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Heart Break: An Isabel Swift Novel
Isabel Swift is a savvy, down-to-earth, female police officer who protects the citizens of Westchester County and wants to become a detective. From a broken home, her brothers and sisters in blue are her family, and she is shaken by the recent, unexpected death of her mentor, Ben Carter, from what everyone thinks was a heart attack. On her first day back from leave, she is paired with an arrogant forensic data scientist, Mark Jameson, who is more interested in analyzing data than solving the crime of stolen technology to which they are assigned.
When their investigation uncovers an unexpected link between the theft and her mentor’s death, Swift and Jameson have only 48 hours to whittle down a countywide list of suspects, track down the stolen technology, and solve the mystery of Ben Carter’s death. Can Isabel overcome her grief and her differences with her new partner to solve the case and earn her detective’s badge?
Heart Break is the debut novel of MF Moskwik and the first in the Isabel Swift series.
When their investigation uncovers an unexpected link between the theft and her mentor’s death, Swift and Jameson have only 48 hours to whittle down a countywide list of suspects, track down the stolen technology, and solve the mystery of Ben Carter’s death. Can Isabel overcome her grief and her differences with her new partner to solve the case and earn her detective’s badge?
Heart Break is the debut novel of MF Moskwik and the first in the Isabel Swift series.
- GenresMystery
328 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 28, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 14, 2015
I received this book through a Goodreads FirstReads giveaway. This does not affect my review.
Heart Break, by M.F. Moskwik, is a tech-based mystery starring Isabelle Swift as the up-and-coming police officer with a talent for detecting falsehoods and a headstrong but effective approach to solving cases.
After the death of her friend and mentor shakes the small-town police department she works in, Isabelle is assigned to a seemingly simple case of theft, hunting for stolen technology alongside Dr. Mark Jameson, an impatient forensic data scientist who knows more than he's telling. As more and more police officers are found dead and the situation escalates, Izzy and Jameson are swept into a race against time, attempting to solve the case before they lose anyone else.
Heart Break is a book with a lot of potential, and a pretty clever name (nice cover too, but I digress); however, it has a HUGE problem.
The mistakes with grammar and punctuation in this book are rampant. There were points where I was finding five mistakes per page, from misspelled or missing words and punctuation marks, to bungled sentences and repetition:
...What?
And see that name up there? James? The character's actual name is Jameson, but he is referred to repeatedly as 'James', and I can't tell if that's intentional or not
Jameson is not the only character this happens to. A little more than halfway through the book (pg. 199), Isabelle Swift, our main character, is called Abby. In fact, she's called Abby at least twice (again on pg. 215).
The errors were so many that often times I couldn't tell the difference between typos and verbal ticks or accents during dialogue sequences, and there were several times when I had to guess what a sentence was supposed to mean because it was either poorly constructed, or jumbled together.
Another problem with this book was inconsistency. While it didn't seem to substantially affect the plot, in smaller instances, inconsistencies in the writing created confusion:
But then, four lines later...
Besides the confusion caused by the changes in italicization (in this case), the inconsistencies also affected the characters:
Okay, cool. But in the VERY NEXT LINE, the author writes the same character referred to in the previous quote as saying:
That doesn't sound terribly measured to me. It sounds a bit frantic, like Izzy is panicking. So which sentence do I believe?
Moving on.
The author tends to explain things to the audience that don't need to be explained. I found myself quite often thinking 'Yes, thank you, I know what that is,' in response to the explanation of a simple object or occurrence, as during the time that the author decided to explain what a pacemaker is:
That is Isabelle speaking. A trained police officer speaking to a forensic data scientist. Both of them know full well what a pacemaker is; most adults do. There is no reason for this explanation other than the reader's benefit, except, the reader doesn't need something this simple explained to them. These kind of explanations happen regularly; at one point, the captain of the police department explains what "being on the lookout" means. To a room full of detectives and officers.
Besides expecting too little from the reader, these explanations also become repetitive. If you tell me that the officers are on the lookout, you do not the need to explain what being on the lookout means, and reiterate that that is what the officers are doing.
Moskwik also has a slight telling-not-showing problem, often injecting unnecessary information into the dialogue, resulting in stilted, awkward conversation.
This book does have a few places where it requires the reader to suspend disbelief, as in one of the first scenes in the book, where Jameson willingly divulges both in-depth case details and nearly all of the personal information of an officer to someone he believes to work for IT. However, the majority of these moments can be overlooked, in that they serve the purpose of making the plot more exciting.
Characters
Some of my favorite things about this book are the relationships between the characters. I loved the interactions between Isabelle and her stand-in partner/mentor, Rodriguez. Their relationship was a perfect balance of affection and snark, backed by trust and respect. They were a great pair, and had the kind of relationship we often see between men in literature, but rarely with a female character. I really appreciated seeing it.
I also loved the relationship between Jameson and Isabelle, even if I don't think it read quite the way the author intended. It seems like Jameson was meant to be far more arrogant and sarcastic than he actually was, and I suspect that the author wanted he and Izzy to have a very back-and-forth relationship, but as much as I love snarky heroes, I really enjoyed the fact that although the two seemed to butt heads a bit at the beginning of the story, they very quickly developed mutual respect and friendship. And I cannot express how glad I am that the author did not force them into an awkward romance right off the bat.
Isabelle has the makings of an awesome protagonist: she's smart, grounded, compassionate, and has great instincts. She's also flawed, which only makes her better, in my opinion. I loved that even though she has a difficult past (only hinted at in this book), she doesn't let it define her. She's a strong character.
Moskwik handled his characters very well. They were probably the strongest aspect of this book. If the series should continue, these characters all have plenty of room to grow and develop, which is such a crucial part of an engaging story.
Plot
The mystery in Heart Break was interesting and engaging, until halfway through the book, when the writer gave away the mystery and exposed the perpetrator. And yet, even though the mystery itself was easy to guess, the book didn't lose its appeal.
In fact, it was around the halfway point when the plot picked up and became truly interesting. The book was a quick read, but it was also fun, and a lot of the entertainment value came from the second half of the book, when the action picks up and the relationships develop.
Closing Thoughts
This book, overall, was a fun read, with engaging characters, and, as I've said, lots of potential, but it desperately needed some kind of editor to proofread it and help smooth out the plethora of wrinkles.
With potential like this, I hope Moskwik can pull the writing together and deliver the story these characters deserve, with plenty of tech-mysteries to solve.
Also, I need Jameson and Izzy to end up together. Ahem.
Heart Break, by M.F. Moskwik, is a tech-based mystery starring Isabelle Swift as the up-and-coming police officer with a talent for detecting falsehoods and a headstrong but effective approach to solving cases.
After the death of her friend and mentor shakes the small-town police department she works in, Isabelle is assigned to a seemingly simple case of theft, hunting for stolen technology alongside Dr. Mark Jameson, an impatient forensic data scientist who knows more than he's telling. As more and more police officers are found dead and the situation escalates, Izzy and Jameson are swept into a race against time, attempting to solve the case before they lose anyone else.
Heart Break is a book with a lot of potential, and a pretty clever name (nice cover too, but I digress); however, it has a HUGE problem.
The mistakes with grammar and punctuation in this book are rampant. There were points where I was finding five mistakes per page, from misspelled or missing words and punctuation marks, to bungled sentences and repetition:
"... she quietly unlatches the latch at the back of her car and quietly emerges..."In fact, some sentences, whether because of completely missing chunks, or simple disorganization, became nonsensical:
"James balls his fist in frustration, but compassion and impatience are the only expressions that write the expression on his face."
...What?
And see that name up there? James? The character's actual name is Jameson, but he is referred to repeatedly as 'James', and I can't tell if that's intentional or not
Jameson is not the only character this happens to. A little more than halfway through the book (pg. 199), Isabelle Swift, our main character, is called Abby. In fact, she's called Abby at least twice (again on pg. 215).
The errors were so many that often times I couldn't tell the difference between typos and verbal ticks or accents during dialogue sequences, and there were several times when I had to guess what a sentence was supposed to mean because it was either poorly constructed, or jumbled together.
Another problem with this book was inconsistency. While it didn't seem to substantially affect the plot, in smaller instances, inconsistencies in the writing created confusion:
"If one more person tells her how sorry they are, she's pretty sure she's going to have to draw her gun and shoot something, she thinks..."
But then, four lines later...
"Okay, maybe I'm not ready to be on the streets, she thinks."
Besides the confusion caused by the changes in italicization (in this case), the inconsistencies also affected the characters:
"Her [Isabelle's] voice is measured, aware, and probing, and the only sign of her worry is a slight lift in the pitch of her words."
Okay, cool. But in the VERY NEXT LINE, the author writes the same character referred to in the previous quote as saying:
"Answer me, damn it! How am I supposed to help you if you don't tell me what's wrong?"
That doesn't sound terribly measured to me. It sounds a bit frantic, like Izzy is panicking. So which sentence do I believe?
Moving on.
The author tends to explain things to the audience that don't need to be explained. I found myself quite often thinking 'Yes, thank you, I know what that is,' in response to the explanation of a simple object or occurrence, as during the time that the author decided to explain what a pacemaker is:
"Pacemaker. The machine that regulates the rhythm of a person's heart is they've got heart problems."
That is Isabelle speaking. A trained police officer speaking to a forensic data scientist. Both of them know full well what a pacemaker is; most adults do. There is no reason for this explanation other than the reader's benefit, except, the reader doesn't need something this simple explained to them. These kind of explanations happen regularly; at one point, the captain of the police department explains what "being on the lookout" means. To a room full of detectives and officers.
Besides expecting too little from the reader, these explanations also become repetitive. If you tell me that the officers are on the lookout, you do not the need to explain what being on the lookout means, and reiterate that that is what the officers are doing.
Moskwik also has a slight telling-not-showing problem, often injecting unnecessary information into the dialogue, resulting in stilted, awkward conversation.
This book does have a few places where it requires the reader to suspend disbelief, as in one of the first scenes in the book, where Jameson willingly divulges both in-depth case details and nearly all of the personal information of an officer to someone he believes to work for IT. However, the majority of these moments can be overlooked, in that they serve the purpose of making the plot more exciting.
Characters
Some of my favorite things about this book are the relationships between the characters. I loved the interactions between Isabelle and her stand-in partner/mentor, Rodriguez. Their relationship was a perfect balance of affection and snark, backed by trust and respect. They were a great pair, and had the kind of relationship we often see between men in literature, but rarely with a female character. I really appreciated seeing it.
I also loved the relationship between Jameson and Isabelle, even if I don't think it read quite the way the author intended. It seems like Jameson was meant to be far more arrogant and sarcastic than he actually was, and I suspect that the author wanted he and Izzy to have a very back-and-forth relationship, but as much as I love snarky heroes, I really enjoyed the fact that although the two seemed to butt heads a bit at the beginning of the story, they very quickly developed mutual respect and friendship. And I cannot express how glad I am that the author did not force them into an awkward romance right off the bat.
Isabelle has the makings of an awesome protagonist: she's smart, grounded, compassionate, and has great instincts. She's also flawed, which only makes her better, in my opinion. I loved that even though she has a difficult past (only hinted at in this book), she doesn't let it define her. She's a strong character.
Moskwik handled his characters very well. They were probably the strongest aspect of this book. If the series should continue, these characters all have plenty of room to grow and develop, which is such a crucial part of an engaging story.
Plot
The mystery in Heart Break was interesting and engaging, until halfway through the book, when the writer gave away the mystery and exposed the perpetrator. And yet, even though the mystery itself was easy to guess, the book didn't lose its appeal.
In fact, it was around the halfway point when the plot picked up and became truly interesting. The book was a quick read, but it was also fun, and a lot of the entertainment value came from the second half of the book, when the action picks up and the relationships develop.
Closing Thoughts
This book, overall, was a fun read, with engaging characters, and, as I've said, lots of potential, but it desperately needed some kind of editor to proofread it and help smooth out the plethora of wrinkles.
With potential like this, I hope Moskwik can pull the writing together and deliver the story these characters deserve, with plenty of tech-mysteries to solve.
November 4, 2021
Really enjoyed the book. Very interesting concept. Highly recommend it.
January 27, 2016
I won this book from a Goodreads giveaway. This was a really good book. I can't wait foe the next Isabel Swift book!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews