Sirens in the Night

BLUF: Great book for those who enjoy science fiction mixed in with their murder mystery.

I was provided a copy of this book from netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review

Sirens in the Night follows two individuals: Samantha Ballard and Jack Allyn. Samantha is an experienced detective who is “mentoring” the homicide division rookie. In reality, she faces a need to prove herself as a strong detective and tries to lead the case ahead of her FBI counterparts, while being very impatient and unforgiving towards her rookie. Jack is a radio DJ. Once famous for his on-air personality, Jack now finds himself at the lowest of lows in the business. Unfortunately for Jack, he hits a new low as mummified corpses begin appearing around him.

At first, Samantha seems like your typical police harda** who doesn't care about anyone and doesn't play by the rules. Reading on, she sheds this initial judgment and becomes very likeable (It's interesting how getting to know somebody sheds light on their actions.) She remains too hard on her partner, but it reads well. Usually, I am the first to whine about a character that feels pushed down by the man, but, at the same time, is rude to those around her and shuts her station out. In Samantha's case, these aspects didn't bother me. She doesn't act as a lone wolf and she calls her partner in on all discoveries. For me, her desire to prove herself as a woman detective didn't have a whine to it; it was just a fact of her position.

Jack is likeable from the start. His career is past its' prime and he is unhappy, but he has his routines and a good personality.

As for the murders and investigation in these books, we discover the “who” and the “how” very quickly in this book, but not the “why”. In general, I don't like knowing the “who” upfront, but really, we only see who it is, not know who it is. This allows the book to retain mystery despite knowing our murder's pattern.

The only downfall of this book (unless you count not having a second book!) is that some of the descriptive phrases are reused. That is, one person describes somebody in very specific words and, much later in the book, another character uses the exact same words. It might be purposeful, but it gives the reader a sense of déjà vu and essentially disrupts the current story to reflect on parts of the story that has already passed.

Overall, I enjoyed this very much!