Rainbow Reviews

BOOK BLURB:
It couldn't be simpler. All Evan Austin needed to do was find R.J. Gibson before his eighteenth birthday and the kid would inherit a huge trust fund. Everybody would go home happy: R.J. would be set for life, the mom would appease her guilt, and maybe Evan would finally be able to put a tragic case from his past behind him.

But nothing in life is ever that easy. Adding to the confusion are a young woman whose boyfriend liked to slap her around and the murder of an Assistant U.S. District Attorney, for which one of Evan's former clients is now a suspect. Throw in his growing attraction to R.J.'s guardian, artist Roman Cavanaugh, plus the Mariners having another really bad season, and Evan's got a bit more on his plate than he can handle.

Not that it's ever stopped him before.

BOOK REVIEW:
This book is the start of a new mystery series involving the main character, Private Investigator Evan Austin. In the opening story, the characters are engaging and story is interesting enough to catch my attention and leave me wanting more. However, there are numerous problems with the book, most of which is a lack of concise focus but I’m still intrigued enough to continue with the series. I get the feeling as the series progresses the stories will become tighter and better and I'm looking forward to the next edition. If you’re interested in a lighter mystery with a large cast of great characters, this should satisfy.

The story revolves around the main character Evan and three distinct mystery story lines. The first is the main focus of the book ~ missing teenager, R.J., and his inheritance fund. The second is a young abused woman and her gangster boyfriend. The third and final mystery is the murder of a district attorney and the possible tie in to an old client of Evan’s. Together, these three mysteries drag Evan all over the place and require the help of a large cast of characters to find some resolution. Along the way, the missing teenager introduces Evan to a possible love interest and the hopelessly romantic investigator can’t help falling in lust.

Told in first person point of view, Evan is not a strong enough character to pull off this style of writing unfortunately. While he has interesting aspects to his character, including his strong romantic edge and dedication to fashion, overall he comes off as the weakest of the cast. There is a line later in the book that mentions Evan became a police officer through work and determination rather than brilliant intuition and that describes his character rather well. He’s definitely not too bright and makes obvious, repeated mistakes which give him a human side with flaws. Sadly, those flaws overwhelm his character and leave him with more weaknesses than strengths. He doesn’t seem to accomplish much except drink an absurd amount of coffee, shop frequently, and indulge in expensive, foolhardy crusades where he acts like a vigilante. There is quite a bit of potential to the character though and when the outside action is streamlined, this may give Evan a more dynamic personality.

Part of the problem with the character of Evan is the crowded and multiple story lines. The main mystery of finding R.J. and his inheritance was complicated and interesting enough to fill the book. The small dropped bits about the murder of the DA and Evan’s client is clearly the focus of the next book so while it’s understandable the storyline was added, it is unnecessary. Thankfully those scenes are kept to a bare minimum. Unfortunately there was a large and distracting storyline involving a young abused girl and her boyfriend that is lengthy and totally unnecessary. That story could fill its own book and helped to keep the book focused in one direction instead of several. Here the lengthy aside creates more problems and plot holes in the book than it offered insight and additional interest. The idea itself is solid and Evan’s handling of the problem is mostly spot on but it creates distraction and plot holes unfortunately which aren’t balanced by enough positive elements.

Some of the plot holes created with the numerous story lines were Evan’s repeated injuries. In one instance, he’s beaten so badly he can barely move and 24 hours later, he’s running and there is no further mention of his injuries or the impact they have after one day of recovery. This is repeated later in the book when Evan is injured in another action scene and mere days later he is running to exhaustion on a beach. The lack of continuity in something as simple as injuries extended to numerous smaller details. These were noticeable but didn’t detract too much from the story.

While the story had some clear issues, the cast of characters was fantastic. Aside from the problematic Evan, the women who did most of the work for Evan are wonderful with vibrant personalities. The characters of Edge and R.J. are especially scene stealing and hopefully will be featured in more stories. I was disappointed that Edge was written out of the story so quickly after being introduced as his personality vividly came to life in the book. Even Quinn and Roman were wonderful and added much needed depth and complexity, creating an utterly fabulous cast. I much preferred the scenes of Evan interacting with others than his own thoughts and actions as the writing was tighter and more dynamic with an energy to the prose that was sometimes lacking in scenes with Evan alone.

Overall, this was a good first offering to a series that has the potential to be quite addictive. Hopefully the inherent problems and lack of focus will be solved in the next book so the various personalities and connections can shine with a solid mystery component. The potential is most certainly there and the creativity is evident throughout the book. While the ending was a let down as it was ridiculous and implausible, the majority of the book was completely engaging and interesting. For mystery lovers, you’ll want to start the series now. I have faith the next book will be even better.

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