Deadly Aim (Angel Delaney Mysteries)

I was offered this book cut rate and what the heck - always up for a mystery. This is a preachy sophomoric muddled young adult-like mess. The author seems to lack knowledge of the most basic point of view aspects of narrative. Where is the narrator - inside Angel's head? Over Angels shoulder? The author is obsessed with eye color for her main characters (emerald green notwithstanding) and in a weird way that a proper narrator wouldn't likely be. Eye-color except for the black characters that is. Praying and God dominant in story and not in a Jungian or Pierre Teilhard de Chardin way but in a sort of 5th grade Sunday School Way. I was impressed by the plot though - not easy to plot a mystery - and the similarities in some ways early in the book to the Treyvon Martin case were quite interesting. Boy shot - black community up in arms! The author is fearless in letting bad things happen to her main character - too much so finally. I know author has sold jillions of books and good for her, but she is not for me. Romance to me was tedious and predictable, religion unpalatable and boring, family idealized, plotting after shooting most interesting but tension not sustained. I strongly suggest a good writing class at the University level for the author if she is interested in not just selling books to Christians but in writing well.

"Deadly Aim" is a romantic suspense/mystery. It is the first in a series, but it reads like a stand-alone. The story was very suspenseful as things just kept getting worse and worse--emotional trauma, physical danger, and a series of murders of which people were quick to suspect her guilty. I didn't see how the author was going to turn things around. The characters were interesting, complex, and acted realistically. However, some evidence was used even after circumstances where it could potentially have been tampered with, and I'm not sure that was realistic.

While "whodunit" was on my list of likely suspects, I was left feeling somewhat unconvinced that this whodunit would have gotten away with all the evidence tampering, drug trafficking, and such without anyone noticing or could do that much killing without any change in behavior.

I liked that the romance didn't move too quickly. Angel had to work through letting go of a "safety net" boyfriend that she didn't intend to marry so that both of them could move on. I had admired how Angel and Callen didn't act on their desire to hug and kiss when it would have been inappropriate for them to do so...and then, within a page, they did do so. Ah, well. Also, I found it ironic that Angel hated how her father wouldn't trust her to do her job well despite all the evidence that she could, yet Angel wouldn't trust Callen to do his job well. But this was handled realistically.

Angel had been a Christian before a friend of hers was killed. Then Angel rejected God because He didn't answer her prayers the way she wanted Him to. After briefly ranting at her Christian family members about this on a few occasions, her mother pointed out that God had granted the prayer of the friend who died, and Angel reconsidered her view of God. This didn't come across as a sermon at any point.

There was no sex or explicit bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this suspenseful romantic mystery.

I don't consider this a crime novel. The police investigations were ridiculous and anyone who knows anything about crime investigations will be disappointed. Just completely unrealistic. If you enjoy Christian romance novels with characters playing traditional sexist roles you may enjoy it.

Angel Delaney has just moved back to her home town after working in Florida for a few years. After leaving behind her nightmares in Florida Angel gets a job as a deputy with Sunset Cove police. Her father couldn't be prouder as he works there himself. Angel was out on duty with her partner Eric about to go on a coffee break when it happened. The pharmacy was held up at gun point and Angel and Eric are called in. Angel sees a boy she recognises as trouble at the scene. She chases him into the old cannery. There Billy pulls a gun on her and Angel has to make a life changing decision. Fearing that her life was in danger Angel uses deadly force on twelve year old Billy. Her life turns upside down from there. Angel feels guilty although all the other officers tell her that they would have done the same thing in her situation. Angel is told that Billy was shot three times. Only Angel is sure that she only fired at Billy once and she almost hadn't even done that. For one minute she hesitated and almost chose Billy over herself. Then to make things even worse Angel finds out that the gun Billy had was a toy and not the real thing. Angel is then forced to take a leave of absence from work. As the new Organ State Police Detective begins to work with the local police department things speed up in their chaos. Angel's apartment is broken into and ransacked. Then her father has a heart attack. To top it all off her lawyer wants her to plead guilty in court instead of taking the time to prove her innocence. People are upset with the course of action the local police are taking and are stirring up publicity calling her a racist pig. Now Angel is taking things into her own hands to solve the confusing mystery of who is trying to get to her and who else shot Billy before it is too late.

I seriously do not understand all the 4 & 5 star ratings for this book. I'm at 51% right now and can NOT finish it. I kept going this far because of all the good reviews. A lot of repetitive detail regarding the main character's clothes, food, appointment times, family members, etc. I may have overlooked the information somewhere, but it's very religious. I will not be reading any more of this mystery series.

I just began reading Christian murder mystery, and so far I've been pleasantly surprised by pretty good writing, story, and character development. Patricia's book falls into that category.

The story kept me engrossed. I wanted to know what happened next.

My small criticisms would be that it was too easy a read with it's simple sentences. It wasn't so deep, and I didn't fall in love with the characters. And even though I liked them, I would have LOVED deeper character development - ah, so much more could be torn into!

But I appreciated how Patricia delved into the main character's psychology and at the counseling sessions - though I thought this could go deeper too.

3 stars for a capturing and entertaining story but just needing more...

A firecracker of a book, full of mystery and suspense, another police story with twists and turns and worth a read