If Looks Could Kill by Beverly Barton - Book Review

 

As a writer and reader, I believe it is vital to sometimes change the genre you read. I am a big lover of romance and young adult books, but if I always read the same types of genres, my mind would not grow. On top of that, I would love to write crime fiction when I am older. Therefore, reading in this genre will help me understand what is needed when writing in this category. 

The blurb hooked me from the start, and throughout reading the novel, I was hooked. I would read this book during my breaks at my old job, and on a few occasions, I lost track of time and came down from my break a few minutes late – luckily, no one realised.  I have also just realised that this book is part of a series, being the third and final. Throughout the book, I did have a feeling that there was at least another book before this one as some criminal act happened between these characters before, but there are actually two. However, you don’t have to actually read the first two, even though it might put some more layers to this novel. 

This novel is about a serial killer killing redheaded women by raping them and then strangling them with a black ribbon around their neck. We learn that this had been going on for decades, but the police didn't realise it until the deaths started happening a week apart. On top of that, we meet one of our main characters, Reve Sorrel, who is going to Cherokee Pointe to meet up with Jazz Talbot. The reason for this is they look really alike and might be twins - they both have red hair.  Knowing this from the blurb, you have a suspicion that this serial killer will have some connections as to why these twins have never met each other until then. 

Writing it from a third-person point of view is probably the best way to write a crime novel, as you can dive into the different storylines with each character. Doing this made it easy for Barton to go into the eyes of our serial killer without revealing who this character is, as we made the connection that this serial killer is someone from Cherokee Pointe. I adored that she did that, as it made this guessing game feel extremely real as if we were a part of the investigation. I also do feel that the reason why these two hadn't seen each other until they were older made sense. It didn’t just come out of the blue, and it didn't seem ridiculous. 

However, stating that, what I am still trying to wrap my head around is who the serial killer is. At one point, they mentioned it wouldn’t be him, and in my head, I thought that made sense, but then it turned out to be this character. In my eyes, there was no proper explanation that this person was a serial killer.  Don’t get me wrong; it is great when you don’t guess who the murderer is until the author tells you at the end of the book. Nevertheless, we should be able to read back through the book and pin-point parts that link with this person being the killer. But in my eyes, I couldn’t do this, and thus, it makes the person who is the serial killer not make any sense. 

Due to all of this, I believe giving this book 3/5 stars is ideal, as I found it flowed well, but the ending sadly did not make sense from my point of view.