Awakening (A Joey Dearing Mystery) –by Patsy Shepherd

Fiction

Publisher: Kindle

721 KB

Footnotes/Endnotes: No

Suitable for eReaders: Yes

4 Stars

Disclaimer: I used to know Patsy Shepherd so my review may be a tad biased.

Joey (Johanna) Dearing is raised by her widowed father, goes off to college, and marries a real control freak. After a lifetime of being told what to do, when to do it, how to do it, by Dad, teachers, and husband, she finally decides she's had enough, and leaves her husband, her teaching job, and returns to her small hometown and a life on her own. The story is set in 1974, and that's important to remember for several reasons.

She gets a job as a part-time reporter for the weekly paper, and the story opens with her having a vision of a red tennis shoe. She's never had visions like this, and doesn't know what it means, or what to do about it. She ignores it and goes about her business of the day, on this day, interviewing the new police chief. While waiting, she has another psychic experience.

She learns, among other things, that the Police Chief believes her, and is interested in her visions, or sightings; her new boyfriend is not interested in that "bull crap;" and that she has a gift and finds a teacher to help her.

The story is engaging, I liked the characters I was supposed to like, and disliked the ones I should have disliked. The sex scenes were handled with a nice erotic touch, and weren't over played. Unfortunately, the one, and necessary, violence scene was, for this reviewer, a bit over the top. This is a case where I would have preferred more left to my imagination rather than the graphic and detailed description.  But, that's my preference, it may not be yours. The only other negative about the book is I think a good Copy or Continuity Editor would have worked wonders. There were several places where it was obvious things had been cut and pasted and not all of the old words deleted. Nothing major, but each place stopped me as I figured out which word was the correct word.

I enjoyed the building of the tension using Joey's visions and the climax of the story was, to this reader, logical. I don't want to get into too much and spoil it for anyone. This reads like the first in a series, and I hope it is. I look forward to more Joey Dearing books. I hope the same main characters are brought along for the ride, too. A good read.