Distortion – Book Review

Title:Distortion (Moonlighters Series)
Author: Terri Blackstock

Synopsis:

A husband’s lies can have deadly consequences.

When Juliet Cole’s husband of fifteen years is gunned down in a dark parking lot before her eyes, she thinks it was a random shooting. Devastated and traumatized, she answers hours of questioning. When she’s finally allowed to return home to break the news to her boys, she hears a voicemail that takes the situation from a random shooting to a planned, deliberate attack. “Mrs. Cole, we know you have access to the supply and the money. If you don’t turn fifty million over to us and give us the codes, then you’ll be burying more family members.” Suddenly, Juliet realizes that she and her children are in danger.

She teams up with her sisters and PI Michael Hogan to dig into the sham Bob has been living for years. The more she learns, the worse the betrayal. A drug trafficking history, a fortune in cash, and a secret family all emerge to turn Juliet’s belief system on its head, and threaten the things she loves. Are she and her sisters skilled enough as sleuths to get to the truth?

My review:

I’m glad I chose to review Distortion – it helped me to remember how much I love suspense and crime-solving – something I had kind of forgotten!

While the premise of the book may not be new – a widow left groping in the dark about her husband’s secret life – I absolutely enjoyed how well the author dealt with it. Juliet’s disbelief – her attempting to hold out hope that the upright, outstanding Christian surgeon she was married to had been wrong. Her moving from grief, to denial to anger, and then deciding to be a hero for her children – all have been captured really well by Blackstock. Also, the elder son’s feeling that his mother has betrayed his father’s memory, contrasting with the other son who seems to almost enjoy his sudden fame, has again been well portrayed. Also, the dynamics within Juliet’s family of origin are interesting too.

Although the book is part of a series, and I haven’t read the first one, I didn’t get the feeling of ‘missing pieces’ – the transition is well done. However, I did feel the ending was rather abrupt – a little obvious that the author wants to move into Number 3 in the series.

All the same, this was one of those books that I had to read until the end to see how it turned out and Terri Blackstock managed to keep me engaged.

[rating=4]

I received a free copy of this book from Litefuse in exchange for an honest review.

 

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