P.J. Tracy is the pseudonym for the mother-daughter writing duo of P.J. and Traci Lambrech. Sadly, P.J. Tracy passed away in 2016. Traci has continued to write on her own.
Which makes it all the harder to say that this newest book is a rare DNF for me. The premise sounded good - a female detective on the LAPD force and the death of an actor. But it was the delivery for this reader. I even went back and read the first few chapters, but it was the same on a second reading.
I gave the book fifty pages, but had to call it a day by that point. I found the prose to be overwrought and the sentences to be too long. The use of many alternate choices for commonplace descriptors felt like a thesaurus had been used deliberately.
Here's a sample:
"The bold, black headline possessed astonishing metaphysical properties, like the power to rearrange his anatomy: his heart was beating in his stomach, which was now in the the vicinity of his throat, and his balls had apparently departed from his body altogether, because he couldn't feel them." All one sentence.
The book opens with a murder - promising in this genre. Then a new chapter with a letter from 1864. Then we meet Sam, then Margaret, then Daphna, Seth, Evan and Becca. I'm sure there are more, but this hit the 50 page wall. More and more characters are added without clarity. What has happened? What is the role of all these players? Sadly, by then I had lost interest. I was hoping for a good police procedural. But The Devil You Know was all over the place.
Not the book for me. But, loads of people enjoyed this title - I encourage you to read those reviews on Goodreads.
4 comments:
Luanne, I really loved the Monkeewrench series and was so sad that P.J. passed from this life. I have not read this new series as yet. Not sure why I have been hesitant, but...have you read either of the first two entries? You and feel a lot the same about these types of books and I wonder whether just eventually rereading the Monkeewrench books would be more fun for me. LOL
Kay, I would read the Monkeewrench series again in a heartbeat.
No, I had not read the first two in this new series, but can't imagine they'd be any better if this was what I thought of number three.
I'd be curious to hear your thoughts if you do decide to read this new series.
Well, I'll not be reading this one. Thanks for the feedback.
Harvee, others loved it, but it was a rare DNF for me. And I felt terrible about it.
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