Lisa Jackson & Nancy Bush's Wicked Lies

I try to read all of Jackson’s books that take place in my native state of Oregon. It is fun to visualize the characters racing around places I have actually been. In Wicked Lies the novel is staged up on the Oregon coast, around Seaside. Ultimately though, I was disappointed in this book. I felt like the basic plot had a good design and story line planned to work with, but once it was fleshed out there was a redundancy to it that taxed my wanting to move forward with the narration. The book is set up to be a darkly suspenseful tale with romance woven throughout it and a chillingly evil mass murderer named Justice. There was even a supernatural air to the Siren Song females, they all had Talents and were named after famous oracles and mythological characters. However, there were a few places where I felt like the authors either got stuck in the plot and were spinning their wheels without moving the story on or wanted to, again, tell the reader the same thing they already had to ensure we really got it. For me it was frustrating. I was able to skim ahead and not miss anything. I also felt like there was a forced sexual tension to Laura and Harrison’s relationship. I think it would have happened naturally but the authors over worked it.

There was another element to the book, and this may be a possible spoiler alert to some of you readers out there. I have recently experienced two miscarriages. Part of the story line in Wicked Lies revolves around one of the characters finding out she is pregnant and then later on she has a miscarriage. The author did an amazing job with this subject. However, the evil character in the book, Justice, has such horrific thoughts, sneering comments, disturbing images, and feelings delivered with such a grossly evil air that I found myself beyond disturbed. I could barely stomach or listen to Justice’s comments about the miscarriage. I do not know if this is good or bad that the author was successful in creating this emotion. I do not know what the author was trying to accomplish but as a reader who has been through miscarriages, and recently, it was too much for me. It did further my horror of the Justice character but… I do not know. I would be interested in what other readers think of this.