Death by Betrayal

I have a hard time not finishing a book, even when it is terrible. This one was very close to terrible. It was full of missing words (fill in the blank until the sentence makes sense), words that don’t mean anything (a Thesaurus and dictionary would help here), and general poor editing.
The main character was way beyond conflicted. She loves her business partner, but can’t tell him. She thinks her brother in law is a murderer, but refuses to follow clues that might lead to him. She went into situations that a single person (let alone a woman) should not go into without some kind of backup. Her mother treats her like she has no value, and she keeps going back for more abuse.
AAAGH!!
I almost quit reading several times, but slogged through to the end. I should be punished, I think this book did the job.

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.

The only reason that this book is as long as it is is that the author says everything twice. In conversation, a phrase is repeated twice repeatedly to the point of active annoyance. Statements of fact are also repeated. Much of the dialogue is trite and unbelievable. The chief of police is immediately pleased that a private detective, who is the sister of the victim, is working on the case and he lets her have investigative files? When has that ever happened? The protagonist is also remarkably naive. Facts mean nothing. A direct gaze and a plausible excuse makes her instantly trust a witness. If she likes someone, that will also make a witness trustworthy. She is also the worst interrogator ever. She questions a possible suspect alone in a bad part of town at the behest of the police chief, no less, and she starts off explaining why he is a murder suspect before finding out the necessary facts. And, of course, she automatically believes him. That is only one example. Then there are the continuity errors. She sees a piece of evidence and, despite police procedure and the police chief’s warning, she rushes over to pick it up. At one point, she gives it to the police. Elsewhere she kept it. Another example is when the police chief tells her she will only be able to view her sister’s body through a window and can only see her face. A couple of paragraphs later, she is taken into the morgue and stands by her sister’s body with no explanation. These errors are legion. Plainly, this is a stupid book. I nearly put this book down a half dozen times, but I have only once refused to finish a book, which is one of the reasons this book is not quite the worst book ever written. The ending is predictably ridiculous. I am astounded that this author has nine or ten other books published. If you prefer coherent writing, avoid this book at all costs. I couldn’t submit this review with no stars.

This book stretched the imagination to the breaking point. This author had the Bermuda police as complete incompetents actually eager to use a “private detective” – she is not even licensed. This “private detective” believes everyone she talks to and just goes willy nilly to dangerous areas with no fear or consequences. Don’t bother reading this book as there are not even descriptions of Bermuda, and if you have ever been there, as I had, you will be sorely disappointed.

I am a publisher of several authors and have read literally hundreds of eBooks, but this is far and away the poorest edited book I have ever come across. There are spelling errors, duplicate words and a whole host of grammatical gaffes that really spoil the flow of the book. Please, take some time to find an editor (or a qualified friend) and fix the issues before re-uploading a new version. You owe it to your paying customers and yourself..

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