Official Review: Crimes and Retribution by Shirley M McLain

Post by **Lorraine De Vos** » 06 Mar 2020, 00:08

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Crimes and Retribution" by Shirley M McLain.]

2 out of 4 stars

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Crimes and Retributions: A Jensen Mystery by Shirley McLain is a page-turner, to say the least. The mysteriously advanced technology used in Sam’s captive tower was enough to keep me interested in unravelling the story.

Sam is drugged and kidnapped and finds herself trapped in a tower on a remote island with no memory when she awakens. To make things more puzzling, it seems her captor knows her well and is completely infatuated with her. Surrounded by unfamiliar technology in a primitive setting, and as she slowly gains back her memories, she is determined to escape and be reunited with her twin brother Allan.

Someone on the island is on her side and manages to leave her notes, claiming they will assist her with an escape. In the meantime, she needs to play along to the unwelcome advances made by her kidnapper.

Each character in this book has a unique personality. The line between villain and hero is blurred by creating mitigating characteristics for their actions.

The storyline seemed to veer off course on a couple of occasions, but I eventually noted the subtle hints provided that explained the direction of the story.

The writing style is conversational mostly, but McLain does a great job of describing the settings in vivid detail.

With corporate espionage, betrayal and a love story to boot, this book has a little something for everyone. There is also the added bonus of supernatural twin senses.

It is somewhat unfortunate that the book has not been professionally edited. I found numerous spelling and grammar errors, spacing issues and problems differentiating between switches in different character’s thoughts and dialogues.

Something that I missed was the depth of the characters. Allan’s emotions were described as worried about his sister’s disappearance, but I personally thought his actions did not match that of someone who had a missing relative.

Out of fear that I might be coming across as too critical, I will only point out that in my personal opinion, some of the dialogue seemed slightly stiff and unnatural, but the story as a whole has a good plot.

If you are sensitive to themes of kidnapping, alcohol abuse, obsessive love, and corporate espionage, you might want to avoid this one.

I would recommend this book to readers that enjoy drama, mystery and romance novels.

Due to the number of errors, my reading pleasure was quite disrupted, thus I would rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. A decent round of editing would certainly improve my rating to three stars.

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Crimes and Retribution
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