#BookReview The Guilty Dead by P.J. Tracy @crookedlanebks

The Guilty Dead by P.J. Tracy
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Guilty Dead is the ninth book in P.J. Tracy's addictive and internationally bestselling Twin Cities series.

Gregory Norwood, wealthy businessman and close friend of Minnesota's leading candidate for Governor, is found dead on the first anniversary of his son's drug overdose. It seems clear to Detectives Gino and Magozzi that grief drove him to suicide.

Until they realise the left-handed man seems to have used his right hand to pull the trigger.

And they find the second body.

As the seemingly open-and-shut case becomes a murder enquiry, the detectives begin to delve into the dark secrets of one of the city's most powerful families. It seems the murders are not the first in the Norwoods' tragic story - and they won't be the last . . .

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I don't want to be a Negative Nancy when it comes to books. However, this book just didn't turn out the be as good as I had hoped it to be. I have long wanted to read this series and with the latest published book, THE GUILTY DEAD did I finally take the plunge. I have this as a copy, but I decided to listen to the audioversion instead since then I could take the book with me to work...;)

I did think the book started off good, with murders looking like suicide. However, I had one big problem all through the book. One problem that made it hard for me to truly enjoy the book. The characters. I've listened to books before with a lot of characters to keep track on. And, usually, it's not a big problem. This time, I kept forgetting who was who ALL THE TIME. Yup, now and then I turned to the ecopy of the book I had to search for a name to find out who she/he was. I probably broke my name search record for one book. Now, there will obviously be those that will chide me telling me that it's a risk when you haven't read the previous books in a series. However, I will tell you that I seldom have this problem. Unless the characters are not memorable. Needer the main characters nor those new in this book made an impression on me.

So, how was the story? Well, not bad, but not overly engrossing. I will say this. The book worked fine when it came to listening to at work (when I was not confused about someone identity). The identity of the main culprit was hardly a surprise. Often it felt like I was one step ahead of the characters in the book, although I did enjoy the last part of the book when everything unraveled.  I do want to read the first book in the series to see if that will work better for me.

THE GUILTY DEAD was just not my cup of tea. However, fans of this series will probably enjoy this book very much.