Review: Shadow of Suspicion by Christy Barritt

A computer expert, Lacey Ryan, is accused of child kidnapping and faces numerous attempts on her life.  Mark James,the detective investigating Lacey, moves from suspicion to a desire to prove her innocence. The novel covers the following:  deception on many levels, computer hacking, cyber-terrorism, and a complicated plan to entrap the female protagonist.  There is a bit of an Alias/Sydney Bristow/CIA/SD-6 situation going on in this story, but on a smaller scale. 

The novel takes place in the same universe as Mountain Hideaway (Trent McCabe’s and Tessa Jones’s story), and Dark Harbor (Zach Davis’ and Madelyn Sawyer’s story), which were both also written by Christy Barritt.  In fact, readers are given a look into the post-nuptial life of Trent and Tessa, however, Zach is given just a passing mention.

There was enough mystery and suspense for me to wonder about what was going on.  I had a bit of a Scooby Doo experience:  I wasn’t able to guess who all the culprits were before the end, and needed the debriefing to discover how deep the conspiracy against Lacey was.  

It’s also a quick read; I was able to finish the book in less than two hours in one sitting.  If you are looking for a quick mystery to occupy yourself for an afternoon, and you enjoy a touch of romance, Shadow of Suspicion might be the book for you.

And now it's May 2023...plus thoughts about the blog

It has been so long since I've written in this blog, that I just want to post something quickly to get this going again.  I've also been reading, but the things that I've been looking at have been challenging to write about. Part of the problem has been that I've been reading unfinished serials that have been posted on the web, and I haven't decided yet if I want to write about them.  

I also don't really know what I want my reviews to look like now.  Before, I wanted to write summaries of the plot and comment on my thoughts about the story lines and characters, but I can appreciate the hard work that authors put into creating their work.  So, do I have too many spoilers in what I post?  However, as a reader, sometimes I appreciate being able to read more detailed summaries posted by other reviewers so that I can decide if I truly want to take the time to read a book, perhaps to even give it a second chance if I am thinking of putting it aside.

Also, there have been works where I've had strong opinions about characters and their actions without considering whether it may be hurtful to the author, whose "baby" might have been "diced and sliced" by what I've written.  I had removed one review that I felt was too overly critical after considering the matter.  Also, for example, in the case of Betty Neels...I *love* reading her novels, but I often skewer her characters.  Although I love the escape her stories offer, I have often thought that if these characters were 'real' people, I would be tempted to actually throttle them in pure frustration over their behaviour.

As mentioned in the description, the blog was created so that I could post reviews in exchange for e-books from NetGalley.  I realize that this blog is just a blip in the internet, and that the vast majority of visits to it are actually by bots based on the statistics provided.  With it being a small insignificant entity with few actual readers, I didn't really think much before about the questions that I'm thinking about now:

a)  Are there too many spoilers in my reviews?

b)  Are the reviews too mean or critical in tone (at least for some)?  How do I write something that is fair without being malicious? 

c)  I have cross posted reviews on Goodreads.  Should I stop that, especially for non-Net Galley works that I review ?  I felt that NetGalley's purpose was to drum up publicity for their books, and Goodreads has a larger reach than my piddly little blog, and I started posting NetGalley reviews there.  When I started reviewing non-NetGalley books, I started to post those reviews on Goodreads too.

d)  What do I actually want to do with this blog?  I like having my little corner to voice what I really think about the things that I read.  

Well...this *is* a work-in-progress.