Face of Betrayal, Lis Wiehl & April Henry

The easiest book review is two words: “Read this!” Soooo…this blog is going to be a bit longer because this book disappointed me. The mystery line of the story is about a young girl who disappears near her home in Portland. The story unravels the past leading up to her disappearance, and eventually reveals the cause and culprit. The main characters are three women (prosecutor, investigator and reporter) who work on the case.

I was excited about this book, but I was fooled by good marketing. I felt like I had read it before in actual news stories. I was hoping for more creative plot “twists and turns” as advertised. I was hoping to be surprised, and I wasn’t. And now I just sound like a complainer, but I felt the book lacked the sensory details that can make a good story come alive.

Because many of my reading buddies are much younger than I, a few scenes in this book prevent me from recommending it. Between an abusive boyfriend and an affair between an underage girl and older man, some scenes could have been left out. As I said before, they are elements common in the news. But it bothered me that they were presented neutrally, almost like news, and not as moral issues. The news is depressing. I enjoy books that deal with real issues, but in fiction I’m looking for an added entertaining, or inspirational, or educational spin. And life’s short, why not hope for all three?

Extra: Some similar books I’ve read are Randy Alcorn’s Deadline, Dominion, Deception series, and also recently, Sibella Giorello’s The Rivers Run Dry. They are also mysteries set in the Northwest, and – for me – were much more entertaining and thought provoking.