"If only it didn’t get bogged down in the details." #Kindle #BookReview

On Message

by Joyce T. Strand

Genre: Mystery

Book Synopsis

Murder intrudes on Jillian Hillcrest’s routine as head communications executive at a small Silicon Valley biotechnology company. She is eagerly staying “on message” to inform investors, the media, and the community about her company, Harmonia Therapeutics, and its latest drug candidate in Phase 2 clinical trials for the difficult-to-diagnose and treat autoimmune disease, lupus. When someone near to her is murdered, a determined San Francisco police inspector involves her in the investigation, convinced she is key to solving the crime. She co-operates fully only to find that solving a murder is more hazardous than writing press releases. On Message is the first of a series of Jillian Hillcrest mysteries.

Bec's Rating

Bec's Review

Crime stories seem to be popular for review at the moment, as this is another one. However what makes this one different is that it is set in the realm of medical knowledge and biotech, where the main protagonist is a PR rep for a drug company developing a drug for Lupus. There are many twists and plot turns in the novel and much danger for our main character. There is suspense and risky situations that should have you on the edge of the seat. There is so much potential for this to be a real page turner and yet it falls short of that.

One of the main reasons it falls short is that this story gets bogged down in unnecessary detail. In all stories the information give should advance the plot in some way. However there was much information in this novel that was unimportant in terms of the actual story. I didn’t need to know that much about Lupus or what the drug they are developing intends to do, since it does not affect the plot. The same holds true for many other little snippets of information that just weren’t important and made me feel as if I was wading through this book rather than racing along to a climatic ending.

The other failing for me was the many points of view, or characters who got their own chapters. While this was fine for the major characters, such as our protagonist and the detective, there were some points where I was left wondering why I needed to hear from a character, especially in such detail in many cases. Not everyone involved in a story needs their voices to be heard, and there were quite a few minor characters whose personal point of view chapters could be left out. It just adds to the extra information.

However despite these failings this book was interesting. I just feel it has the potential to be more than just interesting, I feel it could be a great read, with just a bit of editing and cutting. It has all the elements of a great detective story, an interesting main character, several crimes, a mystery, suspense, danger and a few red herrings in the mix. If only it didn’t get bogged down in the details.

Disclaimer: Not recommended for children due to violence.