Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Review: Breakneck by Erica Spindler



Book Info:
Breakneck by Erica Spindler
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1 edition (January 20, 2009)
ISBN-13: 9780312363901
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Rating: 3/5


Hot on the heels of their last case, partners Mary Catherine (M.C.) Riggio and Kitt Lundgren, detectives in the police department's Violent Crimes Bureau in industrial, blue-collar Rockford, Illinois, are called out to a college student’s apartment where a young man with no criminal record, not even a noise complaint from his neighbors, appears to have been murdered in his sleep.

The trail seems cold, until another victim turns up, and then another… each one striking closer to home for M.C. The growing list of seemingly emotionless kills leaves M.C. and Kitt little to follow—like the first victim, all the targets are young adults, kid-next-door types who’ve never taken a step outside the law. Meanwhile, the case starts to take its toll on M.C.’s personal life, setting her on edge with her partner and putting their hard-earned friendship in jeopardy. As M.C. and Kitt hunt a faceless killer, they are led deep into the cyberuniverse, where no one is who he seems and you never know who's watching. At the heart of this mesmerizing thriller is the relationship between two headstrong women as they struggle to balance their dual roles, to learn to trust, and to walk the fine line between upholding the law—and taking it into their own hands.


Mysteries are the hardest genre for me to review. Unless there is a crazy twist, or characters I love, they tend to run together for me. Most mysteries contain such similar elements that it takes something special to set it apart from the pack. Breakneck didn't have that.

Breakneck is enjoyable, and it's a fast read with short, exciting chapters, but there wasn't anything amazing about it. Maybe if I was more invested in the characters, as the are part of a series, I would have liked it better. Some of the victims are close to one of the detectives and this helped me get a better feel for her as you see her emotional response to the killings. But, overall it was a pretty standard mystery. 3 stars
Thank you LibraryThing for my review copy

1 comment:

Sandy Nawrot said...

I know where you are coming from on this one. In my life, I've read more of this genre than any other. And they do run together, barring a few that have that unique something. It got to the point that I would buy or check out the same books over and over again, because I didn't remember I'd read them in the first place! This also contributed to starting a blog...to keep track of the damn things!