Tuesday 13 August 2013

Book ~ "The Crimson Key" (2013) Wes Dodd

From Goodreads ~ David Paige, a young detective from Charleston, S.C., is about to embark on an investigation of a lifetime. 

After an unexpected tragedy shatters his perfect world, he also discovers that his mother had been keeping a life-long secret from him, revealing that he is not who he believed he was. With no family member to turn to, David has to rely on his detective skills and a mysterious item left to him from his mother ... a crimson-colored key. 

The search for the truth takes David to New York City, where he runs head on into lies, deception and murder, all in an attempt to cover up a string of dreadful crimes. Then if this is not enough to deal with, he falls for the daughter of a prominent man, both sharing an unexplainable attraction, which complicates his life even further. It isn't until a near-death experience, and the help of his mother through several frightening nightmares, that the pieces of the puzzle begin to come together. 

The Crimson Key ultimately unveils many secrets, surprising many people including David, which opens his eyes and heart as well.

Amber shows up at her twin sister Alice's door and asks Alice to take her newborn, David.  Amber is in trouble and needs Alice to protect her baby.

Fast forward twenty-five years ... Alice and David are living in a different state and David is a cop.  Alice suddenly dies and David is shocked to learn the truth ... that Alice wasn't his birth mother.  That sets him on a quest to find Amber ... he discovers she had been a model in New York but no one has heard from her in twenty-five years.

Though the story was interesting (but predictable), I wasn't crazy about the writing style. I found some of the phrasing a bit odd .. here are some examples:
After they showered, to the kitchen they headed.
She smiled.  "Snow skiiing .. don't you just love it?" [Note:  they were in the mountains in winter and had just been skiiing ... did she have to specify that it was "snow" skiiing and not "water" skiing?]
When room service knocked, he rose to greet his breakfast.

People thought a lot ... and in quotation marks so you knew exactly what they were thinking.  An example is in the excerpt above ... instead of wondering who was at the door, Alice literally thought to herself, “Who is at my door at one in the morning?"

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