2 out of 4 stars
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Toxic Side Effect by Sandy Magner is the sequel to Pocket Dial but it stands up well as an independent book. Jennifer Burns’s father, Robert, is murdered and her mother is the prime suspect, so Jennifer sets out to find the real culprit. With Robert’s death, a family secret is revealed which leaves Jennifer feeling shocked and betrayed.
The story starts out well with an exciting race to the hospital, but the pace slows thereafter. The main problem with this story is the lack of suspects. I had my perp chosen very early in the book. I got the ’who’ and the ’how’ quite quickly but had to read to the end of the book to get the ’why’.
The author wasn’t terribly subtle in the dropping of clues. The murder weapon has a whole host of legal uses which could have been mentioned, but only one was considered. Sometimes the author used devices to draw your attention away from a clue or suspect, but I was reminded of Macbeth where ’the lady doth protest too much’. The attempts to distract actually drew the focus. I was spotting clues well ahead of the characters and impatiently waiting for them to twig the significance.
I also found the book unrealistic. Usually, people who execute their own investigations do so with the protests of the police ringing in their ears. Frankly, Jennifer should have been put on the payroll as she did most of their work, collecting evidence and interviewing suspects, with their blessing. Actually, Jennifer herself should have been a suspect. It’s not just wives who get jealous; daughters do too.
I’m afraid I found the book rather slow. However, it’s a good advert for the previous book. Jennifer’s past history is trickle-fed into the story and I found myself wishing I was reading Pocket Dial. It seemed a lot more exciting.
The story is well written and is an easy read. I only found five or six typos, such as ’wear’ instead of ’where’ and ’ar’ instead of ’car’. Altogether it wasn’t a bad book, but it’s not one that I would recommend to my friends, so I can’t give it 3 stars. If I could, I would give it 2.5 as I would say that it is better than ’fair’. However, I can only give whole stars, so it has to be 2 out of 4 stars.
Although I wouldn’t recommend the book to hardened crime fans, it did tell of the impact of infidelity on a family’s trust and cohesion, so would appeal to people who enjoy family drama.
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Toxic Side Effect
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the review was very informative.
