Issue: Spring 2014

Dead Man's Carve (2014) book review

Murder in Oregon

Rilee Dust is a second generation wood carver in Oregon. She is locked into grieving for her dead fiancé, for whom she wears a wedding ring. When one of her clients dies it is the beginning of an awakening for her. She has a sculpture to find, a dog to care for and a hunky veteran to think about. And a murder mystery.

Dead Man's Carve leans more heavily on the mystery than the possible romance in this contemporary crime story. The lead character, Rilee, has an inner life as well as her increasing involvement with the disturbing goings on in her town.

These seem centred on the neighbouring strip club. This club gives Roberts a chance to preach about the perils of the sex industry. "Paying for sex is a major character flaw."

book cover, Dead Man's Carve, Kym Roberts; 220x345

Dead Man's Carve by Kym Roberts (2014)

This is a reasonably well written story, but the copy I received, complete with a large editor credit, was littered with spelling mistakes (not typos), grammatical errors and punctuation errors (plus a couple of easily avoided problems with the names of things). Every error stops the reader cold.

The most memorable thing about this book is the following error, "Shea stood at the side of the truck working the wench that relieved the manly truck of its weight." Handy woman to have around. The book, not so much.

Available through Amazon.com

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Ali Kayn
Search Festivale for more work by this author.