Review by msager -- An Imperfect Crime by Fred G. Baker

[msager]

[Following is a volunteer review of "An Imperfect Crime" by Fred G. Baker.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Fred G. Baker’s An Imperfect Crime has a great storyline of mystery, adventure, and crime however it was chalk full of grammatical errors and pretty longwinded.
The novel starts with three friends drinking together. It seems like a normal night, but once ideas start rolling, the reader can tell it will all go downhill. They want to create this “perfect” crime, making it look like one of the friends was murdered so that they can eventually write a best seller. But, as the title suggests, it doesn’t go as planned. One of the friends is framed (in accordance to the plan) but the other two mysteriously never show and save him (against the plan). This leads to his death sentence and killing within the first few chapters. The minister at hand at the jail takes the one friend’s story and promises to clear his name, leading in to the rest of the story and a chase to finding the true killer.
The majority of the book follows a police officer, Sanchez, and the minister, Montero, piecing everything together. This was well done in how it unfolded. A times it was predictable from a chapter or two in advance, but I enjoyed how Baker set up the story. Baker is able to make the people seem real. He gives them lives outside of their work. They are in cities people are familiar with and do things—like drink, eat at restaurants, and even worry about that one friend who doesn’t seem to be dating—that are normal for all of us. They are relatable characters and that was a great part of the book.
This being said, Baker’s grammar faltered throughout, especially with quotations. He also added too much detail in places such as when he told exactly when are where and what roads were taken to get to another city. The two big fight scenes in the book were exciting at first but then hard to follow. I wish I could have enjoyed them more, as they were one of the only criminal scenes taking place in real time rather than the police officers and detectives figuring out what happened in the past. The ending also left me hanging, and I thought it could have gone in a different direction.
In addition, parts of the book followed the stereotypical male-author-writing-about-a-female descriptions. This is seen especially when the Sanchez was shot and Baker wrote how blood was dripping down to her breast. This, as well as Sanchez’s thoughts throughout this specific scene, did not seem very realistic or true to what a female police officer, who has been trained for a situation like this, would think and react.
For these reasons, I give An Imperfect Crime two out of four stars . I enjoyed how the book went in depth and followed the mystery as the police officers and the minister were figuring out the crime. But the details became too heavy at times and the grammar threw me off.
This book is for people who love crime and mystery stories. An Imperfect Crime unfolds and follows many of the same tropes.

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An Imperfect Crime
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