Official Review: Killing with Love by M. Garnet

MsTri · Post by **MsTri** » 30 Oct 2020, 09:41

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Killing with Love" by M. Garnet.]

2 out of 4 stars

Share This Review

It's amazing the number of song, movie, and television show titles that have "love" and "kill" in some form in the same sentence. Now, the world has Killing With Love by author M. Garnet (Muriel Garnet Yantiss). In this short book, a serial killer is maiming and killing men in a grotesque fashion. Can Detectives Drummond and Smith find out who's doing it and why without getting themselves killed?

I adore crime mystery novels that feature serial killers with unique MOs, so I was immediately attracted to this accounting. Even though the story was interesting enough, I was a little disappointed, as it was a little too brief to make much of an impact on me. The author's ability to include several murders, as well as the mystery’s resolution, not to mention a minor romance, in the span of fewer than 100 pages was admirable. But it also resulted in a number of loose ends and unanswered questions. In addition, I was less than wowed by the ending, as it was quite anticlimactic.

Although neither of the detectives had anything more than a condensed backstory, I did like them. Smith was more of a "geek" who loved puzzles, so he enjoyed that aspect of the cases. Drummond, on the other hand, was an Adonis wizard who worked their cases with an eye on the supernatural. Between the two of them, they struck the perfect balance between the real and the fanciful and were therefore quite successful on their previous cases. I hope the author has more stories with them in mind, as the brevity of Killing With Love allowed only a surface scratch of the duo.

As short as the novel was, there were plenty of grammatical errors of all kinds with punctuation mishaps making up the bulk of the missteps. The most egregious failing was the author's habit of throwing commas in everywhere, especially before the word "as." It was as if she'd hit Ctrl+F for "as" and added commas before all of them, whether the placement was correct or not. There were also many instances of awkward syntax and the incorrect capitalization of titles when following "the." Also, Hermon was referred to as Hector at least once. Additionally, there were just way too many adjectives, and I felt like the author just threw them in because she may have been told to add more descriptions. I actually screamed in pain the sixth time I read "the strange detectives." All of these blunders made the book a chore to read at times. I therefore strongly urge the author to work with a professional editor.

After weighing all the pros and cons, I decided to rate Killing With Love 2 out of 4 stars. Both the plethora of typographical errors and the scarcity of much-needed explanations cost the tome the two other stars. Despite this book not living up to its potential, I do think fans of crime novels, readers who like tales with serial killers, and people who are fond of shorter stories may enjoy filling a couple of free hours with this reading. I would be remiss if I didn't warn that there are graphic descriptions of the mutilated bodies and a number of profanities as well as one sex scene in this book. Sensitive bibliophiles may therefore want to pass on this one in favor of more sterile fare.

My love is so great I could take it all.

******
Killing with Love
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

RHD · Post by **RHD** » 05 Nov 2020, 12:33

I guess we can call this 'a good attempt'. The plethora of errors are a bit worrying. Thanks for such a detailed review

Phelicia Gloria · Post by **Phelicia Gloria** » 05 Nov 2020, 14:27

Love and kill! Very attractive title to most of the movies today,though this the first book am seeing with this title from the review I believe it will meet my expectations, great review.

Pearl Akpan · Post by **Pearl Akpan** » 06 Nov 2020, 15:45

The name of this novel suggests an intensely packed crime thriller with a mix of romance. I’m a bit disappointed to note that there are so many issues with such a promising book. I think a reworking would be very valuable to this book. Thank you for an informative review!

NetMassimo · Post by **NetMassimo** » 07 Nov 2020, 11:26

This seems a novel with a good potential in need for more editing to develop it properly and some serious proofreading. Thank you for your honest review!

Post by **kandscreeley** » 13 Nov 2020, 17:43

I've read books where it seems like the author used a thesaurus. Every other word was some rare adjective. It makes the book a bit more of a chore to read. I hope the author takes your advice and gets the book professionally edited. Thanks.