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Dead by Wednesday
As the minutes tick by, the body count rises in Beverly Long's Dead by Wednesday
With no leads, no witnesses and four teenage victims, it's a race against the clock for Detective Robert Hanson to catch a vicious serial killer. But he gets thrown slightly off course when Carmen Jiminez asks for his help. Fiercely independent, the pretty pregnancy counselor is the only woman who has ever tempted Robert to give up his freewheeling bachelor life. Yet protecting Carmen from mysterious "accidents" and vengeful clients is just as difficult as winning her trust. And the only way he can keep her and her brother safe is to conceal a wrenching secret—one an obsessed killer can't wait to use. Now Robert's newfound family is right in harm's way, and time is almost up….
With no leads, no witnesses and four teenage victims, it's a race against the clock for Detective Robert Hanson to catch a vicious serial killer. But he gets thrown slightly off course when Carmen Jiminez asks for his help. Fiercely independent, the pretty pregnancy counselor is the only woman who has ever tempted Robert to give up his freewheeling bachelor life. Yet protecting Carmen from mysterious "accidents" and vengeful clients is just as difficult as winning her trust. And the only way he can keep her and her brother safe is to conceal a wrenching secret—one an obsessed killer can't wait to use. Now Robert's newfound family is right in harm's way, and time is almost up….
- GenresHarlequin
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 17, 2013
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297 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 15 reviews
June 30, 2014
I read a lot of books, and this is one of the best Harlequin books that I have ever read. The story had a serial killer that would torture teen boys before he killed them. The details were gruesome, and turned my stomach. He was one sick man. Every detective, and policeman in the city was working the case, and pulling over time. The book described the long hours very well. Every Wednesday another kid was turning up dead. They had to stop this guy.
Carmen met Robert at her best friend's wedding. Robert was the best man to Sawyer, While she was the maid of honor to Liz. Robert, and Sawyer were both detectives, and partners. Liz and Sawyer would invite over Carmen, and Robert. Robert knew the first time he met Carmen that she was something special. Carmen ignored Robert, or shut him down. She had no time to date. She had been raising her teenage brother Raoul. I loved the banter between Carmen, and Robert. The romance between this couple was slow and so very sweet. At one point in the book, he found her crying, so he took her for ice cream. The friendship, and trust, turned in to the forever kind of love. This is one of those books that will go on my list to read again one day. I don't want to spoil the book for you, but by the end the police did catch the guy, so I was not left hanging. I hate books that leave you hanging until the next book. I loved the action, suspense, and romance!
Carmen met Robert at her best friend's wedding. Robert was the best man to Sawyer, While she was the maid of honor to Liz. Robert, and Sawyer were both detectives, and partners. Liz and Sawyer would invite over Carmen, and Robert. Robert knew the first time he met Carmen that she was something special. Carmen ignored Robert, or shut him down. She had no time to date. She had been raising her teenage brother Raoul. I loved the banter between Carmen, and Robert. The romance between this couple was slow and so very sweet. At one point in the book, he found her crying, so he took her for ice cream. The friendship, and trust, turned in to the forever kind of love. This is one of those books that will go on my list to read again one day. I don't want to spoil the book for you, but by the end the police did catch the guy, so I was not left hanging. I hate books that leave you hanging until the next book. I loved the action, suspense, and romance!
December 20, 2016
I was hoping to break the spell of below average Intrigue books I've been reading lately, but Dead By Wednesday unfortunately fell short. I never felt the urgency of the countdown, and there was no mystery behind the identity of the killer, which you would think was important to have a little 'intrigue' in your story!
Also, the book description is highly inaccurate! Carmen never asks for Robert's help. He just keeps poking into her life and wearing down her resistance. It didn't feel very romantic - more like she just gave in because he was always around! And he never had to conceal any secret to keep Carmen and Raoul safe. She was hardly in any danger throughout the book. Raoul, sure, but not Carmen.
I was also mildly repulsed by the suggestion that Robert was stringing two women along at the same time, but abandoned that sort of behaviour once he realised his feelings for Carmen. Icky! Nearly every single woman in the story hits on Robert and he "nobly" turns them down. It was a bit much!
Also, the book description is highly inaccurate! Carmen never asks for Robert's help. He just keeps poking into her life and wearing down her resistance. It didn't feel very romantic - more like she just gave in because he was always around! And he never had to conceal any secret to keep Carmen and Raoul safe. She was hardly in any danger throughout the book. Raoul, sure, but not Carmen.
I was also mildly repulsed by the suggestion that Robert was stringing two women along at the same time, but abandoned that sort of behaviour once he realised his feelings for Carmen. Icky! Nearly every single woman in the story hits on Robert and he "nobly" turns them down. It was a bit much!
October 10, 2013
4 stars
Dead by Wednesday was pretty suspenseful. It was easy to figure out who the bad guy was but we did not know who he was or why he was killing teenage boys. Still it was a suspenseful.
I liked the characters. Especially Carmen. She has raised her brother since he was young. Her job was to help teenage girls. She was a believable.
Now Robert's case I wonder at how fast he changed his ways, falling hard and fast for her. Robert is a cop who is attracted to Carmen for months. Especially when they danced at their friend's wedding. She did not want to dance again with him.
Raoul is Carmen's teenage brother. Raoul was being bullied by older bigger boys. Who thought they were tough. Really two bigger boys ganging up on younger smaller boy is not very brave. It happens too often in real life.
The plot main path is a serial killer has killed 4 teenage boys on Wednesday for the past four weeks. They don't seem to have anything in common. They don't want a 5th dead teenager. So the police are working hard on figuring out the killer. So it is a race of the clock.
The pace of the storyline is pretty fast. You don't want to stop reading it.
Their is lots of drama, police work, some action and one love scene that I admit skipping over.
I was given this ebook to read and review from Netgalley and Harlequin.
publication: December 17th 2013 by Harlequin Intrigue ISBN:9780373697397 288 page
Dead by Wednesday was pretty suspenseful. It was easy to figure out who the bad guy was but we did not know who he was or why he was killing teenage boys. Still it was a suspenseful.
I liked the characters. Especially Carmen. She has raised her brother since he was young. Her job was to help teenage girls. She was a believable.
Now Robert's case I wonder at how fast he changed his ways, falling hard and fast for her. Robert is a cop who is attracted to Carmen for months. Especially when they danced at their friend's wedding. She did not want to dance again with him.
Raoul is Carmen's teenage brother. Raoul was being bullied by older bigger boys. Who thought they were tough. Really two bigger boys ganging up on younger smaller boy is not very brave. It happens too often in real life.
The plot main path is a serial killer has killed 4 teenage boys on Wednesday for the past four weeks. They don't seem to have anything in common. They don't want a 5th dead teenager. So the police are working hard on figuring out the killer. So it is a race of the clock.
The pace of the storyline is pretty fast. You don't want to stop reading it.
Their is lots of drama, police work, some action and one love scene that I admit skipping over.
I was given this ebook to read and review from Netgalley and Harlequin.
publication: December 17th 2013 by Harlequin Intrigue ISBN:9780373697397 288 page
January 29, 2014
Beverly Long has given readers a nice romantic suspense story. It was fast paced; the action occurs over a one week time span, and quite suspenseful. The lead couple definitely had sparks flying between them, and the romance starts quite quickly. It is difficult to balance suspense and romance, but Ms. Long does a good job with the time frame constraints. The suspense and intrigue were well plotted and there were enough twists and turns to keep me reading far too late.
*I received my copy from NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
*I received my copy from NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
August 5, 2016
I really enjoyed this book. It is a great love story & suspense!! The characters were well thought out & intriguing. You really wanted to get to know them. I really hated for the book to end. I could follow the characters through more books. Plus it was an easy read which meant I could pick it up at anytime n enjoy a chapter or 2. Then continue on watching my grandson. Of course that was while he was napping. I highly recommend this book!!
March 4, 2014
In Long’s romantic suspense novel, Detective Robert Hanson is racing the clock in search of a serial killer. When Carmen Jimenez asks for help following some “accidents” that have happened, the detective finds himself struggling to maintain a professional distance between them. Attraction wins out and Robert agrees to protect both Carmen and her brother at all costs against a killer drawing closer.
Fast-paced and action-packed.
Fast-paced and action-packed.
June 6, 2016
First of all: Apparently I'm in the minority here about this book.
Second of all: I had only intended to write a short opinion piece... then the ranting started and here we are.
This book wasn’t the worst thing in the world; and to be honest, I thought about cutting it some slack because it wasn’t really as terrible as some of my frustrated mutterings made it seem. But it still wasn’t the best thing in the world either. It was simply your standard, formulaic, carbon-copy romance using a crime thriller as background scenery to give said standard, formulaic, carbon-copy romance a possible story to follow.
And if the crime thriller had had any substance to it, I might have been inclined to enjoy it a little bit more. But the serial killings in the book really took a huge backseat despite the fact that at least two chapters were spent on the investigation process. I just never got the sense that the ‘suspense’ part of this romantic suspense was all that significant to this particular book.
The basic outline of the story is pretty much as follows:
There’s a serial killer targeting teenage and pre-teen boys, who are supposedly dying a gruesome, torturous death. Not that I need detailed descriptions or anything, but, again, I never got the sense that the killings were gruesome or anything. There is a lot more telling about a vague “gruesome murders” happening rather than showing that these were gruesome murders. I hadn’t even realized that the serial killings were gruesome murders until someone had some dialogue somewhere that made a half-hearted mention about it.
I only knew that boys were being murdered. But that’s fine--details of gory murders aren’t really my cuppa anyway, even if I can sometimes enjoy details for the sake of chilly, spine-tingling intrigue. But I’m the type of person who avoids Saw movies like the plagues, so I can live with less gory details.
However, I still need some details.
Back to the book...
Carmen Jimenez is a pregnancy counselor; Robert what’s-his-name (I’ve already turned the book into the library and am too lazy to look up character names I don’t remember) is a police detective. And somehow Carmen’s younger brother gets caught up in the whole mess of murder and intrigue… so somehow Carmen gets caught up in this whole mess as well.
And then the story spirals on from there.
My Thoughts
The ideas in this book aren’t bad. In fact, it was the premise that drew my attention anyway--as do most crime thriller premises. Aside from a murder mystery with (unfulfilled) potential, the book brings up a lot of good discussion topics including high school bullying, teens getting wrapped up in gang violence, and teenage pregnancy.
But everything presented in this book is only second (or maybe even third, or fourth) string to the standard, formulaic, carbon-copy romance. Which would have been fine, because I don’t mind a good romance. If the romance was a good romance.
But since the romance really wasn’t all that great, I would have liked some more in-depth substance pertaining to the tangent plotlines dealing with the teenagers in this book--specifically Carmen’s teenage younger brother, Raoul, as he deals with growing up raised by his older sister and struggling to understand his deceased brother, Hector’s life that had lead to said older brother’s death.
Frankly, aside from Raoul, the characters were lackluster and boring and nothing outstanding presents in Dead by Wednesday.
Carmen is the usual romance heroine: cynical, almost virginal, always second-guessing herself, and then in the end, she pulls a TSTL even though she’s supposed to have been a character with some street smarts. For a social worker specializing in teenagers, she doesn’t know how to read her brother--but I’ll give her that, because dealing with family is always different from dealing with clients. Romance-wise, she flashes hot and cold in a very inconsistent manner akin to making me extra frustrated. She sends mixed signals and jumps to conclusions and makes wild assumptions and then gets over-dramatic at all the wrong moments.
Mainly, I’m a little disappointed that she made a bad decision that she should have known was a bad decision, that nearly got herself and her brother killed. I know she has spent her entire life fending her herself and her brother, but there is a line between being independent and strong versus being plain reckless.
If you know it’s a dangerous situation and there are other options, don’t just walk right into said dangerous situation without a plan--especially if you’re taking your teenaged younger brother who relies on your protection with you.
I can forgive Raoul for doing stupid things because he’s young and vulnerable and still has time to learn from his mistakes; but Carmen is a grown woman who has already gone through a lot of rough stuff in her life, growing up and is described as having street smart experience. And she’s a social worker who guides teenagers into making the right decisions for their lives. So she should know better.
Robert is the usual romance hero: broody, sexually experienced and a ladies’ man, overconfident in his own attractiveness, pushy and determined to get into a woman’s pants no matter that she’s sending him “Back off” signals every other encounter. But because he’s a good man at heart and described as a gentleman in the narration, it’s totally okay for him to force his affections onto a woman who keeps pushing him away. (/sarcasm)
And then he gets all offended when friends are telling him to leave Carmen alone if he’s not serious about her. After all, just because he plays around and has lines of women waiting to sleep with him, doesn’t mean he’s constantly breaking hearts. Not mattering that he knows Carmen is looking for a more committed and serious relationship, and he has admitted that he’s really only in it for the lusty, sexy times and doesn’t know how to do the committed relationship thing… So, hey, stop treating him like he’s an inconsiderate bastard bent on misleading a woman on into thinking that he’s interested in more than just sex.
But, of course, he then just happens to meet the right woman (Carmen, by the way) and suddenly all other women are dead to him. He transforms into a protective caveman, but he goes through the usual “Love? Where did that word come from?” phase and “Marriage? Who needs that kind of lifestyle?” as he goes off and buys an engagement ring. All of this after three scarce encounters with his true love--two of which ended in either mixed signals or the big “Back off” signals.
But that’s fine, Robert and Carmen were meant for each other, so let the instalove roll.
But I’m being harsh. Probably because I’m irritated about stuff.
At the worst, Dead by Wednesday is simply a typical romance with a typical storyline with typical characters. Monotone and boring, but NOT a bad book. At least there was a semblance of a story.
I guess I’m mainly disappointed because I’d been considering reading Beverly Long’s Return to Ravesville books since the moment I read the synopsis of the first book in that series.
***
2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge
• Bookish Resolutions Challenge -- New to Me Author #1
Second of all: I had only intended to write a short opinion piece... then the ranting started and here we are.
This book wasn’t the worst thing in the world; and to be honest, I thought about cutting it some slack because it wasn’t really as terrible as some of my frustrated mutterings made it seem. But it still wasn’t the best thing in the world either. It was simply your standard, formulaic, carbon-copy romance using a crime thriller as background scenery to give said standard, formulaic, carbon-copy romance a possible story to follow.
And if the crime thriller had had any substance to it, I might have been inclined to enjoy it a little bit more. But the serial killings in the book really took a huge backseat despite the fact that at least two chapters were spent on the investigation process. I just never got the sense that the ‘suspense’ part of this romantic suspense was all that significant to this particular book.
The basic outline of the story is pretty much as follows:
There’s a serial killer targeting teenage and pre-teen boys, who are supposedly dying a gruesome, torturous death. Not that I need detailed descriptions or anything, but, again, I never got the sense that the killings were gruesome or anything. There is a lot more telling about a vague “gruesome murders” happening rather than showing that these were gruesome murders. I hadn’t even realized that the serial killings were gruesome murders until someone had some dialogue somewhere that made a half-hearted mention about it.
I only knew that boys were being murdered. But that’s fine--details of gory murders aren’t really my cuppa anyway, even if I can sometimes enjoy details for the sake of chilly, spine-tingling intrigue. But I’m the type of person who avoids Saw movies like the plagues, so I can live with less gory details.
However, I still need some details.
Back to the book...
Carmen Jimenez is a pregnancy counselor; Robert what’s-his-name (I’ve already turned the book into the library and am too lazy to look up character names I don’t remember) is a police detective. And somehow Carmen’s younger brother gets caught up in the whole mess of murder and intrigue… so somehow Carmen gets caught up in this whole mess as well.
And then the story spirals on from there.
My Thoughts
The ideas in this book aren’t bad. In fact, it was the premise that drew my attention anyway--as do most crime thriller premises. Aside from a murder mystery with (unfulfilled) potential, the book brings up a lot of good discussion topics including high school bullying, teens getting wrapped up in gang violence, and teenage pregnancy.
But everything presented in this book is only second (or maybe even third, or fourth) string to the standard, formulaic, carbon-copy romance. Which would have been fine, because I don’t mind a good romance. If the romance was a good romance.
But since the romance really wasn’t all that great, I would have liked some more in-depth substance pertaining to the tangent plotlines dealing with the teenagers in this book--specifically Carmen’s teenage younger brother, Raoul, as he deals with growing up raised by his older sister and struggling to understand his deceased brother, Hector’s life that had lead to said older brother’s death.
Frankly, aside from Raoul, the characters were lackluster and boring and nothing outstanding presents in Dead by Wednesday.
Carmen is the usual romance heroine: cynical, almost virginal, always second-guessing herself, and then in the end, she pulls a TSTL even though she’s supposed to have been a character with some street smarts. For a social worker specializing in teenagers, she doesn’t know how to read her brother--but I’ll give her that, because dealing with family is always different from dealing with clients. Romance-wise, she flashes hot and cold in a very inconsistent manner akin to making me extra frustrated. She sends mixed signals and jumps to conclusions and makes wild assumptions and then gets over-dramatic at all the wrong moments.
Mainly, I’m a little disappointed that she made a bad decision that she should have known was a bad decision, that nearly got herself and her brother killed. I know she has spent her entire life fending her herself and her brother, but there is a line between being independent and strong versus being plain reckless.
If you know it’s a dangerous situation and there are other options, don’t just walk right into said dangerous situation without a plan--especially if you’re taking your teenaged younger brother who relies on your protection with you.
I can forgive Raoul for doing stupid things because he’s young and vulnerable and still has time to learn from his mistakes; but Carmen is a grown woman who has already gone through a lot of rough stuff in her life, growing up and is described as having street smart experience. And she’s a social worker who guides teenagers into making the right decisions for their lives. So she should know better.
Robert is the usual romance hero: broody, sexually experienced and a ladies’ man, overconfident in his own attractiveness, pushy and determined to get into a woman’s pants no matter that she’s sending him “Back off” signals every other encounter. But because he’s a good man at heart and described as a gentleman in the narration, it’s totally okay for him to force his affections onto a woman who keeps pushing him away. (/sarcasm)
And then he gets all offended when friends are telling him to leave Carmen alone if he’s not serious about her. After all, just because he plays around and has lines of women waiting to sleep with him, doesn’t mean he’s constantly breaking hearts. Not mattering that he knows Carmen is looking for a more committed and serious relationship, and he has admitted that he’s really only in it for the lusty, sexy times and doesn’t know how to do the committed relationship thing… So, hey, stop treating him like he’s an inconsiderate bastard bent on misleading a woman on into thinking that he’s interested in more than just sex.
But, of course, he then just happens to meet the right woman (Carmen, by the way) and suddenly all other women are dead to him. He transforms into a protective caveman, but he goes through the usual “Love? Where did that word come from?” phase and “Marriage? Who needs that kind of lifestyle?” as he goes off and buys an engagement ring. All of this after three scarce encounters with his true love--two of which ended in either mixed signals or the big “Back off” signals.
But that’s fine, Robert and Carmen were meant for each other, so let the instalove roll.
But I’m being harsh. Probably because I’m irritated about stuff.
At the worst, Dead by Wednesday is simply a typical romance with a typical storyline with typical characters. Monotone and boring, but NOT a bad book. At least there was a semblance of a story.
I guess I’m mainly disappointed because I’d been considering reading Beverly Long’s Return to Ravesville books since the moment I read the synopsis of the first book in that series.
***
2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge
• Bookish Resolutions Challenge -- New to Me Author #1
August 2, 2021
Teenage boys are being murdered and mutilated, one every Wednesday. Detective Robert Hanson and the rest of his squad are determined to stop the killer before another boy dies. Even a new love interest will not delay the investigation.
December 12, 2014
REVIEW OF AUDIOBOOK; DEC 12, 2014
Narrator: Violet Grey
This book got off on a bad start for me because the MCs, as far as romance were concerned, came across like adolescents wading into the dating pool for the first time. Actually, it is like that for the heroine as it's the first time she's finding herself even thinking about a man in a romantic sense in 13 years. While that's fine with me, I'd rather not have my romantic suspense tilting towards the romance especially when most of it involves so much mental hand-wringing over a the guy. The romante didn't get much better so this book ended up disappointing as I was hoping/expecting more of a suspense/romance than so much annoying attention on the heroine's feelings and fear of romance and men.
The serial killer theme, which 9 out of 10 RS murder stories are based on, could have been very good but for me, I found the heroine's dithering over the hero distracting and wanted to tell the author to either get on with the romance, or drop it and focus on the suspense. Nervous, hand-wringing virgin-like heroines looking at the hero as if a date with him would result in a fate worse than death is not my cup of tea.
Having had the good luck to read and listen to Adrienne Giordano's The Prosecutor, I now know that there are some good Harlequin Intrigues out there and hope I'll stumble on another like it.
Narrator: Violet Grey
This book got off on a bad start for me because the MCs, as far as romance were concerned, came across like adolescents wading into the dating pool for the first time. Actually, it is like that for the heroine as it's the first time she's finding herself even thinking about a man in a romantic sense in 13 years. While that's fine with me, I'd rather not have my romantic suspense tilting towards the romance especially when most of it involves so much mental hand-wringing over a the guy. The romante didn't get much better so this book ended up disappointing as I was hoping/expecting more of a suspense/romance than so much annoying attention on the heroine's feelings and fear of romance and men.
The serial killer theme, which 9 out of 10 RS murder stories are based on, could have been very good but for me, I found the heroine's dithering over the hero distracting and wanted to tell the author to either get on with the romance, or drop it and focus on the suspense. Nervous, hand-wringing virgin-like heroines looking at the hero as if a date with him would result in a fate worse than death is not my cup of tea.
Having had the good luck to read and listen to Adrienne Giordano's The Prosecutor, I now know that there are some good Harlequin Intrigues out there and hope I'll stumble on another like it.
September 10, 2016
Was lucky enough to win a signed copy of "Dead by Wednesday" from Beverly Long in the GoodReads GiveAway Contest.
"Dead by Wednesday" is written in a way to allow for a fast paced, all in one read. There is no dragging in the plot, contestant moving as the story takes place in the time span of one week. Allowing for a whirlwind romance complete with intrigue, danger, and suspense.
I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it.
"Dead by Wednesday" is written in a way to allow for a fast paced, all in one read. There is no dragging in the plot, contestant moving as the story takes place in the time span of one week. Allowing for a whirlwind romance complete with intrigue, danger, and suspense.
I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it.
February 12, 2015
Unthinkable crimes against teenagers; hart brakes for parents and providers of children. Bad guys get it in the end , and a hospital, a recoverie and a wedding. Add a 100% to that and you get good over evil every time.
April 8, 2020
Honor student starts failing and they don't consider bullying?!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 15 reviews