Taxed to Death
Debra Purdy Kong
Mystery/Suspense
[rating: 3/5]
Available in:
• Mobi/Kindle
• ePub/iPad
• PDF
• HTML
… from…
• Amazon
• MobiPocket
• AllRomanceEbooks
• OmniLit
Also in paperback
When Revenue Canada auditor Alex Bellamy discovers that $150,000 is missing from Ice Craft Jewelers inventory, someone from Special Investigations suddenly takes him off the case. But Alex decides to keep investigating anyhow, and before he knows it, his best friend is dead—suicide, if you can believe it. Moreover, someone is chasing Alex himself, and he must turn to Jillian Scott, a woman he’s never met and who is as afraid of him as he is of being caught. Soon, her fears and his search embroil them in a bizarre and disturbing nightmare.
I read Taxed to Death as part of a review-exchange on GoodReads: I read someone’s book, and someone else reviews one of mine. To that end, and short of cash, I purchased a copy of Debra Purdy Kong’s Taxed to Death on the used market. This is the first in the Alex Bellamy series, the second being her more recent release, Fatal Encryption. But I couldn’t find a used copy of the more recent title, and I thought it would probably be best to start with the first in the series, anyhow.
The book started by throwing names and facts at me, as many mysteries do. Unfortunately—maybe because I’m dense—I didn’t get what was happening until later in the story. The story is billed as a mystery, but in some ways, it reads more like a suspense novel… except that I didn’t understand the characters, at all. In fact, the major viewpoint character, Les Silby, who gets the most screen-time, he’s one of the suspects. Him I got, at least as much as I could without knowing his full role until the end. Alex and Jillian, the hero and heroine of the story, I had no idea why they did most of the things they did.
As a side-effect, because the story can’t give away the ending, it frequently gave me a partial view, blanking out obvious things that the viewpoint character could see and was thinking about. Now, I’m not an expert in the mystery genre. As I recall, the mysteries I’ve read have achieved this effect simply by staying in the mind of the detective. Suspense novels, not so much, but in a suspense, it’s more important to maintain the tension between hero and villain, rather than to keep secret who the villain is. I’m not sure I liked the effect in Taxed to Death.
The story did get better near the end, as the situation became clear and the forces of evil began to close around our heroes. Even so, I never understood why Alex and Jillian did most of what they did, or felt what they felt, or thought what they were thinking. This is extremely important to me, because rich, three-dimensional characters are key to a good story. And these characters just fell flat.
This story is also missing a theme, as far as I can tell. I had originally expected something like: financial fraud is about more than money. (And that could be the theme of the story… maybe, kinda.) Or: we all pay when someone embezzles funds. (And I didn’t get that at all from this story.) Much less did I see an uplifting, character-based theme. It simply wasn’t that kind of book.
After all of that, I do hope to read the next book in the series Fatal Encryption. Why? Well, Taxed to Death is Debra Purdy Kong’s first book, published 15 years ago. That means that Debra probably put more into it than any other story she’s written, but also that it reflects her inexperience as an novelist. I’m hoping that Fatal Encryption, which came out just a couple years ago, gave her a chance to address some of the storytelling issues I noticed in Taxed to Death. Most importantly, I’m hoping she has gotten better at characterizing her characters, and I really want to get to know Alex Bellamy.
-TimK
|
Taxed to Death |
Available in: |
sportbet – https://sportbet-br.com
Wow, awesome blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you make blogging look easy. The overall look of your site is wonderful, as well as the content!
try this website https://prismagent.agency/
click here for more info https://elara.uno
my explanation https://verio.buzz
Новости Мира С линии фронта поступают сообщения об увеличении гуманитарной помощи населению освобожденных территорий. Российские волонтеры доставляют продукты питания, медикаменты и предметы первой необходимости. Организуются пункты временного размещения для беженцев.
https://www.boycat.co/blogs/42530/What-is-Promo-Code-in-1xBet-Egypt-ALLINMAX-130-Bonus
дайсон официальный сайт pylesos-dn-6.ru .
see this https://flaunch.ink/
read this post here https://xmaquina.cc/
Get More Information https://colend.lat
Howdy! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a collection of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us beneficial information to work on. You have done a outstanding job!
certainly like your web-site however you need to take a look at the spelling on quite a few of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling problems and I to find it very troublesome to tell the reality then again I’ll certainly come again again.
Homepage https://lombard.pw
pin-up yükləmə səhifəsi https://pinup2009.help
find more info https://tophat.cc
Служба по контракту это шанс начать зарабатывать стабильно. Денежное довольствие выплачивается каждый месяц. Все условия известны заранее. Контракт подписывается официально. Начни оформление: служба по контракту в татарстане
нацелены на выигрыш — casino 7k подойдёт для обоих случаев: казино 7к
I am genuinely grateful to the holder of this web page who has shared this fantastic post at here.
see post https://exponent.lat
Visit This Link https://astherus.us/
you can try this out https://lombard.pw
пылесос dyson пылесос dyson .
This is very interesting, You are a very skilled blogger. I’ve joined your rss feed and look forward to seeking more of your wonderful post. Also, I have shared your site in my social networks!
ruleta – https://ruleta-mx.com
try this web-site https://heyanon.cc/
netvortex.click – Color palette felt calming, nothing distracting, just focused, thoughtful design.
bet casino – https://bet-casino-mx.com
top article https://nucleusearn.cc
betmaster – https://www-betmaster.com
купить пылесос дайсон в санкт петербурге купить пылесос дайсон в санкт петербурге .
read this post here https://neur.cloud
pop over to this web-site https://astake.buzz/
original site https://perena.lat
sitepilot.click – Bookmarked this immediately, planning to revisit for updates and inspiration.
his explanation https://perena.lat
https://www.google.com.bz/url?q=https://ciprianileonoranze.com/wp-content/pgs/?melbet_bookmaker_promo_code.html
here are the findings https://noon.pics/
you can find out more https://perena.cc
bet7k – https://www.bet7k-br.com
he said https://perena.cfd
It is perfect time to make a few plans for the future and it is time to be happy. I have read this publish and if I may I wish to suggest you some interesting things or suggestions. Perhaps you could write subsequent articles regarding this article. I wish to learn even more issues approximately it!
The majority of us appreciate making several dollars through Seka bet
rey casino – https://rey-casinomx.com
https://GetAdsOnline.com/389/posts/1/1/2013983.html
bet sport – https://betsport-br.com
anchor https://cytonic.cc
william hill – https://william-hill-mx.com
anonymous https://nucleusearn.org/
I’ve been surfing online more than three hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It is pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content as you did, the web will be a lot more useful than ever before.