"The Gingerbread Man", by Maggie Shayne

Being a huge fan of suspense thrillers that provide endless action with lots of twits to fools us, have a hard outcome to predict and of course are populated with unusual and charismatic characters and you will find I am a contented reader. “The Gingerbread Man” premise seemed to be right up my alley and I couldn't resist one with a serial killer at the heart fueling every moment with intrigue.

Synopsis:

When Detective Vincent O'Mally finds two missing children dead, his life turns upside down. When the FBI takes over the case, Vince agrees to take time off. Traveling to a small upstate New York town, he meets Holly Newman—a fragile woman whose sister was abducted and killed years ago. Convinced that Holly's sister's death is linked to the recent murders, he attempts to unearth clues hidden deep in Holly's mind.

My thoughts:

Definitely borrow this novel:

Although a good enough story for most part it is far from being exceptional. But again did I read wrongly the synopsis and deducted this to be a suspense thriller instead of a romance/suspense….I guess I did… The beat was most likely meant to please the younger crowd and the faithful fans….

I knew little or nothing about this author before plunging into this drama. My first experience although not tragic left me flat. The author’s credits involve a range of romance, fantasy and paranormal novels and I have no doubt she excels there but writing suspense is a much harder task to satisfy a die-hard as myself. Here the tone is set early, although not creepy I could have let myself be haunted by the events covering the abduction and murder of children but the story’s denouement was rather questionable and far from credible. At first I was drawn into this fast moving and captivating plot but it didn't take long to see most twists coming and where we were heading. The story line is by far too predictable and full of plot holes to question. There is some sexual content to distract us from the actual crimes which I would have passed gladly, distracting and non-necessary. I am not fond of weak female characters and here we encounter too many that are set up to be victims, pretty pathetic IMO. The dialogue is rather banal and the vocabulary is better suited for Harlequin romance novels, those filled with lust and little true love …not my preferred style at all. All this said and done, many reviewers have given high marks, I unfortunately am not one that will do so….some you win and some you lose…..