Along Came December

by Jay Allisan

I feel a tight grip around my waist and struggle to get free. Max is right there, right in front of me, but Paddy's dragging me back. He clamps his hand over my eyes, tells me not to look. I wrench it free and look anyway. The bomb explodes. Max dies. I scream.For fans of Gillian Flynn and Karin Slaughter, an emotive thriller unearthing the depths of grief and the dark journey back to redemption.She watched him die. She won’t watch his killer live.Eighteen months ago, homicide detective Shirley Mordecai witnessed a bomb tear her husband apart, and her life is still in fragments. Panic attacks threaten her career. Bitterness alienates her friends. And her husband’s killer is about to stand trial, pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.Mordecai’s poised to snap.But vengeance comes at a cost, and Mordecai still has a lot to lose. A series of murders has gripped the city, and Mordecai’s best friend is a lot closer to the investigation than she’d like. As the trial begins and Mordecai’s grief comes to a head, her obsession with revenge costs her everything she has left—including her best friend’s trust.Now more alone than she's ever been, it’s all Mordecai can do not to let the memory of the life she lost pull her under for good. But a knock on the door reminds her there’s another killer out there, and that her best friend’s still in the line of fire.Sucked back into the investigation, Mordecai finds herself caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse with a killer who holds all the cards—and knows exactly how to play them. In her darkest hour, with time running out and history about to repeat, Mordecai will stop at nothing to save the only family she has left…and maybe then she can finally save herself.A tragic love story. An edge-of-your-seat thriller. A relentless heroine and an unforgettable mystery.It was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness. It was the spring of Hope, it was the winter of Despair…ALONG CAME DECEMBER

532 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 6, 2016

About the author

Jay Allisan is a lifelong daydreamer turned offbeat author, with a penchant for genre-hopping and a tendency toward the grim and the absurd. She writes stories, most of which aren't true, and still wants to be Batman someday.

Reviews

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story features a woman detective, Shirley Mordecai, who is out for revenge for the death of her husband at the hands of a fellow officer/serial killer. This is a debut novel for Jay Allisan, who shows real talent for writing scenes and dialog. Parts of the book dealing with crime investigations are fast paced and draw you in. However, it seems like about half the book is devoted to Mordecai's unbalanced mental and emotional state and that becomes a slog. I can only tolerate so much of people who act against their own self interests (attacking her husband's killer in the courtroom among many other things) and abuse friends who are trying to help. It wasn't long before my attitude toward Mordecai became "get over yourself." No matter how brave and clever she is, I think I might have been more worried about someone so mentally unbalanced and impulsive wielding a gun than I would have been about the actual criminals in this story.

The book also suffers from trying to cover too many different strings of serial killings, targeting police officers, prostitutes, sex-club workers and most bizarre of all, the parents of attractive little girls. Better to concentrate on a couple.

Because Allisan does have writing talent, this is a book that could be improved with editing. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, though I downloaded it from Kindle Unlimited to actually read it.

[Teresa Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must admit, when I first started this book I checked to see if I had inadvertently picked up book 2 in a series. I was totally confused. But when I checked I discovered it was indeed book 1 and I decided to stick with it. I'm really glad I did. The story bounces back and forth between present day and the past for the first little while, but then it settles down and begins to tell the story from beginning to end. I really enjoyed it. However, there is a caveat to that "really enjoyed it". I think too many authors today think in order for their mysteries/thrillers to be gritty, edgy and hard there has to be an overabundance of profanity; and the more vulgar, the better. Well, I beg to disagree. I'm not a prude by means, but after awhile the words become meaningless. If they are supposed to convey tension or drama or angst or whatever, less is more. After a while I begin to wonder if the author has lost use of their vocabulary and can't think of any other way to make a story "dramatic". Please try again.