Buried

I got three-quarters of the way through this book before abandoning it. According to the ebook software, I had about an hours worth of reading to go.

Why put it aside so close to the end? It had become obvious that this wasn't really a complete novel. I was sliding towards a cliff-hanger ending and would have had to wade my way through another book, perhaps two, to get any real resolution. I hate that.

Why did I let myself get so far into the book? Well, the premise of a librarian-slaughtering, cold-case serial killer being investigated by a famous true crime author who has to return to his left-as-soon-as-I-could-and-never-went-back hometown seemed intriguing.

How can you go wrong with that? C. J. Carmichael managed it by writing all the show more characters at arms-length so that I felt I was reading a profile rather than meeting a person. This is an achievement given that the story is told from the point of view of three characters, two women and one man, yet none of them has a distinctive voice. Throw in the fact that the crime writer turns out to be a weak, undisciplined man who has never grown up and who does not meet even the few commitments he makes and I was losing interest in him solving any murders.

I initially held out some hope for the second plot-line of the writer's sister marrying a man who is clearly going to turn out to be a controlling and abusive husband and who may have killed his first wife. Except the husband comes straight from the how-to-define-a-narcissist handbook and has no personality as an individual. This makes it harder to sympathise with the smart-but-blinded-by-lust woman he sets out to break.

I felt like I was one step away from watching "The Bold and the Beautiful" with a garnish of librarian-slaying. Now, I'm annoyed with myself for having wasted my time on this. show less

I somehow happened to get the e-book for free, don’t remember how and when. Found it on my bookshelf while travelling and I just couldn’t put it down. It got my attention from the very beginning, was full of action and well paced, very easy to read. My curiosity made me instantly purchase the two other parts of the trilogy.

Note: The main character trying to solve a mystery unconsciously solves a few other ones, but the main topic remains unsolved till the end and everything is only finally explained in the third book. Hence I don’t recommend it as a stand-alone. Nevertheless, I absolutely recommend purchasing the whole trilogy!

For mystery lovers! Love the characters they are so full-bodied in their descriptions and actions. Even paced though I found it nearly impossible to set the book down, and a story with frequent twists and turns and an ending I was not expecting.

I read the reviews where many commented that this was a cliff hanger, but I disagree the central mystery was answered. Yes, there are questions .. that is what a trilogy is about .. threads hanging where different viewpoints are explored and different characters are highlighted. I knew going in that this was a trilogy, it says so in the Amazon title, maybe that wasn't added to the title in its early for sell listings.

Such a finely written, complex story can not be resolved or encapsulated in show more just 250 pages. show less

Even though it’s part of a trilogy, it does work well as a standalone...but know in advance that you will have to get book #2 to see how this one ends. I didn’t know this at the time I got the book, and I wasn’t thrilled about it. I will probably get book 2 & 3, as I figure book 3 will also have to tag along if the reader wants to know how the entire thing ends. Oh, well, I need more books to go with the other thousand or so that I already have. The story brings us to a small town where we soon learn that this is not their first whodunit. It sems that the little town has had decades of mysterious happenings, including several murders. I can’t imagine what could possibly be more perfect for a mystery...unless it was the complete show more story in the same book. show less

Dougal Lachlan, a writer of real-life crimes receives an email telling him of the murder of librarians back in the 1970's. The journey to the truth leads him back to his home town of Twisted Cedar, and his sister and friends he left behind.
I enjoyed the story and the style of bwriting, I found it very easy to read and I like reading about the characters.
So I am looking forward to reading the next two in the series..

I think I got it free on Amazon Kindle...sat on my kindle for awhile. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. Warning... cliffhanger that will have you buying book two as I am going to do right now! Great character development.

Slightly different from the usual books I read, I found this one to be fairly slow paced but well thought out. Each character had their own personal demons in a tale of interwoven infidelity, unrequited love and murder. I so much wanted to give this book 4/5 stars but the ending just didn't satisfy and loose ends weren't pulled together.