Romantic suspense author Christina Dodd moves even further
into thriller territory with her latest release, VIRTUE
FALLS. This is book one in the Virtue Falls series, which
also contains a novella, The Listener. For the first
third
of the book, there were a large number of seemingly
unrelated threads, and the plot lines seemed disjointed
and
confusing to me, enough so that I contemplated not
continuing to read. However, as the book progressed, Dodd
deftly wove these seemingly disparate threads into a dense
tapestry of tension and mystery. There's a touch of
romance, and a hint of mysticism flavoring some parts as
well. The mystic parts were a distraction to me and did
not seem to add anything that advanced the story, and I
wonder if they are there to set up the next book in the
series.
Elizabeth Banner is a young geologist working in the
isolated northwest coastal town of Virtue Falls. When
Elizabeth was four years old and living in Virtue Falls,
she
witnessed her mother's brutal murder. Her father was
convicted of the crime and Elizabeth was sent off to be
raised by dour relatives, without love. Elizabeth is
presented as a stiff, awkward misanthrope who doesn't
understand how to interact with others, reminding me of
Temperance Brennan in the TV show Bones, which I love.
Half of the fun of reading about Elizabeth is watching how
socially inept she is, which creates all sorts of
entertainingly bumbling interactions.
Shortly after arriving in the little town for her
scientific research, a devastating earthquake and
resulting
tsunami strike the region. The earthquake reveals a long-
buried secret which may demonstrate that Elizabeth's
father
is innocent. Elizabeth's ex-husband Garik Jacobsen is an
FBI agent who drops everything to rush home to Virtue
Falls
to take care of his beloved elderly mother. Garik uses
his
investigative skills to help Elizabeth, as they work
together to solve the deadly mystery. Elizabeth and Garik
are forced to confront the miscommunication and lack of
trust that drove them apart the first time. Dodd's
longtime romance fans will enjoy this part of the tale,
although beware, it only makes up a smart part of this
complex story. The tension slowly is ratcheted up as
Elizabeth and Garik scramble to decipher the clues and
reveal the real killer before Elizabeth becomes his next
victim.
There are a huge number of suspects in the insular town
for
the role of murderer. The character types felt almost
like
caricatures, although Dodd is a talented enough writer to
make them feel fairly fresh to me. There is the
incompetent sheriff who mismanaged the original murder,
the
narcissistic local artist with his controlling wife, and
the hippie running the local diner. Dodd assembles a
large
cast of stereotypical quirky small town characters that do
enliven the novel and provide lots of fun red herrings. I
do hope, however, that for her next book Dodd returns to
her usual romantic suspense style.
Twenty-two years ago, the beautiful Misty Banner was
brutally murdered in her home in Virtue Falls, Washington.
Her daughter Elizabeth, four years old at the time of the
murder, has lived her entire life believing that her
father
committed the crime.
Now, two decades later, Elizabeth is
back in Virtue Falls and hoping to find out the reasons
behind the murder. What she never expects to learn,
though,
is that her father was innocent all along. In fact, the
real killer is still out there. And Misty was not his
only
victim...
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