A Review of Blind Alley by Iris Johansen
What do you do when you find your daughter’s face on the forensics sculpture you just finished reconstructing? On top of that, the case you have been working for has already spanned several cities as well as several countries. Someone is out there. Someone is out there murdering women and they all have one thing in common, their face. What does this mean for your daughter? Is she next?
Blind Alley by Iris Johanson is the fifth book in the Eve Duncan series. Blind Alley follows Eve Duncan and her family as they try to understand this unusual situation. Eve Duncan became a forensics sculptor after her first daughter, Bonnie, was kidnapped and murdered. Now, her mission is to help families locate their lost loved ones by reconstructing faces that otherwise cannot be identified. Joe Quinn, Eve’s boyfriend, is a detective working for the Atlanta police who was assigned the case of finding the identity of a woman whose face was removed and fingertips were burned. This meant that there was no immediate method of identifying this woman. Thus now, Eve’s role plays a prominent part. But when Eve finished the reconstruction, they pair realized that this woman looked exactly like their adoptive daughter, Jane McGuire.
Soon later, a suspicious man by the name Mark Trevor from Scotland Yard in London notified Joe that the killer is coming after Jane very soon. Further research indicated that whoever this person was, had murdered several other women, beginning in Europe and leading to the USA. Now, the trail shows that Atlanta could be the next city the suspect attacks. Who is Mark Trevor and why is he contacting Jane’s family right before the suspect could attack? Why should Eve, Joe, and Jane trust Trevor?
Before long, the family learns that all of the victims’ faces resemble a close similarity to Cira, a beautiful woman who lived in ancient Herculaneum, Italy. Cira began as slave but soon became one of Herculaneum’s most well-known and wealthiest persons. However, Mount Vesuvius erupted, causing the citizens of Herculaneum and all of their belongings to vanish. This included Cira’s chest of Herculaneum gold coins, which found now, would be priceless.
Why is this serial killer going after the Cira look-alikes? What do they want? If the hunt continues and Jane is indeed the next target, what will she and her family do? Will they be able to help the FBI and catch this killer once and for all? Or will the killer completely skip Jane and her family?
Blind Alley by Iris Johansen is a wonderfully written book that captures the readers’ attention and leaves them in suspense. This book is fairly fast paced and it requires the ability to remember many details in order to understand everything that is going on. In addition to telling this tale with simple dialogues, the author includes history lessons through strange mythical dreams the main character has. I highly recommend this book to anyone, even if you have not read the first few books in this series. Altogether, this book will draw you in and surprise you when you are least expecting it. I give this book 12/13 bologna slices.
I thought that this was a good book recommendation. I liked how you asked questions while summarizing to further entice the reader. It gives me the impression that the book would be very suspense based, which definitely would make me want to read it more. However, I was a little confused while you were summarizing, but there seemed to be so much information, so it was expected. I definitely will consider Blind Alley for my future independent reading.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds very interesting. The hook for the review itself it very good, I would just suggest making the summary a little more concise and a little more leading in a single direction, so use the hook then lead on into summary.
ReplyDeleteI think the way you wrote the review is very captivating, and I think it well suits the mystery of this book. I might check out Blind Alleys.
This sounds like a really good book! I like how you gave important details without spoiling it, it makes me want to read it for myself. The first paragraph was intriguing, but didn't quite make sense because
ReplyDeleteI had no information. Thanks for the review!
This was a great review. You gave an idea of what the book was about without giving any spoilers. It sounds like an interesting book, and I'm a fan of mysteries, so I will be sure to check out this series.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds so mysterious and you really captured the suspense. I especially liked the paragraph where you were asking questions to build of the tension. I'll definitely check this book out!
ReplyDeleteThis seems like an interesting series. I would consider getting this book from the library, especially since the plot was not spoiled by this review, while also building suspense. 12/13 bologna slices
ReplyDeleteI love your hook and the way you used questions to get the reader interested. I would have tried to get this book in my hands as fast as possible if not for the fact that I can't stomach anything scary whatsoever. This book recommendation was very well written and I can't wait to see what other books you will talk about! (Hopefully not scary murder mysteries so I can actually get the book) Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteI love your hook, it definitely interested me. This book sounds interesting and I will probably look at it. Your summary although a tiny bit confusing towards the end, was really well written and I got a good idea of what the book is about. It might be better if you wrote a little more about your opinion so we can get a better idea of what you thought of the book.
ReplyDeleteI recently read another of Iris Johanssen’s books, Vendetta, which I did not enjoy because it was too much romance and not enough suspense or cool forensics stuff. Your summary of Blind Alley sounded much cooler and more action/suspense packed, so maybe I will try giving this author another go. It might be helpful if you listed the other books in the series in your review so that someone would know where to start if they wanted to read from the beginning. Nice job including a very detailed and intriguing summary.
ReplyDeleteThis series sounds great. The recommendation made me really excited to read it. It was really concise and hit all the major points (although I'd like to know your opinions of the characters and the (at least it seems like) mix between science and myth). If you could give examples without spoiling the book, that would be great. All in all, great review.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very well-written post that not only provides a detailed summary of the book, but also doesn't give any spoilers. Because you built up suspense by asking questions about what will happen, I will probably read this book at some point. Overall, you did a great job with this post.
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