The Innocent Wife (Detective Josie Quinn #16), by Lisa Regan
The Innocent Wife by Lisa Regan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Oh, well, here we go again – just when a mostly-meh year has ended and a new year begins, it begins with yet another meh novel…
I usually like Lisa Regan’s Josie-Quinn novels a lot – they’re usually very well paced, engaging and suspenseful. Josie and the entire team are interesting and everyone gets some time in the spotlight, e. g. in a recent instalment we learned a lot about Josie’s ever-angry boss. At another time Mettner, her colleague, fell in love with the press liaison, Amber, and so on.
This time around in “The Innocent Wife” (what a cheesy title!) by Lisa Regan, there’s nothing but the plain murder mystery – and that is, indeed, rather plain. And bland, and boring. For about 80% we just follow Josie and colleagues around on a wild goose chase after the killer. Sadly, that chase is neither very interesting nor is the eventual reveal much of a result of police procedure but much of it is plain old luck – and a healthy dose of deus ex machina.
Usually, these books are page turners for me and I’m always looking forward to the next instalment because I’ve come to rely on my yearly (some twice yearly!) dose of Josie Quinn.
There’s lots of police procedure here but hardly anything else. Yes, there are some far-fetched scenarios about adultery in combination with a brain-damaged person, children born out of wedlock, complicated, almost incestuous feeling affairs among the crew of a TV show, a person whom you peg immediately for a killer – or are they?
As if all that mess wasn’t bad enough in itself, even after they finally solve their case, there are lots of loose ends, many questions remain unanswered and one that is central to the entire mystery is not even addressed in any way.
The worst surprise, though: The actual book ends at a mere 89% – all that remains are 11% advertisements…
Still, this is not a bad book – just one that is seriously mediocre. I’m still looking forward to Josie Quinn no. 17!
Three out of five stars.
Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam
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