by Jonathan Kellerman; Jesse Kellerman
My rating: 3.5 Stars
Clay Edison, Deputy Sheriff for the Alameda County Coroner's office, has just had a banner year. He solved a decades-old crime and redeemed an innocent man. However, his job was put in jeopardy as he went beyond the bounds of his duties. Things are falling into line again for Clay, and as this novel begins, he receives a call in the middle of the night. Shots were fired at a party and innocent people were killed. After all of the identifications are made, there is one woman who cannot be accounted for, and she was strangled, not shot. She is a Jane Doe, and Clay is determined to identify her.
Something curious - and I double-checked - I got to 46% before I fully understood Clay Edison's job. The blurb states that he is a deputy coroner, but his keen investigations had me curious. If he were indeed the coroner, would he have had the leeway to investigate as he did? Please pardon my ignorance. Although I generally strive to read series for that ideal sense of continuity, I did not have the opportunity to read the first in the series, Crime Scene, and so I wonder if indeed A Measure of Darkness served well as a standalone.
Due to a rather stilted delivery, the patently obvious fact that the majority of the writing was done by the younger Kellerman, and a surprising lack of the suspense that I imagined would be in this story, I had a bit of difficulty staying engaged. However, as this is a joint venture between father-and-son writers, and this is indeed my favorite genre, I will be reading the next in this series. I hope that when I do that I will have enough of a connection with Clay Edison to better enjoy the story, as I actually do like Clay's character. By the way, Child psychologist Alex Delaware, from Jonathan Kellerman's NYT bestselling series, has a cameo in this book.
Many thanks to Random House/Ballantine Books and to NetGalley for this ARC to review in exchange for my honest opinion.
My rating: 3.5 Stars
Clay Edison, Deputy Sheriff for the Alameda County Coroner's office, has just had a banner year. He solved a decades-old crime and redeemed an innocent man. However, his job was put in jeopardy as he went beyond the bounds of his duties. Things are falling into line again for Clay, and as this novel begins, he receives a call in the middle of the night. Shots were fired at a party and innocent people were killed. After all of the identifications are made, there is one woman who cannot be accounted for, and she was strangled, not shot. She is a Jane Doe, and Clay is determined to identify her.
Something curious - and I double-checked - I got to 46% before I fully understood Clay Edison's job. The blurb states that he is a deputy coroner, but his keen investigations had me curious. If he were indeed the coroner, would he have had the leeway to investigate as he did? Please pardon my ignorance. Although I generally strive to read series for that ideal sense of continuity, I did not have the opportunity to read the first in the series, Crime Scene, and so I wonder if indeed A Measure of Darkness served well as a standalone.
Due to a rather stilted delivery, the patently obvious fact that the majority of the writing was done by the younger Kellerman, and a surprising lack of the suspense that I imagined would be in this story, I had a bit of difficulty staying engaged. However, as this is a joint venture between father-and-son writers, and this is indeed my favorite genre, I will be reading the next in this series. I hope that when I do that I will have enough of a connection with Clay Edison to better enjoy the story, as I actually do like Clay's character. By the way, Child psychologist Alex Delaware, from Jonathan Kellerman's NYT bestselling series, has a cameo in this book.
Many thanks to Random House/Ballantine Books and to NetGalley for this ARC to review in exchange for my honest opinion.
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