Reviewed by: Pete Barber
Genre: Mystery
Approximate word count: 70,000-75,000 words
Availability
Click
on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or
Smashwords store
Author:
M. A. Demers is a freelance writer, editor, and fine art
photographer based near Vancouver, British Columbia. Baby Jane is her first
novel.
Description:
Clair
Dawson buys a fixer-upper home. While knocking down a closet wall, she
discovers the remains of a baby. The story revolves around the mystery of who
the baby is and how she got there.
Appraisal:
It was hard
for me to pin this book down. In the opening chapters the voice was distinctly
literary: full of colorful imagery and rich, complex sentences. Then the tone
switched into horror as Claire was physically buffeted by demons. Enter the
handsome police inspector (Dylan) and we moved into the realm of cozy mystery.
Claire and Dylan experience love at first sight and the story becomes more
about their romance than about the baby. Then we’re introduced to the
inspector’s grandmother and the story takes on a paranormal vein where we are
plunged into parallel worlds where animal avatars are substituted for the main
characters in the story.
While
there’s nothing wrong with variety, I think the mixed messages weakened the
story. The writing was strongest, for me, in the opening (it almost seemed as
if another hand had written this) and during the paranormal scenes. On reflection,
perhaps this was because these scenes came solidly from a single point of view.
Whereas in the other phases of the book, there was a lot of head-hopping going
on that often pulled me out of the tale, and for me, at least, weakened what is
a good story albeit with a somewhat implausible ending.
Format/Typo Issues:
A few grammar
errors, although not enough to become distracting.
Rating: *** Three stars
No comments:
Post a Comment