Crime not to read this. (I'm Watching You - Karen Rose)

Name: paulhanton

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Product:	I'm Watching You - Karen Rose
Date:	19/06/08 (138 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good steady plot, developed well.

Disadvantages: Fair bit of uneeded sub plot.

I'm Watching You. Karen Rose.

I do like reading and generally have at least two books on the go. The first will always be a 'learning book', maybe related to therapy, or even saxophones, it does not matter as long as I glean something. The second is always fiction, and I love horror, thrillers and crime quite a lot. So not having heard of this author, when I saw the book in Waterstones I thought I would give it a go.

This is not a quick read. At 660 pages it aint gonna be over in a day or two, and that's okay because it takes a little digesting. It isn't exactly slow, but I have found I like to read 30 or 40 pages then stop.

The plot is consistent and not that complex. It is essentially the story of the police trying to catch a vigilante killer. That being said, the plot is almost secondary to the secondary plots if that makes sense.

We have the vigilante:
We get to understand his thoughts bit by bit throughout the book as he kills people that he thinks deserve to die. How he chooses who dies is quite a cool twist which I won't spoil. He kills people who have either gotten away from justice, or who have helped them get away from justice. That he kills them is one thing, how the vigilante kills them is entirely another, again, I'm not going to spoil it for you. When he kills, contact is always made with the Prosecutor from the office of the District Attorney (Kristen Mayhew), usually by letter and he signs off "Your humble servant" He is watching Kristen throughout the book and knows a lot about her, hence the title. There are reasons for what he does and we get to find out as we go along....as well as more about the identity of the vigilante.........enough of a teaser!

The Prosecutor.
Kristen Mayhew. Capable, intelligent, successful, respected, attractive and somewhat controlled. We get the image of the consummate professional, all business suits and pinned hair, dedicated to her job, full of facts and figures, and a little guarded about anything outside of work. Outside of work consists of an apartment where she lives alone, she is constantly decorating. There are 'secrets' that Kristen hides, a past that we get to see slowly revealed throughout the course of the book. We also get to see the symbiotic nature of the relationship that the killer has with her. When I say symbiotic, I am probably a little too analytical, as she does not rely on the killer as much as the killer depends on her for their actions, though clearly her 'status' and changing environment throughout the story do depend very much on the killer's actions. We also get to see her growing relationship, at first professional and then personal with the cop investigating the case, Abe Reagan.

The Cop.
Abe Reagan is a career cop, from a line of career cops. He has lost a wife who was killed, he throws himself into his job. What starts as an investigation becomes more of a mission, to protect Kristen, to find the killer and to stop open gang reprisals on whoever they think the vigilante is, and who may have some knowledge of who the vigilante is. As the vigilante kills prominent criminals as part of his 'work', the criminal underworld starts to panic and try to protect themselves, in case they are next. This is a nice little counter plot, the crim's becoming vigilante on the vigilante!

As Reagan becomes more involved with Kristen we see a relationship build, which, although necessary to some extent to the plot, gets a bit distracting and 'big' at times for me. There is almost a whole chapter's worth devoted to the sexual tension and 'consummation' of their relationship, I have no idea why.

What is more interesting to me is the 'leads' that the police have on the vigilante, how he stays a step ahead, and the unravelling of his thoughts and motives throughout. Even better is the way the author gets us to think who the vigilante might be.

I like a book to be quite visual and descriptive; this is not big on that. Though it is what I would call cerebrally descriptive, what I mean by this is that it makes the reader think, not too hard granted, but does make the reader put the pieces together and jump ahead a few steps whilst reading.

Where it is very good is spinning out the tale over a timeframe that makes sense, this story tells a story that evolves, so naturally the time we need to take that in evolves too.

It is also good with lots of mini stories; Reagan's family, a news reporter that becomes prominent at different times, Mayhews' past. All these things seem quite separate yet quite essential. I do like the way the author has joined all these elements up. I also like the atmospheric nature of the book. It is not frightening, but quite matter of fact about everything as if the reader will just 'get it' and to some extent we do.

I some ways I find the writing style quite lazy and immature, yet it seems to be okay for it, there is nothing too complex, but not too basic either. The ending has some twists, of course and does pick up pace quite well.

This would be a great book to take on holiday, to read by the pool or in the shade on a lazy afternoon. After reading this I will have a look at other Karen rose's offerings and do hope that she is not too formulaic as for instance Tess Gerritson or Karin Slaughter have become.

Summary: Karen Rose - I'm watching you.