K.I.S.S.
Review by Kim Cantrell
When I was browing the suspense thriller fiction section, looking for something I’d thought would be interesting for this week’s Friday Fiction segment, I was drawn to Beverly Barton’s newest, Don’t Cry.
Twenty-five years ago, Chattanooga, Tennessee, was devestated by a rash of abductions of blond-haired, blue-eyed toddler boys.
While their tiny bodies were never discovered, residents and police assumed they were dead. Especially since Regina Bennett, a woman who had suffered abuse at the hands of Uncle, and was emotionally challenged to the point of being declared insaned, confessed to the crimes. Her own son, Cody, was her first victim when she killed him to keep him from suffering the pain of the diagnosed childhood luekemia.
Now the missing toddlers, in skeletal form, from the Baby Blue case are being returned one by one – in the arms of dead women who were recently reported missing. And these women an uncanny resemblance to Regina Bennett.
Will the cops identify the killer before the fourth missing toddler, Blake Sherrod, turns up and crushes a family who has dedicated their life to law enforcement? Or will finding Blake Sherrod reveal secrets that leave more questions than answers?
Great plot, right? Sure is! Very interest and I couldn’t wait to find out who would be doing such an unimagiable thing.
Unfortunately, everything got lost with Barton’s superfluous writing style. Barton describes every street, every location, every character’s action down to the most minute detail. Too many times I found myself skipping over the unnecessary descriptions so that I could get to the good stuff.
While they say detailed writing can develop strong characters attachment by readers, I found that, by the end, I didn’t like the two lead characters; finding one to be a sanctimonious snob and the other an egotistical man-whore.
I think Barton has great story ideas, so I won’t give up on her completely with this one book. I just won’t be reading the sequel to Don’t Cry that’s due out in 2012 featuring the Audrey and J.D. Cass characters.
Learn more about Beverly Barton at www.beverlybarton.com and at Facebook on the Beverly Barton Official Fan Page.
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