Official Review: Game of Twins by Tom Ranseen

[Misael Carlos]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Game of Twins" by Tom Ranseen.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Suzanne Delacroix and Dusty Rayfield, Atlanta’s top homicide detectives, respond to a police call and the depravity of the horrific triple murder leaves Suzanne visibly shaken. The custom-made knives with an unusual cross symbol used on the victims trigger something inside her, causing her to hastily resign from her job. Her partner may think of her as a woman scared of no person, place or thing but Dusty has no idea of his partners’ private terror. After a brief trip, she comes back to Atlanta and commits herself to the Task Force as a civilian expert. What seems to be racial hatred as motive of the murder becomes something more sinister as Suzanne works the case. Is the ritualistic murder related to the cold cases involving the series of kidnapping and murder of twins decades ago? Is her father’s death really just an accident? Game of Twins by Tom Ranseen presents one headstrong woman’s determination to capture an evil group, bring justice to all the murdered twins and perhaps, shed light on her father’s death in the process.

Ranseen effortlessly transported me to every scene with his amazing narrative. I felt I was with the Suzanne as she tried connecting the pieces of evidence of what seemed to be a complicated puzzle. The author used his wonderful writing skills to build up the suspense toward the showdown at the end. Each ritualistic murder was chilling and gory. It was nearly impossible to put this book down once I started reading.

I liked that despite the story jumping between points in time, the readers will be unconfused as each chapter clearly indicated the period it was narrating; the backstories were essential to the story and did not in any way dampen the build-up of suspense. Rather, it added to the excitement knowing the backstory will provide enlightenment to the exciting plot. Ranseen is a master storyteller; how he had woven all the loose threads in the novel to come up with a tight thriller was wonderful. How he connected the present to the past was amazing; the identities of the killers were gradually introduced by inserting their activities at strategic points, just enough to give hints of who the killers were. This added to the suspense. At this point, my heart was already pumping madly, anticipating and yet fearing the race to the finish. The author effectively presented conspiracy, red tape and corruption in the corporate world and government. Ranseen was able to weave an intelligent thriller in Game of Twins, meant to push the readers on the edge of their seats as tension escalate. It was easy to see this novel being transformed into a movie or TV series.

Ranseen created a remarkable set of characters. Headstrong and intelligent, Suzanne is also a woman who loves deeply especially toward the people she most cares about; despite her strong character and the danger the job gives her, her faith is just as strong. She is a contrasting mix of aggression and gentleness, independence and vulnerability. I chuckled in amusement when she blushed when she got complimented; she captured my full attention when she vowed: “When I find ‘em, Deadeye, they’re not going to prison.” Her parents’ appearances were just brief but they gave off a positive aura and were the most warm-hearted and loving characters I have ever read in a novel. The Sutterlands' twisted minds easily set my teeth on edge. But no other character could be as evil as Pamela Loncart; hers will be one that I would remember for a very long time. Ranseen’s description of the antagonists effectively conveyed evil and enormous capacity for violence and darkness. It was difficult to let go of the characters after I had finished reading; Ranseen became one of my favourite authors after reading Game of Twins.

There were numerous grammatical errors like missing commas, hyphens and quotation marks. On page 12, “world-class” contained a space after the hyphen. “En mass” was spelled as “In masse.” There was an instance of a missing word and one instance of a missing space between two words. In chapter 36, a character was thinking about what he wanted to do with a few people and while enumerating these people, one’s job was enclosed in parentheses; this occurred a few times. I think parentheses should have been unadded.

Ranseen mentioned some organizations like the Klan and the Aryan Brothers without providing a quick introduction or identification. I have observed that the phone brand iPhone was mentioned quite a lot in the novel. It was okay in the beginning, but as more instances occurred, mentioning the brand looked awkward or unnecessary already; the author could have just written “mobile phone” or “cellular phone.” It was like the author was promoting the brand because there were some instances that he just wrote “phone,” and I assumed he was referring to a non-iPhone brand.

A book this engrossing and suspenseful deserves nothing but the highest rating; however, the existence of numerous grammatical errors prevented me from doing so. Thus, I give Game of Twins 3 out 4 stars.

Although Game of Twins by Tom Ranseen is part of a series, it is a standalone novel. Readers who like suspense or thriller novels will enjoy this one. However, this book is not for the young readers because of its adult themes like graphic sex, racism, incest and graphic depiction of murder and torture.

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Game of Twins
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[Laura Lee]

This sounds amazing. I hope the author takes your review to heart and gives it another round of editing because a book this well-written deserves nothing less. Were there a lot of descriptions of gore in the novel? Or was the author able to achieve chilling through means other than explicit descriptions of gore? Thanks for an excellent review. I want to check this one out.

[NetMassimo]

This seems a great thriller with well-developed plot and characters, though some murder and sex elements seem quite extreme. Thank you for your great review!

[JGretz-7]

I appreciate your character reflection and description of the author's writing style. I've added this book to my growing reading list.

[Prisallen]

I love your review. Good characters and an amazing plot make me want to read the book. Great job!

[Samantha Simoneau]

I suspect I'm too sensitive for this one, but I really enjoyed your review. Thanks!

[Misael Carlos]

This sounds amazing. I hope the author takes your review to heart and gives it another round of editing because a book this well-written deserves nothing less. Were there a lot of descriptions of gore in the novel? Or was the author able to achieve chilling through means other than explicit descriptions of gore? Thanks for an excellent review. I want to check this one out.

I believe the graphic depiction of sex and gore here were not just put for shock value but were necessary because of the plot.

[Shri27]

I love thriller stories. Great review I added it to my bookshelves as it seems to be an interesting book based on your review. I'll definitely try this one. Thanks!!

[gayscott]

This is probably not a book I would enjoy because of the sexual content. I like romance without the explicit, erotic details. Sorry.

[Sassy16]

hats off for a great review. You didn't give " it" away. Giving the details we all like to read about is key to wetting a reader's appetite without knowing the ending. Forewarning the inclusion of sex gives the reader options as to whether you want to read about it or not. Thanks for the information!

[Nzube Chizoba Okeke]

I would really like this for it's suspense and thriller. I also find the investigative aspect interesting despite it's sexual and gory content. Thanks for this great review!