The Sholes Key

Evans and Blackwell #1

by Clarissa Draper

All across London, single mothers are vanishing. Margaret Hill, mother of two, walked out of her house two months before, and was never seen again. A month later, Carrie-Anne Morgans takes her two-year-old son for a walk in the park and disappears leaving him alone in his stroller. Lorna McCauley leaves her London flat in the early hours of the morning to buy medicine for her sick child and disappears. Newly promoted Detective Inspector Theophilus Blackwell is assigned the case of Lorna McCauley, which, on the outside, seems to be a simple case of mid-life crisis and child abandonment. Elsewhere in London, MI5 analyst Sophia Evans is working undercover to catch an animal rights group responsible for targeted bombings. As her case (and her personal life) fall to pieces, she receives a strange envelope in the mail. It contains a picture of Lorna McCauley's lifeless face along with a daunting code. Now the police and MI5 are forced to work together to stop the murders, and Sophia must find her way into the terrifying mind of a serial killer.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Crime, Murder Mystery, Novels

314 pages, Paperback

First published April 25, 2012

Reviews

[D.L. Hammons · Rating 4 out of 5]

In any genre, the characters have to come alive in order to ensnare the reader into the authors world, and not only do her two main characters achieve that goal, but her supporting cast do a fine job of rounding out the interactions and making them all believable. She deftly handles the sprinkling of humor amongst the heavier emotions and never stumbles with the multiple POV's. You care what happens to Sophia and Theo, and that is key (sorry for the pun).

However, in the mystery world characters alone will not carry a novel to the finish line and a multilayer plot with a generous dose of twists and turns is to be expected...and here again Clarissa delivers. The mixture of MI5 spy tactics, everyday police procedural, and the code breaking exercise, did a great job of keeping this reader off balance and wondering what was around the next corner.

Full disclosure compels me to say that there were a couple nit-picks that prevented me from bestowing a five-star rating for THE SHOLES KEY. There are a couple of coincidences that stretch believability (which I'm actually seeing in a LOT of mysteries now a days) and the ending left a few too many unanswered questions for my taste, but by no means should that over-shadow the entire book. I gave it a four-star rating for a solid reason...it is a great read and I'm looking forward to the next story in the series!

Looking for a book to give both your brain cells and your emotions a workout...try this one on for size!

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like thrillers, mysteries, crime novels and suspense, you will love The Sholes Key. Not to mention getting introduced to the budding crime-solving team of Sophie Evans and Theo Blackwell. She's a code-breaker who feels uncomfortable in dangerous situations, he's a detective who feels uncomfortable with a beautiful woman as a (sort-of) partner. But they've got to work together to solve the murders that just keep happening. Five hearty stars for The Sholes Key, and I look forward to the next in the series!

[Elizabeth of Silver's Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cover pulled me in, the characters kept me reading, and the plot had me guessing until the end.

Two types of murder investigations were going on at once...one was an investigation of serial killings of single mothers and then a married author, and the other investigation was one dealing with a terrorist ring blowing up sites. The murders of young, single mothers who loved to read seemed to be the main theme.

Lots of twists and turns that will keep you guessing as to who the killer really is. But.....why was Sophia being targeted by the serial killer when she wasn't even a mother, and how did the killer know where she lived now and where she lived as a child. Could it be that the killer only wanted her attention or was he relying and testing her cryptogram skills to solve things?

The book was somewhat confusing as to what was going on and a little difficult to follow at times, but the characters were well developed and appealing...a few had depth and mystery themselves.

I enjoyed trying to solve the "key" the killer left as a clue and the "key" they needed to find the killer because it was connected to the QWERTY Keyboard....very clever on the author's part. All in all it was a good storyline, but since it was confusing and somewhat disconnected, I am going to rate the book a 4/5.

This book was given to be by the publisher free of charge in return for an honest review

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. It was written in a kind of quirky tome that I found appealing, others of course might not. There are two plots going on which kept things interesting throughout.

Sophia works for MI5 and a code breaker/cryptologist. She is currently undercover posing as the girlfriend of a suspected animal rights terrorist while actually looking for the "key" to encrypted email communications in order to prevent a suspected forthcoming attack. Theo Blackwell is a cop investigating the disappearance and suspected murder of a single mother.

The two cases collide when Sophia is sent a photo of the missing woman and a page of code. It all gets terribly frightening for Sophia (I'm not trained as a field agent) as another woman's body is left in the house Sophia grew up in. The killer obviously knows all about her. But why is she being drawn into this game? Meanwhile her bosses are stressing the urgency of finding the key as the attack is imminent.

Sophia and Theo must work together to solve the code and find the murderer. And Sophia, who has become very fond of her possibly terrorist boyfriend, Marcus, must find a way to either incriminate or exonerate him.

It was interesting and suspenseful at times, building slowly and surely to a very satisfying conclusion. It appears there will be a sequel which I will be keen to read. I know there were some apparent inconsistencies - like Marcus apparently wearing clothes from the 70s but it could well be that was supposed to be tongue in cheek or, like my eldest daughter, he likes to buy cool retro stuff from op shops (places that sell second hand goods for charity in case this is a purely Australian slang term).

[Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

When a story keeps you thinking about it after you put the book down, then you know you’re hooked.

THE SHOLES KEY was such a book for me. Author Clarissa Draper has created 2 intriguing protagonist with a storyline that will not only keep you guessing, but will also have you trying to decode the cryptic messages.

When Lorna McCauley leaves her young son home sick, Detective Inspector Theophilus “Theo” Blackwell is called in to investigate. At first it appears to be a woman who has run away. However, Theo’s investigation finds a number of young women haven been vanishing in London.

Meanwhile, MI5 analyst Sophia Evans is working undercover to apprehend the leader of an animal rights group before they bomb again. Sophia is good at cracking codes but new to the world of undercover work. She may have gotten too close to the leader for her own good.

Sophia receives an envelope containing a photo of Lorna McCauley’s body and a cryptic code. As more pieces of the code are found, it’s up to Sophia and Theo to work together to find the killer before another woman is abducted.

The characters are well defined with the supporting characters adding bits of humor and flavor to the mix. The dialogue flows smoothly making the transition from killer to victim to cops and back again with ease. There is a hint of attraction between the lead characters with each harboring their own issues and secrets.

Modern-day London makes for an interesting backdrop to this story of suspense and mystery. This story will give you pause to consider the mindless actions we do each day and how dangerous they could be.

THE SHOLES KEY is a great start to what promises to be a fascinating series featuring Sophia and Theo. I’m looking forward to when these 2 meet again.

Author Clarissa Draper’s website is http://clarissadraper.blogspot.com/

The Sholes Key by Clarissa Draper, A Evans and Blackwell Mystery, WiDo Publishing, @2012, Paperback, ISBN: 978-1937178147, 314 Pages, Kindle Edition, ASIN: B007XU212K, 410 KB

FTC Full Disclosure - An electronic version of this book was sent to me by the author in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sholes Key
By
Clarissa Draper

My "in a nutshell" summary...

This book is all about a mysterious serial killer and two fascinating detectives...Sophia and Theo.

My thoughts after reading this book...

Single moms are missing and someone really creepy is taking them...some remain missing...some turn up very dead. Sophia seems connected to these murders but in a weird way. From what I understand Sophia is a "spook". In London that is a sort of spy. Her specialty is cracking codes but she is also working under cover. Theo is a regular inspector with a sad marriage. Theo and Sophia are connected because of this string of weirdly horrible murders. The murderer seems to be obsessed with Sophia and is communicating with her through these grisly murders.

What I loved about this book...

This book was different...the codes were complicated and yet it was fun to see Sophia figure them out. Sophia is a fascinating character as is Theo. both have complicated lives and the book sort of alludes to a future that they might have.

What I did not love...

This was not an easy book to get in the beginning...Sophia and her role as spy/spook...was difficult to figure out in the beginning.

Final thoughts...

I thought this was a great fast paced mystery...I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[Carol Kilgore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked everything about The Sholes Key, a solid, classic whodunnit with a modern twist by Clarissa Draper. The codes intrigued me. The interplay between the characters satisfied my emotional requirements. The author gives us several glimpses of both Blackwell and Evans, enough so we see them clearly for this story, yet leaves the door wide open for more with the next book in this series. For anyone who enjoys a good mystery, I recommend reading The Sholes Key.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sophia only trained to do a desk job - a safe desk job, she tells herself. Well, it's decoding for the secret service and it rapidly changes from a safe career choice to a terrifyingly, dangerous occupation. Sophia is smart and scared to death. The plot gets thicker and thicker until the serial killer is discovered, living an invisible existence right under her nose. Under the radar, too. This is a page turner. I recommend it!

[A.M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sophia Evans and Theo Blackwell are the titular investigators.
Someone sends MI5 code cracker Sophia a dead woman’s photo. The back of it is covered in numbers. It’s delivered to her home address and under her name.
A number of women, all single mothers, have disappeared. Now the bodies start turning up and Theo is investigating that case.
Sophia is trying to stop radical animal liberation terrorists from setting off another bomb.
***
I’ve started this book too many times. It loses me in the prologue. Not sure why. I think I am totally bored with any murder story that starts with the pov of the murderer. I don’t know them. I don’t know any victims. I know nothing about the story. Why the heck am I reading the murderer’s pov? I don’t care. It means nothing to me as a reader.

Never in a million years would Sophia have dated Marc if not forced to. He was four years younger, a half-inch shorter, wore glasses, and although he claimed to make a decent salary crawling on his knees under desks as a network engineer, he still owned the clothes he wore in the seventies. (Kindle Locations 323-325).

Wait... When is this set? People have mobile phones and GPS so I assume it’s set recently. So if Marcus wore those clothes in the 70’s then he was say 20 then, let’s say 1976 and now in 2016 he’d be 60 years OLD!
Plus, he’s being investigated by MI5 they’d know exactly what his salary was. Plus, she falls in love with him. How is she undercover if she just took Marc (suspected terrorist) to her favourite family eating place where the chef knows her face? And she met Marc at a charity event with her father.
And why is she a code breaker? This isn’t the Bletchley Circle. And they really aren’t going to send their code breaker undercover this badly.

The way he acted, no one would suspect he had once been a spook. Besides acting like a half-wit, he looked like Oddjob and couldn’t get Pussy Galore if they were in bed naked together. (Kindle Locations 591-592).

Another really out of date reference. Oddjob and pussy galore are from a James Bond movie ‘Goldfinger’ made in 1959.
(And it’s kind of a little bit racially offensive.)
It took me too long to work out she is in MI5 - she’s not a cop and says she works for the government. [it does say that in the summary but I only just read it]
I made notes as I read. Yes… I’m in edit mode. Sighs.

How can the missing woman afford a house full of toys if she can’t afford ‘the internet’ as her mother said? The missing woman is a penniless but a voracious reader, try the library, guys. (this is funnier by the time I get to the end)
There are too many povs: Sophia's, the victim’s, the murderer’s, Theo’s and Liam’s… why?
Omg Sophia has gone to Theo’s house and stood in a dark corner in a trench coat and done the ‘leave the light off’ crap from noir movies. This is ridiculous. His mother just let her in. I fully expected her to say, “I will say this only once.”
She says she has to find the murderer before he kills her. She doesn’t know she’s a target. He hasn’t sent a photo of the last victim to the next one, before. That’s a major logic leap that isn’t there.
The victim’s workplace plays the Beatles. When is this written?
The police don’t tell her boss she is dead but they do tell the receptionist. There is a weird attempt to shame the boss for having a gay relationship.
If the company has programs that track staff work on their computers, then they’ll have an admin password to override hers. They are not going to be locked out of her computer. Or, they could access it remotely. Why would the police investigating a murder, illegally download the hard drive of her workplace computer? It will be inadmissible as evidence without a proper warrant. They could just take it as evidence. They’re not spies, they’re cops. Even MI5 has to follow the law.
It takes Sophia almost three pages to say that address is her old home.
Everyone keeps telling people how to do their jobs. MI5 show up at a murder scene and don’t have ID. They would not be let in. The pathologist would never bother saying he cuts dead bodies open. Duh. It’s his job. There is an entire page of dialogue about how they know not to move a body. They know, and so do we. MI5 often works with police; there is a rulebook on how to do this… legally.
She has a double apartment - her’s and her father’s old apartment. (that’s weird…right? Do you know how expensive London property is?) Well, given the murderer just left a body at your father’s old house, I think they probably know this address, too. And besides, its down the hall from where he delivered the photo.
Sophia does the ridiculous ‘hello’ thing when she thinks someone is in her flat.

For the safety of both parties, she knew where her mole lived but was under strict orders never to meet in person. If she had a message for Yuri, she informed Crystal who informed another officer who lived in an apartment across the street from Yuri. The officer in the apartment would then place a pot of fake tulips in the window. Yuri followed the same routine every day. At seven every morning, he bought a Russian newspaper, walked to his local library and did the crossword puzzle. On the occasion he had a message for Sophia, his lapel held a single red rose. Sophia’s message would be printed on the crossword—in Russian—pointing to a specific library filing system card.
Another intelligence officer retrieved the crossword, decoded it and retrieved the card. The card was then sent to Sophia who cracked the message—always a set of GPS coordinates to a box hidden somewhere in England. (Kindle Locations 2210-2216).

What? Most libraries don’t even have card files anymore. This isn’t the cold war. MI5 does domestic stuff in England; threats to national security. MI6 do foreign stuff. When did Yuri sneak out and bury the message in the forest? And I thought she was an untrained new operative. When did she form this super important relationship with Yuri? And who was trying to shoot her while she collected it? None of this makes any sense.
[I checked with one of my kids who is doing a security degree. He said plastic tulips are too obvious; they use signs as simple as ordering ‘my regular’ and what the barista gives you is the message: earl grey = safe to attend drop, irish breakfast= not safe, coffee= run.]
If there’s no DNA, it doesn’t mean the killer shaved his head. It really doesn’t. Of course there aren’t any fingerprints or traces of wine in the wine glasses left on the stairs where the body was dumped. The victim was dead weeks ago and frozen. She isn’t sitting down to have a nice glass of wine.

What progress have you made with the code?” he asked Theo.
All eyes were on Theo now. “It’s not an easy code,” he said. “Even our technical team is having a hard time. Have we cracked it yet? No. Is it crackable? We believe it is. The fact that he leaves very specific clues all around his crime scenes seems to suggest the code clue would not just be a red herring. This clue—a harder one—is testing our skills, our savvy; or it’s a way to prove we’re idiots.”
“What do you think the messages will say?” asked Shields.
“I don’t think they will say my name is so-and-so and I live at this address, but I believe it will be a clue to why he’s killing. And maybe a key to his personality,” Theo suggested. (Kindle Locations 2267-2273).

What… did I just read?
Sophia’s boss Liam is creepy as fuck and handsy to the max. Ugh.
There are just paragraphs of pointless chat.
What woman? The woman you all just met at the crime scene… facepalms
What risk is there to typing out a code at public place? None. The numbers don’t mean anything. No one is going to ring the police and say they saw a guy type out pages of numbers.
The killer used a computer keyboard rather than cut up newspaper. *facepalms* she’s telling us what a qwerty keyboard is.
“This killer probably looks harmless…” you think? What? Like most killers?
They didn’t talk about the code at a press conference because it ‘wasn’t important’. It’s the killer’s signature thing. How is it not important?
God, save me… the pathologist just estimated time of death at between a week and 50 years.
Given the victim isn’t 50 and she was kidnapped two months ago he’s a lot off.
“It’s apparent the victim didn’t know she would be hit on the head.” Sighs. Is there a better way to say that? There are no defensive wounds, for instance. “She was young so she wasn’t in bad health”… no. Not logical. She could be chronically ill and still be young. And this is the forensic pathologist ‘bad health’ isn’t anything they are going to say.
Whispers *get a new pathologist*
E-cards? Omg that’s so 90’s.
They’re watching CCTV on VHS tapes.
You know if someone asked me to describe my car, I’d start with make and model first, not it’s blue and got four doors.
They say the killer is really well organised and leaving messages, and then they just say ‘oh, well, things don’t make sense’. Not in this book, eh?
He kills a romance author and that does not fit with his MO.
No, the kid doesn’t have a record for B&E, he has a record for car theft and sexual assault. And I do not need to know what kind of alcohol this teen prefers.
Oh no… the awful exposition interview scene where the detective explains the whole case to the suspect. And you can’t blackmail suspects by choosing to ‘lose’ evidence you have already found and logged.
English police don’t carry guns. And it was never mentioned that Sophia did. In the big climax scene we aren’t even in her pov so it has no emotional effect on the reader. She just shot and killed a guy she loves. Why did we not see that? And she just left the crime scene. Suspended; right there.
The woman who remembers people’s number plates doesn’t recall her own library card number?
And the killer’s motivation to impress Sophia doesn’t make sense either. He started this years ago and I didn’t think she had been working with Yuri (and thus using the library) for that long.

This was a bit of a disappointment. I should have dnf’d it at the start but there were so many good reviews, I kept reading to see what I was missing.
Sophia is so messed up, she’s unstable. She’s in love with the guy she’s supposed to be investigating. So much so she wants to get married to him and she buys him a Mercedes after dating him for five months. She’s then eyeing off Theo and letting him stay at her apartment. Plus, she keeps getting hugs and emotional support from her boss, Liam and it feels like more than friendly to me. Liam suggests that he’d kill Marc if she’s having sex with him.
Sophia is constantly jumping at things. Everybody is. It doesn’t make it scarier.
Theo’s wife has some mental injury that has made her forget him. But rather than feeling sympathy for him, I tag him as a bit of a dick. He still remembers her, so it feels like cheating for him to be interested in Sophia. And he’s in instalove as well. She’s a goddess. *rolls eyes*
Characters appear that are never mentioned again, like Theo’s sister and nephew. Are we supposed to get that he feels for single mothers? Every witness or person they interview is oddly abrasive and unhelpful.
This reads to me like a manuscript written in the 1990’s and dragged out to publish. There are so many out of date references. Tech has been added in, but it feels like an afterthought. Each time a computer is mentioned the author tells us you have to move the mouse to cancel the save screen. We know.
It shouldn’t be a major story point that Marc has a sensor in his door that sends his phone a message each time it is opened so he knows when she is searching his apartment. MI5 never noticed a sensor in the doorjam? Really?
The writing is over explanatory and I didn’t feel any connection to either main character.
And I’m in the minority again…
2 stars

[Joe Boudreault · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clarissa Draper's “The Sholes Key” is a detective story. If you like a mystery being presented and then picked apart bit by bit, you will like this one. Now, I do like detective stories when they are well-presented, and this is one of those.

There is a serial killer on the loose in England and several people are trying to to solve the case. Theo Blackwell is a hard-working detective with marital problems (a wife injured in an accident). He can't resolve that problem but he tackles the serial killer case. Eventually, he enlists the aid of a woman named Sophia Evans, who is a code breaker working for a private firm. Sophia hates the dangerous undercover field work she is shoved into, but when the case gets too close to home, she reluctantly takes chances and tries to track down the killer.

What is interesting about this novel is that although it is set in England with all of the British idioms of language and culture, the author, a Canadian, has given us a remarkably good impression of the setting. She handles the story lines quite well, offering a fast pace and enough humor to take off the sharp edge of grisly murders. Some of the humor is sexual but in a funny kind of way. Blackwell's sidekick has a habit of gazing at female bosoms. “So did she have nice ones?” he asks Theo, about a particular aspect of Sophia. “Don't you worry,” replies Blackwell. “Her breasts will never compare to yours.” When a murder occurs in a house Sophia used to live in, she gets squeamish. “Whatever memories Sophia had from her childhood in that house, horror overwrote within seconds.” Good description of discomfort at a murder scene by the author.

Draper's use of alphanumeric codes in the clues is very astute. It reminded me a bit of Neal Stephenson's “Cryptonomicon” novel. Tying everything together is a skill, but she succeeds. It is safe to say that this is a page-turner, and readers of mysteries should enjoy it. They may even want to read the sequel, “The Electrician's Code”.

[Paul Close · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever novel about code breaking. The characters were reasonably well fleshed out, though perhaps a little much going on with each. The code was nicely complex and the villian a bit of a surprise. All in all, a good mystery and an emphasis on code breaking I haven't seen a lot of.

[Mystic Miraflores · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was entertained by a different kind of heroine: a beautiful and brainy cryptanalyst-mathematician. Inspector Blackwell doesn't stand out though. However, I look forward to reading the next book in the series featuring Sophia.

[Tina Ambury · Rating 5 out of 5]

This took me a long while to read as it's my bedtime book and, to be honest it was a really slow burn with too many threads.
Than, bam! The last part of the book built at a relentless pace.
Fascinating.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Complex and well thought out mystery plot. Let down by the fact that it's supposed to be set in London but clearly the author's knowledge of the city is sketchy, so it doesn't convince.

[Marion Granigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable. The codes are fun!

[J.L. Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

When we meet her, Sophia Evans is working for the MI5 in an attempt to stop an animal rights group from wreaking having with bombs. When a serial killer begins his work around London, Sophia is dragged into the case. Her job is to decode the messages being left by the killer on the bodies of his victims.

PLAYERS: Sophia Evans is brilliant at solving codes, but her work conflicts with her love life. Working with Theophilus Blackwell adds to that conflict, but she’s forced to function amid the challenges.

Theophilus Blackwell has a complicated life. His wife’s illness means he is stuck in limbo and the pressure of solving a grisly series of murders doesn’t help his situation. He’s tenacious and focused, which are great traits in crime fiction characters.

I liked the creepy way the book starts. Immediately, it tells the reader he/she is dealing with a twisted individual.

The characters are complex and I still don’t have Sophia totally figured out, but that’s okay because it makes for interesting reading. She sometimes does the unexpected and puts her foot in it, which is something many of us can relate to.

I could have lived without finding out that I’m not as bright as I think. The codes went over my head and I didn’t spend time trying to figure them out. This didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the book. Fans of codes and such will ecstatic. The code is in the print version of the book and the author has placed the codes on her site here.

COVER NOTE: The cover works for this story. Really like that keyboard, which is not your run-of-the-mill, modern day variety. The droplet of blood on one of the bottom keys speaks to the story genre. The book title is well chosen.

OVERALL COMMENTS: It didn’t take me long to read this novel. It doesn’t go at breakneck speed, but held my interest. It doesn’t have a 100% modern day feel because the writer’s style reminds me of other crime fiction I’ve read that is set in England several decades ago. I think she did a good job with the British terms and creating a setting that felt realistic.

I found the characters interesting and could relate to them on various levels. The woman who doesn’t quite know where she’s at in her relationship and the man who’s married, but conflicted because he’s attracted to someone other than his wife. I found Theo’s partner Dorland to be a good foil. He’s a rough, good-natured, bumbling man, but that’s where any resemblance to the stereotypical ends, because he’s not stupid.

A devastating incident takes place, but Sophia continues working. I didn’t quibble too much about it, considering the urgency of closing the case, but it did give me pause.

The criminal is not obvious, but Draper does the unique in that he’s not presented to the reader in the usual way. There is a kind of ironic twist at the end, where Sophia finds that the number she worked so hard to decode, and which seemed so familiar, was under her nose all the time.

I’m looking forward to the second book in the series, not only for whatever mystery Draper comes up with, but to find out how the relationship develops between Evans/Blackwell. I also want to know if anything changes with Blackwell’s wife.

[Michael Offutt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sholes Key is a real page turner. It's a book that reminds me of Whispers by Dean Koontz. I don't know if any of you read any Dean Koontz, but it has that same edge-of-your-seat thrill that I expect from one of his novels.

The Sholes Key takes place in London, and Clarissa immerses us in action pretty much from page one. Furthermore, I got so into the story that I actually felt like I was in Britain. The dialogue carries the accents that you'd expect to hear when visiting there from America. As a fan of James Bond movies, I really liked this. When I finished, I was so impressed with the book that I did a little research. I guess that this is a book that's part of a larger series, however, it easily stands on its own. I'm definitely going to pick up the others.

The Sholes Key is a cerebral read. Now as a reader, you might ask why would I say that? One of Clarissa's characters, Sophia, is a genius code-breaker. And the kind of code that she has to break in this novel is similar in difficulty to the stuff you see in Dan Brown's Davinci Code. And if she fails, the stakes are quite high. You see, there's a monstrous serial killer on the loose, and he's strangling and mutilating women. And just for your information, this book gets gory. If you don't like gore, you probably will be grossed out by the book. But it's written so well that you might want to chance it in order to read a thrilling novel.

As far as the mystery in the book goes, Clarissa is an incredible plotter, using numbers and codes, and hints to provide just enough information, that you feel compelled to try and figure out the puzzle. But when you can't (because it's hard) she does give you an answer at the end. I got pretty close to figuring it out, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, right?

In addition, Sophia has a sub-plot working as a spook (this is a word I had never seen used before) in the British context for MI5 in order to stop a terrorist. It was refreshing to see a female in the role of seduction instead of a male (James Bond anyone?), so the plot is one of the most original mystery thrillers I've ever read. And Sophia is an incredible protagonist. She's gorgeous. She's a genius. She can cook. She breaks codes. She's a secret agent. She busts terrorists and serial killers and packs a gun and isn't afraid to use it. Wow.

The Sholes Key is a no-business, take off running, kind of book. I don't think there's a single page wasted, a single word that is used incorrectly, and everything means something. You think a detail is extraneous and she comes back to it later and you think...damn, why didn't I see that? And at its best, it's also unpredictable.

I give this book five stars out of five. I can't think of anything that I would add or take away. Way to go Clarissa.

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clarissa Draper’s THE SHOLES KEY cracks the code on a thrilling mystery novel.

In London, Detective Inspector Theophilus Blackwell is searching for missing women while MI5 analyst Sophia Evans is working undercover to catch a bomber. When a strange code on the back of a photograph of a previously assumed missing person shows up in Sophia’s mailbox, Sophia is thrust from her undercover case into a murder mystery. Theo’s missing women’s case has become Sophia’s own, and the two must work together to solve the code before another woman is kidnapped and murdered.

THE SHOLES KEY is a complex mystery with many thrilling elements. The novel weaves through several cases, although not all are solved. Draper makes each character come to life, and I couldn’t wait to read what would happen next to Evans and Blackwell. The plot had many different elements and was a little confusing here and there at first to keep all the cases straight. The dialogue and the description flowed well, although I would’ve loved to have seen a copy of the complete code. For a reader, it would’ve been fun to try to decipher the code while the characters were figuring it out. Even though I realized who the murderer was right away, I enjoyed reading to see if I was right as well as the developing partnership of Evans and Blackwell.

THE SHOLES KEY by Clarissa Draper is the first in a fantastic new mystery series. I look forward to reading the next one.

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of The Sholes Key by Clarissa Draper
Evans & Blackwell #1
5 stars

In this first of the Sophia Evans and Detective Inspector Theo Blackwell series, young single mothers are being targeted for abduction and subsequent killing. Blackwell understands it’s a serial killer involved, but the puzzling numerical and later, alphabetic, codes left with the victims make no sense; until he meets a government-employed cryptanalyst, the brilliant, and beautiful, Sophie Evans, whose current personal life and work status are in turmoil as she had been ordered five months ago to go undercover. Sophie is tracking a businessman who MI5 believes to be the mastermind of a violent animal rights group, but she hasn’t been able to discover the key to unlock the embedded emails ordering a new bombing target.

Theo Blackwell has a personal life in continuous turmoil. Years ago his beloved wife Agneta was struck by an intoxicated driver. She survived, but has no memory, much like an Alzheimer’s patient. Associating with the beauteous Sophie reminds him of all he has lost, but he must persevere before this clever killer takes out any more mothers.

[Douglas Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not expect this book to be as good as it is. I downloaded it to my Kindle because it was an inexpensive mystery. I was delighted with the characters and with the complex plot.
I hope the author writes more in a hurry.

First paragraphs
Chapter 1 Sophia Evans darted into the forest. The looming trees surrounded her, casting shadows across her path. Only ten or twenty more steps, she was close. Arms out in front, she pushed the foliage away from her face and ran faster. Her heart pounded in her chest, and the cold air filled her sore lungs. Her body wanted to give out, but she used the adrenaline of the chase to propel her onward. How close were they? She stopped, leaned against a tree, and listened. Silence. Now that she was in the woods, the two men would have difficulty finding her. She tied back her long brown hair with the elastic around her wrist and looked down at the glowing GPS in her hand. The package lay buried somewhere ahead. She had to retrieve it before the men caught up with her.

Draper, Clarissa (2012-04-25). The Sholes Key (An Evans & Blackwell Mystery #1) (Kindle Locations 91-97). WiDo Publishing. Kindle Edition.

[Gwyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

While laid up with a broken arm, I discovered the world of free kindle books. Some were uneven and I wondered why I even kept reading, except that I just didn't have a lot of other recreational options at the time. This was not one of those. While the proofing was a bit lacking, as I've discovered is a bit typical, it was an enjoyable read that kept my interest through to the end. While some authors in the mystery genre lay out enough clues to help the reader begin to solve the "whodunnit," this one focused instead upon developing relationships between the main characters and the process of cracking coded messages...something I enjoy outside of a storyline. In the end, the issue of "whodunnit" came to a conclusion to help resolve some of the characters' issues. The plot was more of a crime procedural, kind of an "NCIS-British Style." I enjoyed the writer's style and will look for others she has written when seeking an enjoyable quick read.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are lots of puzzles, twists and turns in this edge-of-your-seat, mystery/suspense spy-thriller story.

The two main characters, a code breaker named Sophia Evans, who works as a cryptanalyst for M15, and an unhappy detective named Theo Blackwell, are thrown together during two different investigations. One deals with bombings which involve terrorists who belong to a violent animal rights group. The other deals with a serial killer who targets single mothers.

I love stories which contain coded numbers/words, but admit that for most of the story, the codes went over my head. However, I enjoyed the details and the logic with regards to the manner in which Ms. Evans tries to break the codes. There's also an unexpected surprise at the end, when the reader learns that all along, our code breaker failed to recognise the code, which was part of her daily life.

[Lynda Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clarissa Draper's The Shole Key is a classic code cracking story, the type of story I love and it didn't disappoint. The two plot lines in the story had me intrigued from the start. The story followed Sophia Evans, the M15 analyst working undercover to catch an animal rights group responsible for bombings in London, and Theo Blackwell, a detective inspector on the case of a serial killer. Both characters were interesting and well-rounded and their stories merged nicely. The fast, yet comfortable pacing of the story carried me through to the satisfying ending. While I wasn't guessing to the end--I recognised the key to the code the moment it entered the story--I did enjoy the read. I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves crime, mystery, and suspense thrillers.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have given this book four stars save for one thing: the whole sub-story with Marc. What was the purpose of that? I thought it detracted from the whole story. If the author wanted to give Theo and Sophia an opportunity to meet, there would have been easier, less awkward ways of doing that. I would have preferred to see the entire Marc/bombing story deleted and a blooming interest between Theo and Sophia develop throughout the story. There would have been plenty of emotional conflict given Theo's wife's situation. I felt like the whole Marc story was thrown in there as an afterthought and it just didn't add anything to the story, in my opinion. In fact, it was distracting and a bit annoying, if you want the truth.

Other than than, the story was interesting and moved along nicely.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is about Sophia Evans, an analyst, who is trying to decipher some cryptograms that are the key to stopping a serial killer. She is working on a case to trap a man who is behind bombings of animal shelters in the area when she is called in to assist in deciphering codes that appear at the scene of some ghastly murders of single mothers in the area. Detective Inspector Theophilis (Theo) Blackwell has enlisted her help and is helping her to solve both cases. This was a fast moving, excellent book. The characters are realistic and believable. The book begins quickly with the murderer speaking and then the book runs with the story moving along very quickly. You just can't put it down because you need to know what is going on and why.

Super book!

[Charity Bradford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! My head is still spinning and I'm totally creeped out by all the secret watching and spying. This was a great read. Fast paced and intense. I'm glad there will be more books with Blackwell and Evans because they reminded me of Anne Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series--just modern London instead of Victorian London--and I ate those up.

The characters were distinctive and believable. I felt for Blackwell and his loss and worried over Sophia's need to see the good in certain people. Draper unfolded the mystery at a perfect pace, but kept all the most important things a mystery until the end. Loved it!

[Alysia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was kind of concerned about the tone the book would have when it started out with the rather dark imagery and tone of the killer. But that quickly went away and delved into the life of Sophia Evans. I ended up liking her, and rooting for her through the book. I felt the character development was nice and enjoyed the plot. I don't recall reading a book with the reasonings behind the killings being this way. It almost felt like "Criminal Minds" in some places. (one of my favorite shows.) I'd recommend the read. I got it free on AMazon Kindle. I would read others in the series, which it sounds like there are.

[Natascha · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was pleasant and intriguing as you try to figure out how it all holds together. We have a murderer, bombers and somehow the crimes are all solved in this book as the principal character is linked to them all. But once, we get towards the end and we've found out who the murderer is, the solution is wrapped up to easily. You wonder: "Was that it?". So, although I really enjoyed reading the book, the ending disappointed me. There is no psychological aspect nor answer as to the why of the killing, and I find that feature missing in most similar novels. Also there is no real closure in any of the "different" stories.

[Sheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is more than one case going on at once in this book. Both are interesting. I got a little lost when Sophia was explaining about breaking a code for one of the cases. For the most part, the writing is good. A few times the writing felt awkward but not enough to dampen my overall interest in the story. I wish I had gotten more details about the two main characters of Sophia and Theo but I am assuming we will get more details in future books. I borrowed this book from Amazon for free from the Prime Lending library and would look for the next in her series at some point. Overall, an enjoyable read.

[Michelle Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a solid 3 stars, meaning I don't plan on reading it again, but would read this author again, especially as this is a first novel. Overall, the writing was fine, but the dialogue often felt stilted and some of the descriptions could have been better. While it took me awhile to warm up to the protagonists, by around halfway through the book I did start to become interested in them. I guess I just never felt fully absorbed by the book. It was fascinating enough, but never felt fully realized. The ending felt a bit rushed, with both major cases solved relatively abruptly. I would like to read the sequel, and hope that some of The Sholes Key's shortcomings have been addressed.