Customer Reviews

Suspect

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Tessa Vance is not having a happy life. The daughter of a martyred police hero, she joined the force and fought her way into a position as a Senior Detective in homicide. After two years in homicide she transferred location to be nearer her significant other who was having a significant snit because of her devotion to The Job.

It's Tessa's birthday. An intimate dinner for two is planned. Flowers are bought. She's wearing a low cut black dress and a pair of stiletto heels. Then the phone rings. There's a homicide at Funworld. Leaving her lover, her dinner and her flowers she faces her first case on the new job, her superior on the force and her new partner in stiletto heels and full face makeup. However, Tessa brazens it out.

The character of Tessa Vance was created for an Australian TV series, but the book is more than an adaptation of a TV script into a novel. Jennifer Rowe created the story line herself so she can tell the story in more depth here. The book is not as strong as the Verity Birdsong series, but it is quite entertaining.

Recommended for those who enjoy police procedurals and a good puzzle plot.

Jennifer Rowe is one of the top 2 or 3 practitioners of the traditional, classical mystery story. This book does not dissapoint; while different from the Birdie novels, still has a great plot, red herrings, multiple solutions and many of the classical tricks of the genre. Rowe and the now inactive Jane Haddam are probably the best 2 old-fashioned (in the very best sense of the word) writers of the fair-play detective story. And Rowe makes it seem effortless. If you like this type of mystery, the one where Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, and John Dickson Carr excelled, Rowe is a worthy successor to all 3 of them. Do not miss any of her books. Here she tries the currently popular genre of the serial murderer and gives it a ride like Christie's "The ABC Murders" and others of the classic era. Again, do not miss this!

Unless Tessa Vance is some sort of crazy superwoman, her life just doesn't add up. First there's eleven years, then fifteen years between the times she's at the fun park. Then, she's somehow able to make senior detective by the time she's 26/28 while also having gone to university and spent a year abroad afterwards. How is there time in her life for that, unless being a legacy means she spent all of thirty seconds as a regular cop before jumping to the big leagues.

She's constantly described as not being a team player, when she's really not a player of any sort. She comes up with random ideas that "just might work" because everyone else is too stupid to even tie their own shoes. She has a freaking stalker and keeps it to herself. She's not very smart on top of not working well with others.

As for the mystery, it got caught up in its own cleverness, ultimately making for a dreary and disappointing read.

To spend more time with her significant other, Senior Detective Tessa Vance transfers from one homicide division to one closer to her home. While celebrating her birthday, the on-call law enforcement official is notified to report for duty. Feeling a bit guilty, she still leaves an angry Brett behind to join a murder investigation.

At Funworld, Tessa joins the already in progress investigation. This is also the first time she meets her new partner Steve Hayden. Apparently, Marty Mayhew was strangled to death. However, when the police removes his costume, it turns out that Pete Grogan is the victim. Though they get off on the wrong foot and do not trust one another, Tessa and Steve begin searching for clues. Soon, Tessa uncovers the fact that a brilliant serial killer is cutting a path through town that leaves the two detectives racing the clock before the final murders complete a grim record.

Americans will absolutely adore Australian Jennifer Rowe, who proves that she is an incredible mystery writer. As it has in Down Under, SUSPECT is going to be doubly recognized as one of the best police procedurals and best serial killer novels of the year. The classy story line never eases its grip on the reader's adrenal glands. The characters are all engaging because their tiny flaws make them seem so genuine. Readers will demand that Ms. Rowe's previous novels gain an American publisher because she will have already obtained an American audience.

Harriet Klausner