OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Crescent City (An Alec Winters Series, Book 1)" by Chariss K. Walker.]

Crescent City (An Alec Winters Series-Book 1) by Chariss K.Walker, is a book in the fantasy genre. The story is based in New Orleans where the protagonist, Alec Winters, is hot on the trail of sexual predators. When two similar and horrific murders rock the city, Vivien Simon, an investigative reporter, tries to uncover the connection between the two. Who is behind these murders? When the murder victims are proved to be pedophiles, the police and Vivien have to decide who are they pursuing: a serial killer or a vigilante?

The running theme of the novel is retributive justice. The author focuses on sex crimes, especially pedophilia, present in every society. The book is based in a dark, urban fantasy world. The description of the sex crimes committed in the book is so graphic that it made my skin crawl. The best (and the worst, for the weak hearted) quality of these scenes was that they were pretty realistic and the author effectively couches the dark reality in fantasy fiction.

The writing style is crisp and the author creates images which are disturbing, to say the least. If the description of the sex crimes was not enough, the killings are described in a more horrific and violent fashion. The author’s writing style is quite persuasive and succeeds to a great extent in convincing the reader that the culprits in the book deserve the punishment they get.

What really impressed me was the manner in which the author explains the psychology of victims of sex crimes. The author drives home the point that often sex crimes, like pedophilia, are more about control than about actual physical violation. Often the offender is someone from the family or someone who is well respected in the society, and the author does a good job of describing the mental abuse felt by the victim. The sex offenders in the book leech happiness and courage out of their victims. The author also dealt effectively with the gullibility of children and how the offenders manipulate them to believe that they were responsible for what was happening to them. The emotion of fear has a certain duality in the book. It is felt by the victims, when they were about to be violated and by the criminals, when they were facing their horrific punishment.

What I found slightly disappointing in the book was the climax. Firstly, the climax was quite predictable and secondly, the last scene is not as action packed as the rest of the book. But apart from that, the book is fast paced and engaging. I rate it 4 out of 4, though I would advise teenage audience against reading this book. Also, readers who cannot stomach excessive violence should avoid this one.

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Crescent City (An Alec Winters Series, Book 1)
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Excellent review. But this book clearly is not for me. When I worked in a prosecutor's office, I had to read many hundreds of police reports describing sex crimes. No more of that for me!

Great review. I think it would tick me off to read it though. I do hope the "punishments" were excessive!

Thanks Kappy & HoneyB

Good review. The story sounds interesting. However, the heavy descriptions of violence sounds like too much for me. I'm a very imaginative reader and things stick with me for a long time.

On a kind of side note: The cover looks like it needs some better photoshopping done to it.

~Thimble

Thanks
I had similar thoughts regarding the cover when I saw it for the first time.

Great review ananya92! I wanted to read this book because of the superb review. I watch law in order svu and I thought I was ready for this book but it's much more graphic. I felt like I was going to be sick reading those descriptive scenes, but perhaps the author did that to make us understand the brand of justice the main protagonist delivered. I completely agree with you about the climax and felt the 4 out 4 rating was well deserved. Great job!

Great review ananya92! Congratulations Chariss K. Walker!

Thanks Deee and B3cca!