Let the Dead Speak: A Maeve Kerrigan Novel

Hello!  On August 14 Trouble in Dixie by Rebecca Barrett will be published.  It is the second book in Familiar Legacy series.  Trouble is staying with Julia Hampton in Savannah, Georgia and it looks like he will get to put his sleuthing abilities to work.  Familiar Trouble is the first story in the series.  

Let the Dead Speak by Jane Casey is the seventh installment in the Maeve Kerrigan Novels.  Chloe Emery returns home to 27 Valerian Road in London from visiting her father to find blood in almost every room of her home.  DS Maeve Kerrigan (she got a promotion) and her team are assigned the case.  There is plenty of blood, but they have yet to find Chloe’s mother, Kate Emery.  Maeve starts out by questioning Chloe, and then proceeds to canvas the neighbors.  The police bring in dogs to sniff out the victim, but they are unsuccessful.  They do, however, uncover some helpful clues.  Then Chloe and her friend, Bethany Norris disappear.  Were they taken or did they take off on their own?  What is going on in this neighborhood (and I thought I had troublesome neighbors)?  Maeve, with the help of DI Josh Derwent, must discern fact from fiction to identify the culprit.  Maeve will need to work quickly before more blood is spilled. 

I had a hard time wading through Let the Dead Speak.  The writing style is awkward/stilted ((clunky is a good word).  The story lacks flow (an easy style of writing) which makes for a hard to read story (insert yawn here).  Letthe Dead Speak sounded like a thrilling mystery novel, but, in the end, I was bored.  The mystery may seem complex, but the solution is not.  I solved the mystery early in the book (I would say how early, but then I would be giving away a spoiler).  The suspect pool is small.  Let the Dead Speak is a novel I read, but I was not pulled into the story or engaged.  I did, though, find a great cure for my insomnia (I have suffered from it since middle school).  One chapter and my eyes started drooping.  I woke up with my ebook nearby and off (happened twice in one night).  My rating for Let the Dead Speak is 2 out of 5 stars.  I especially disliked the transcript chapter (that is when I fell asleep for the second time).  The author needed to add more suspense and a surprising twist (and shorten the book).  The basic premise had potential.  I do want to warn readers that Let the Dead Speak contains foul language, violence, and intimate relations.  Unfortunately, the Maeve Kerrigan series (you can find the complete list of titles in this series here) is not for me. 

Thank you for reading my latest review.  If you like my book evaluations, please consider joining my blog (upper right--through Google+ or email).  The next time I will be sharing my thoughts about The Return by Suzanne Woods Fisher. I will be running a couple of errands today and then finishing Tiny House on the Hill by Celia Bonaduce.  May you have a fantastic and fun Friday!  Take care and Happy Reading!

Kris

The Avid Reader