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A review by vickymccormick16
Close Enough To Kill by Beverly Barton
1.0
Predictable, outdated and unoriginal.
I picked this book up on a whim, read the rather corny blurb and decided to give it a go. I wouldn't say it's bad, but it's certainly not what I would call good either.
One of the biggest problems for me was the lack of strong female characters. There were bits of it which made me wonder when this book was written, because apart from Bernie, the lead character, all of the women in this book were objects whose sole purpose was to be with a man. Even Bernie at times, who is a strong, independent and smart sheriff, still had some cringey thoughts such as "Don't you dare vomit. Neither one of these big strong men is sick to his stomach" which just made me groan.
All of the other female characters were obsessed with men, either getting a husband, finding someone else a husband or just getting laid. Bernie's mother, Brenda, in particular drove me crazy, especially because her some of her views, such as how Bernie needed to lose ten pounds, had no reason to be in the book at all. When she wasn't cooking or serving food, Brenda was setting up her daughters with men or worrying about the fact that they didn't have husbands yet, "Both girls were equally disappointing to a mother who longed to see her daughters happily married and producing some grandchildren for her... Brenda felt it motherly duty to do what she could to help both girls find the proper mate." No, we really just want to get back to Bernie, Jim and the investigation, both of whom are much more interesting.
As for the whodunit part of the book, it was interesting to hear about the various criminal investigation procedures, and you can tell Barton did her research, but I found some of the sex scenes a bit explicit and the murderer was not difficult to guess. At the end of the book, all loose ends were tied exceptionally neatly that was that.
I guess if you want a simple whodunit with some romantic suspense, then Barton provides. However, I think that there are so much better books out there in this genre which are more worth your time.
I picked this book up on a whim, read the rather corny blurb and decided to give it a go. I wouldn't say it's bad, but it's certainly not what I would call good either.
One of the biggest problems for me was the lack of strong female characters. There were bits of it which made me wonder when this book was written, because apart from Bernie, the lead character, all of the women in this book were objects whose sole purpose was to be with a man. Even Bernie at times, who is a strong, independent and smart sheriff, still had some cringey thoughts such as "Don't you dare vomit. Neither one of these big strong men is sick to his stomach" which just made me groan.
All of the other female characters were obsessed with men, either getting a husband, finding someone else a husband or just getting laid. Bernie's mother, Brenda, in particular drove me crazy, especially because her some of her views, such as how Bernie needed to lose ten pounds, had no reason to be in the book at all. When she wasn't cooking or serving food, Brenda was setting up her daughters with men or worrying about the fact that they didn't have husbands yet, "Both girls were equally disappointing to a mother who longed to see her daughters happily married and producing some grandchildren for her... Brenda felt it motherly duty to do what she could to help both girls find the proper mate." No, we really just want to get back to Bernie, Jim and the investigation, both of whom are much more interesting.
As for the whodunit part of the book, it was interesting to hear about the various criminal investigation procedures, and you can tell Barton did her research, but I found some of the sex scenes a bit explicit and the murderer was not difficult to guess. At the end of the book, all loose ends were tied exceptionally neatly that was that.
I guess if you want a simple whodunit with some romantic suspense, then Barton provides. However, I think that there are so much better books out there in this genre which are more worth your time.