2 out of 4 stars
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A ruthless man is murdered in his suburban home in a most gruesome manner , his watch stuck at 11.05, a week later another man is murdered in the exact same way and the exact same time which sets Chief Inspector Sheehan and his team of detectives on the trail of an elusive psychotic killer.
The storyline is good as it gives the readers a lot to chew on with enough red herrings and twists thrown in which are important ingredients in cooking up a murder mystery. The possible list of suspects increase as the story progresses and the vocabulary is laudible.
There are plenty of characters, major and minor but none of them are very well developed. They have no quirks, habits or eccentricities to remember them by, and an insubstantial back-story, if any at all, to flesh them out.
The heroine, “Woman Sergeant Denise Stewart” is introduced to the readers in the 2nd chapter of the book where she spends her entire time judging and deciding whether each and every male she comes across is trying to hit on her and her response to them seems to be based on their level of attractiveness. Inspector Sheehan has precious little to do in the book, except act as a catalyst at the end to wrap things up nicely and tie them with a string.
Sergeant Stewart starts investigating the murder and is inexplicably drawn to an incident that occurred twelve years ago involving the death of a young girl, her only clue is two photographs on the laptop of the deceased. She is helped by her new team members in the quest, not to mention a weird electronic voice over the telephone. Soon, a second murder happens and a pattern begins to emerge, forcing the team of detectives to race against time to prevent a third, using the new woman sergeant as bait. All the while Denise can’t shake off the feeling that she is being followed and watched by someone, which is proved when Detective Allen, who is romantically interested in her cheats death by collision, twice.
The book tries to deal with a lot of issues which feels like disjointed pieces of a puzzle trying to fit into one large picture, but somehow unable to get the right fit. It opens with a scene where a reserved teen is molested by fellow students at a house party and it’s after effects, goes on to talk about gender discrimination and harassment at the work place, domestic violence, corruption within the police force and last but not the least , about obsessive love. It also has a love triangle thrown in for good measure.
I would rate The 11.05 Murders 2 out of 4. The dialogues seem contrite,the humor forced and the plot holes large enough for an adult to wriggle through. The past incident is reconstructed accurately without any insight into the minds of the detectives as to how the conclusion was reached, a possible suspect is identified without a shred of evidence, based solely on a generic description of his style of dressing and the voice, the motive of the killer remained unconvincing as his source of knowledge which made him act the way he did was obscure, with no explanations as to how he knew what he did. Was he actually present at the crime scene, which would mean that he knew the exact nature of the crime and the culprit(s), and if he was then why had he not tried to stop it from happening and what made him wait for so long before acting?
The ending seemed abrupt and rushed and a few story lines were left incomplete, like what happened to the victim of domestic violence? I may recommend this book to readers who are new to this genre and yet to get a taste of murder mysteries intricately plotted and incisively solved.
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The 11.05 Murders
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