Justice For Jessica – Alretha Thomas
I was fortunate to receive this novel as an Advance Reader Copy, in exchange for an objective review.
Stacey and Jessica are best friends and have been since high school. Although Jessica has married up and now lives a lavish lifestyle, she appears to remain true to her early friendship. Stacey oftens spends overnights with Jessica when her husband is away, and as this book opens, Stacey awakens and finds her best friend dead in her bed in the guest room.
Rachel Storme is a homicide detective for the local police department. On a leave of absence of her choosing after a killer was allowed free due to compromised evidence, Rachel isn’t sure if she wants to return to police work. Then a quick favor for a colleague sucks her right in to Jessica’s murder investigation – just like that, Detective Storme is back.
As with any murder, there are the obvious suspects and like most novels, the killer ends up being someone you don’t suspect. The story line was good, but some of the dialogue just didn’t fit – the relationship between Rachel and Stacey for example. Also, and I know I was reading an uncorrected proof, there is once scene where Stacey calls 9-1-1- to report something, but when she hangs up, she says goodbye to Rachel. Not how it works at all. In any event, it was a good storyline, the author just needs a bit more insider knowledge of how investigations work.
Tropical Delusions...... 