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: |
https://rivalo.cat/
A casa Rivalo e uma das sites de apostas e casino online mais tradicionais do Brasil , presente no mercado local desde 2013 consolidando uma reputacao solida e transparente .
Fortune Dragon novo lançamento: quem já deu uma chance?
https://mine-drop1.com/
нажмите здесь https://vodkabet.kz/
PG Soft cashback: quem está acumulando devolução boa?
Wild Bandito sticky wilds: quem já levou x400+?
читать https://vodkabet-vbt.com
можно проверить ЗДЕСЬ https://vodkabet.kz
здесь https://vodkabet-vbt.com
каталог https://spinvodka.com
сайт https://vodkabet.kz
такой https://spinvodka.com/
Читать далее https://vodkabet-vbt.com
пояснения https://vodkabet-vbt.com/
подробнее здесь https://spinvodka.com/
https://papa-wiki.win/index.php/1xBet_Promo_Code_Bangladesh_2026:_1X200VIP_Bonus_%E2%82%AC130
Читать далее https://vodkabet.kz
Главная https://spinvodka.com/
читать https://vodkabet.kz/
здесь https://drink.vodkabet-zercalo.com
каталог https://vodkabet-vbt.com
Jogo do Tigrinho 2026: quem já pegou um bom win essa semana?
опубликовано здесь https://spinvodka.com/
кликните сюда https://vodkabet-vbt.com/
продолжить https://vodkabet.kz/
Читать далее https://spinvodka.com/
пояснения https://vodkabet.kz
Wild Bandito sticky wilds: o roubo tá bom demais em 2026!
«Настоящая кровь» (True Blood, 2008) — культовый сериал HBO, в котором фэнтези и социальная драма сплетаются в нечто по-настоящему острое. В болотистой Луизиане вампиры открыто заявили о своих правах — синтетическая кровь освободила их от охоты, однако предрассудки и враждебность людей оказались куда живучее. Официантка Суки Стакхауз с даром телепатии влюбляется в вампира Билла — единственного, чьи мысли ей недоступны. Ищете настоящая кровь все серии? Все 80 серий с озвучкой Amedia и Fox Life доступны на nastoyaschaya-krov-kinogo.biz без регистрации и рекламы. За любовной линией скрывается многослойный конфликт: религиозные экстремисты, вампирские радикалы и политические манипуляции делают каждую серию плотной и непредсказуемой.
найти это https://drink.vodkabet-zercalo.com/
проверить сайт https://vodkabet.kz/
кликните сюда https://vodkabet.kz/
опубликовано здесь https://vodkabet.kz
интернет https://spinvodka.com/
нажмите https://vodkabet-vbt.com/
перейдите на этот сайт https://spinvodka.com
Подробнее здесь https://vodkabet-vbt.com/
читать https://vodkabet-vbt.com/
выберите ресурсы https://spinvodka.com
страница https://vodkabet-vbt.com/
здесь https://spinvodka.com/
посетить сайт https://vodkabet.kz
нажмите, чтобы подробнее https://vodkabet.kz/
Mahjong Ways 2 cluster: quem já pegou um bom cluster?
проверить сайт https://drink.vodkabet-zercalo.com
продолжить https://spinvodka.com/
продолжить https://vodkabet.kz
Смотреть здесь https://vodkabet-vbt.com
перейдите на этот сайт https://vodkabet-vbt.com/
посетить веб-сайт https://vodkabet-vbt.com