Review of Dead Reckoning
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Jacque Hagofsky
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- Latest Review: Dead Reckoning by Lea O'Harra
Review of Dead Reckoning
[Following is a volunteer review of "Dead Reckoning" by Lea O'Harra.]
In Dead Reckoning, we follow the narrator, Gillian, as she and her husband, Toshi, return to the small town where she grew up in Indiana for her mother’s funeral. We learn that she has only been back a couple times since moving to Japan presumably because she is running from the ghosts of her past. When she was 12 years old, she and her best friend, Sally, ended up finding a dead newborn in the local cemetery. They decide to keep their discovery a secret, and 2 local children are abducted and end up dead afterwards. The guilt of these events and the bad memories of that time is what has kept Gilly away for so long. She is now back in Indiana and is forced to deal with the events since everything and everyone is bringing the past back up. The past becomes even more impossible to ignore when another child goes missing. Is the same person to blame or are there more secrets to uncover?
The suspense in this read made it a pretty fast read. It was enjoyable and had an intriguing writing style and set up. Each chapter begins in current time, but then the chapter finishes with a journal entry from her childhood and more of the past being revealed. I enjoyed that there were additional mysteries to be solved after the main character thought she already had the whole story. There was enough description to create the small town in your head while reading, which always allows for a more enjoyable read and makes it easy to keep track of what is going on in the story. The less appealing characters didn’t have much depth, but that is fine since you don’t really want to be on their side. There is minimal profanity, and it is only used by the undesirable characters, which paints them in an even more negative light.
I would rate Dead Reckoning by Lea O’Harra a solid 4 out of 5 stars. There were minimal typos, so it must have been professionally edited. I loved that we read what was happening in real time and then each chapter ends with a diary entry that gives us more of what happened when she was 12. It added extra suspense to the story, since you had to stay tuned for more of the childhood drama to be revealed. It is a very good read, and the only critique I would have is that the negative characters needed a little more depth (although them having more depth wouldn’t add to the storyline). It was just a little hard to imagine someone only having one layer, since we all have layers to our personality and motives, etc. So those characters would be more believable. All in all, I enjoyed it and think that anyone that loves suspenseful thrillers will enjoy it as well.
******
Dead Reckoning
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
In Dead Reckoning, we follow the narrator, Gillian, as she and her husband, Toshi, return to the small town where she grew up in Indiana for her mother’s funeral. We learn that she has only been back a couple times since moving to Japan presumably because she is running from the ghosts of her past. When she was 12 years old, she and her best friend, Sally, ended up finding a dead newborn in the local cemetery. They decide to keep their discovery a secret, and 2 local children are abducted and end up dead afterwards. The guilt of these events and the bad memories of that time is what has kept Gilly away for so long. She is now back in Indiana and is forced to deal with the events since everything and everyone is bringing the past back up. The past becomes even more impossible to ignore when another child goes missing. Is the same person to blame or are there more secrets to uncover?
The suspense in this read made it a pretty fast read. It was enjoyable and had an intriguing writing style and set up. Each chapter begins in current time, but then the chapter finishes with a journal entry from her childhood and more of the past being revealed. I enjoyed that there were additional mysteries to be solved after the main character thought she already had the whole story. There was enough description to create the small town in your head while reading, which always allows for a more enjoyable read and makes it easy to keep track of what is going on in the story. The less appealing characters didn’t have much depth, but that is fine since you don’t really want to be on their side. There is minimal profanity, and it is only used by the undesirable characters, which paints them in an even more negative light.
I would rate Dead Reckoning by Lea O’Harra a solid 4 out of 5 stars. There were minimal typos, so it must have been professionally edited. I loved that we read what was happening in real time and then each chapter ends with a diary entry that gives us more of what happened when she was 12. It added extra suspense to the story, since you had to stay tuned for more of the childhood drama to be revealed. It is a very good read, and the only critique I would have is that the negative characters needed a little more depth (although them having more depth wouldn’t add to the storyline). It was just a little hard to imagine someone only having one layer, since we all have layers to our personality and motives, etc. So those characters would be more believable. All in all, I enjoyed it and think that anyone that loves suspenseful thrillers will enjoy it as well.
******
Dead Reckoning
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Dead Reckoning by Lea O'Harra
