Genre: Police
Procedural/Mystery
Description:
“When the battered body of a teenage girl is found in a dumpster,
Lieutenant Jo Riskin is called to take the case. Investigating with her
partner, Detective Lynae Parker, Jo uncovers secrets, loyalties, and ambitions
that give motives to a surprising number of suspects, including a boyfriend
from the wrong side of the tracks.
While immersed in her current case, Jo is battling her own personal
demons. After two years, she is still grieving over the loss of her husband,
who was killed in the line of duty. New information that could help solve his
murder, and let her move on with her life, is within her grasp.
Barricading her heart, Jo is determined to solve both cases and bring
the killers to justice.”
Author:
“Debbie S. TenBrink grew up on a farm in West Michigan, where her
family has lived for over 150 years. She still lives within five miles of her
childhood home with her husband, four children, and dog, Mojo (who is the only
real-life character in her book). She has a Master’s degree in career and
technical education, and she taught computer classes in two local colleges
before beginning her current career as a software specialist for a law firm. In
her free time, Debbie enjoys camping, hiking, sports, and any other activity
she can use as an excuse to spend time in the great outdoors. Other hobbies
include reading (of course), having long conversations with the characters
living in her head, and an almost frightening interest in true crime TV shows.
Her passion for writing began in childhood with short stories and poetry, and
she can’t remember a time when she didn’t know that she would someday write a
novel.”
Appraisal:
This is book one of the Jo Riskin Mystery series and it appears to be
Debbie TenBrink’s first book. What a great start. I’m ready for book two now.
Police procedurals have been a genre I’ve enjoyed reading over the
years. After reading this book and trying to put my finger on why I liked it I
came up with two big reasons.
The first reason is the obvious one. The mystery at the root of the
case (or for this book, the two cases) that the protagonist is trying to solve
needs to hit the right balance. It can’t be too obvious. If you’re convinced
you know whodunit shortly after the book starts and you turn out to be correct,
the book isn’t going to work. But the opposite, a last second twist that you
could have never seen coming, maybe a random person walking off the street and confessing, is even worse. Warped Ambition hit that balance. The
answer wasn’t obvious, but the clues were there. (I won’t say any more to avoid
spoiling the story.)
The second thing that occurred to me was that I liked Jo Riskin and
her partner Lynae and when I explored why I realized that it was because of
their imperfections. They’re human. Imagine a detective who is perfect. They
wouldn’t struggle. They wouldn’t misinterpret something. They’d never make any
missteps. And books with this mythical perfect detective would bore the reader
to death. It’s the imperfections of the detectives and their fighting through
their own issues to get to the solution that make the story work. If sometimes
we get to the answer before the detective, all the better. (I didn’t this time,
but it wasn’t because the clues weren’t there.) Ms. TenBrink has a winner with
Jo and Lynae. Yup. I’m ready for the next one now.
FYI:
Some adult language.
Format/Typo
Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating:
***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate
word count: 70-75,000 words
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