P.M. Steffen

The audiobook edition of "The Profiler's Daughter" runs for a little over nineteen hours. I made it to the end of the first hour and decided life was too short to listen to the rest.

I know that sounds harsh. I'm sure there are people out there who will enjoy this book but I'm not one of them.

My misgiving started with the Prologue, where a child, out with his younger sister in the woods at night, discovers the corpse of a freshly killed woman and takes the opportunity to fondle her breasts. I almost stopped then. I don't find under-age necrophilia entertaining.

Reluctant to abandon the book after only a few minutes, I persisted.

Instead of getting the hard-boiled "Wired In The Blood" style of book I was expecting and dreading, I was presented with a slightly silly romance, built around a cowboy boot-wearing female pathologist who pukes at the sight of dead bodies, has a failed relationship with the lead homicide detective and is haunted by some recent trauma that has affected her ability to function. My main reactions was: "not another one of these!".

What finally persuaded me to stop listening was the quality of the writing, which managed to be simultaneously underwritten and riddles with cliches.

Questioning why I'd decided to buy a book that is so far away from my personal taste, I went back to the publisher's blurb:

"The Profiler's Daughter is a psychologically haunting thriller that combines murder mystery, love triangle, and family intrigue in one satisfying page burner."

With the benefit of hindsight, I can see that I should have paid more attention to "love triangle" and "page burner" and less to "psychologically haunting thriller". Even then I should have been troubled by the clumsy construction of the phrase. Shouldn't it be "haunting, psychological thriller"? How, exactly does something become "psychologically haunting"?… (más)

Sky Stone was born into the wealth and privilege of Boston's oldest Brahmin family but chooses instead to follow in the footsteps of her deceased father, legendary FBI profiler Monk Stone. In the chilly morning hours before the Boston Marathon, when a beautiful university student is found strangled and mutilated, her body left at the base of Heartbreak Hill, Sky returns from self-imposed exile to investigate. Thirty-six hours into the investigation, Sky's world turns upside down when she is fired from the Homicide team. They pin the murder on an innocent man, forcing Sky into a treacherous game of cat and mouse with the real killer. From the stately mansions of Beacon Hill to the flat scrubland of central Texas, Sky keeps the reader on a razor's edge, culminating in a no-holds-barred shoot-out.

An ambitious mystery by indy author P M Steffen with many threads. I will be looking for the next in this series.… (más)

Could not continue with the two other books I am struggling with so squeezed this one in between.
Started October 1st, 2013.
Gripping page turner, from one perspective, a bit single-minded.
Epilogue with Sky nearly ruined everything for me.
Without it, the book would have gotten 5 stars for a really interesting, fast paced book.
But some scenes and lucky saves where too much coincidence to be believable.
While the ending is not conclusive in one regard (Jake or Ben Yost Junior) I'd rather see Sky stay single and focused on her work, not her shambles of a private life, I like my women strong and independent, regrettably the tone of the ending points in another direction, but I will certainly read the next book in the series. And the turn of the epilogue was again unbelievable and saccarine sweet. More like a wishful dream of what could be. If the next book stays on that path it will certainly be my last, and I hope rather not.
One thing to mention: the EBook (Mobi) had no DRM, very wise decision.

(Edited again 07-Oct-2013 for a few minor corrections and additions)… (más)