Death by Deceit

I have read all the books in this series. I enjoy the stories however, as a former teacher, I cannot read any more books until the author takes the professional step of having someone proofread the material before it is published. Even a friend could pick up the most glaring errors of incorrect word usage, spellings, and even incorrect names in some places. I realize the stories are light reading, but it is almost insulting to the reader that the author submits such poorly edited work.

The plot on this one was a bit of a stretch. In addition you also don’t ever really know why the dead woman acted as she did. Once again the typos and mis-identification of characters proved to be a distraction. These novels cost as much as a paperback book and should receive better proofreading. I can chalk a few typos up to glitches in downloading but when you change the character speaking to someone that’s not even in that chapter you have a proofreading problem. I will buy the remaining books because I am enjoying the locales and the main characters. If you buy these books be prepared for the proofing problems which means you’ll have to pay attention to who is really doing the talking!

What should have been a good story of murder in a tropical paradise is demolished by dreadful adjectives, punctuation, and plot.

Tommy becomes Anthony for several sentences, and Mattheus miraculously shifts from the garden to the bedroom without benefit of movement.

Mattheus may suffer from undiagnosed bipolar disorder. In the span of two sentences, he seems to move from loving Cindy to wanting her out of his life.

This might be a good book if cleaned up, but currently, its a mess.

I’ve read the first 10 books in this series. Most of them I downloaded for free through various websites. I’m a fast reader but with this series I really struggled with these books. Books 1-7 it took me several months to read each individual book because (1) the plot was not fast paced enough to hold my interest, (2) there were several consistency errors in each book, and (3) there were TONS of typos throughout each of the books. However, books 8-10 were interesting enough that I finished all 3 of those within 2 weeks. If you can get past all of the errors then this is a fairly decent series.

The author either didn’t have the books professionally edited or the editor she used needs to be blacklisted from the industry because the mistakes were major mistakes. Things like:
“Peter suddenly put his heads back into his hands.” Unless I’m mistaken this is a mystery series not science fiction and the character only has 1 head. I could understand making this mistake once but it popped up in other books too!!! “…gave the bartender a heads’s up.” Seriously? That’s just sloppy typing and would have been caught if spell check had been used.

She would also misuse the apostrophe after characters names. She would sometimes leave out entire words so you were left wondering what she was trying to say and would have to guess at the intended meaning of the sentence.

As far as the consistency errors, sometimes a character would meet with Cindy and tell her something and then in the very next paragraph approach Cindy and she would mention it to that character and he or she would act as if they were hearing it for the first time.

Those are the kind of errors that almost made me stop reading this series halfway through the first book but I kept plugging away at it hoping it would get better or at least more interesting. Each book it finally did get interesting but not until the final 5 or 6 chapters except for books 8-10 and those held my interest right away. The editing is still atrocious in those and all of the books feel like she was completely distracted while she was writing them.

Overall, I think the entire series would benefit from a review by a professional editor.

I don’t know why I like these books. It is true that all these books need serious proofreading. I think I like the fact that both partners lost their spouse through violent death. I have a greater problem with the two partners as a couple. Mattheus does not have a lot to offer Cindy emotionally and his blowing hot and cold is a serious problem. This book starts where the last one ended with Cindy and Mattheus deciding to take their business relationship to a permanent level by trying to live together in his house on the cliffs of Grenada. He had bought the house after giving up trying to find his wife’s killer and moving there to become a police officer. Neither really seems all that qualified on paper. Cindy was an investigative journalist and researcher. Mattheus does not seem to have any formal training. She has not even unpacked when there time off together is interrupted by a phone call requesting their help on another case. Cindy declines and says they agreed to spend some time getting to know each other. Things were already strained because Mattheus did not want to take down some of the pictures of his late wife. They have a blow out and Cindy grabs a plane back to her house in the states.

Her sister Ann is once again a help and a pain in the butt. She has only been there a few days when Mattheus calls and asks for her help. She declines until he explains that they found his wife’s body in Key West. Cindy flies there and starts to work the case. Mattheus was thrown for a loop to find out she has been in Key West the whole time. Cindy starts covering the women’s shelter she was working in and discovers an entirely different woman that the one Mattheus described. He is worthless to Cindy as a partner, because he takes everything personally and does not cover Cindy’s safety instead of licking his wounds. This is not a guy you can depend on and I think Cindy is nuts to keep forgiving him. I still keep reading them…can’t tell you why.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member