One Deadly Sin

Author: Annie Solomon
Genre: Mystery
Type: Paperback
Pages: 394
First Published:2009
First Line: "She came at night, creeping into town like a shade."

Synopsis: Edie Swann returns to her hometown for the first time since her childhood with one thing on her mind ... revenge. Her goal is to get payback for her father's suspicious death that happened decades earlier. Equipped with only a list of local suspects she slowly and quietly taunts each of them into thinking that he's being targeted for the murder.

Holt Drennen is a single father and the sheriff of the small town and is inexplicably drawn to Edie, a woman who is unlike any woman he's ever known. Instead of the cookie-cutter women his mother throws at him Edie is a breath of fresh air with her Harley, black leather, tattoos and attitude.

Unfortunately, soon after meeting Edie the men she's secretly taunting begin dying one by one. Slowly Holt realizes that the evidence point to Edie being the culprit in these sudden and unexpected deaths. Now Holt is stuck between believing the woman he loves and keeping his town safe. Will Edie and Holt be able to clear her name before the murderer strikes again ... will Edie being the next target?

My Thoughts: Overall, this was a decent read. The writing was good and there was suspense but it wasn't a 'hard to put down read'.

The revenge storyline was interesting and was what intrigued me when I saw the book at the library. Unfortunately, the story wasn't as intense as I was expecting. Yes, there were twists and turns but Edie's plan of sending her suspects a symbol to make them shake in their boots enough to confess to her father's death decades before is, in a word, naive. Why would a smart woman think that after decades of time that a trinket would cause someone, who until now has gotten away with murder, to suddenly confess. It just didn't make sense to me.

While I liked the main characters I didn't find their 'love' connection believable. They seemed too different from each other and fell in love much too suddenly for my liking. The reader is expected to believe that after brief 'encounter' Edie and Holt are suddenly soul mates. I needed a bit more history between the characters before I could believe their love.

That said, overall it was a decent read. Enough twists and turns to keep it interesting and the characters, while a little clichéd, were interesting. The ending was a little lackluster. A good mystery for me is one where I have several suspects that I keep tossing around in my head as the culprit. With this book I felt like the murderer came out of nowhere. The murderer was such a tertiary character that it felt odd when s/he was named as the murderer. Not a 'can't put down' kind of book but a decent beach read.

My Rating: 3/5 stars