Review by Miller56 -- B-Side by Janis Jones

[Miller56]

[Following is a volunteer review of "B-Side" by Janis Jones.]

---

2 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Mara had the perfect birthday planned for Casey. However, Casey was attacked and brutally beaten before the evening could begin. B-Side by Janis Jones is the story of Mara, Casey and Mara’s partner, Derek. This is a romantic crime novel, that focuses on Mara’s life and ultimately her efforts to solve the attack on Casey.

The death of Mara’s brother resulted in her turning to Derek for comfort. This led to an affair which Derek can’t get past. He also can’t get past Mara being in a relationship with a woman. Derek wants Mara back. Mara is happy in her relationship with Casey but doesn’t want her co-workers to know she is in a lesbian relationship. Derek acts like he is working hard to solve cases with Mara, especially Casey’s. All of this leads to some interesting interactions throughout the book.

The book was originally written as a screenplay. As such, the first line in most of the chapters is descriptive scene setting. This results in some incomplete sentences. This writing style doesn’t allow the reader to use their imaginations to create the characters. The book is fast paced with short chapters. The author provides flashbacks into Mara’s life to help give insight into her psyche. There are a few characters who do not seem to bring much value to the book, such as Derek’s ex-wife. A chapter is written about her meeting with Derek’s old detective partner, but it is unclear what her role really is. Maybe she is thrown into the story to make the readers think of her as a suspect.

I rate the book 2 out of 4 stars. I did not really like the screenplay writing style. I realize the original was a screenplay, but the author could really build the story and take out some of the descriptive scene setting. Let the reader create their own character vision. The author also talked about Mara and Derek investigating a child killer case. The book briefly touches the topic but never fully engages the reader. There were a few spelling and punctuation errors. There were also incomplete sentences, due to the screenplay style. The dialogue was a little choppy and slangy. I would rate the book 3 out of 4 stars if the screenplay feel was removed because the story was intriguing, and the book was fast paced.

I would recommend this book to those who like romantic crime novels. However, the book contains quite a bit of profanity and some explicit crime scene descriptions. Therefore, I would not recommend the book for anyone under the age of 18. It also touches on lesbian relationships which might be inappropriate for some readers.

******
B-Side
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Juliet+1]

Sounds like a really good story, and very modern too. It's a shame the author didn't take the time to polish it up and turn it into a true novel.

[Miller56]

Sounds like a really good story, and very modern too. It's a shame the author didn't take the time to polish it up and turn it into a true novel.

Leaving it as a play took away from the story a little, but it was still an interesting read. Thanks for taking the time to read the review.