still remains baffling to me.  It is so unusual, and even more so, his commitment.  That part at least felt fictional.  But it was easy to discount this oddity, since I was hooked to the story from the first page.

The narrative is told in third person, but the text is heavy with conversations between the characters.  It was easy to connect and relate with Verraday, MacLean, the detective that Verraday worked with, and even the rest of the characters (for example, the victim’s ex, Verraday’s sister, victims, students, and detectives).  The easy flowing dialogues are the strongest element of this story, and is what drove me to read through it as fast as I did.

Some of the profiling and events felt formulaic, but again, because of the connection I felt with Verraday, it was easy to overlook the clichéd segments.  This is one of those books where in retrospect, I find myself thinking, “I knew it” with reference to the plot twist.  Did I, really?  Objectively, I don't think so.  Bottom line is, this was a good read and good entertainment.  And the length is just perfect for about 2 hours of reading.

I received a review copy of this book from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley.

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