Book Review: After The Kill - A Jake Roberts Novel

After the Kill is the fourth novel featuring Jake Roberts.  The former police detective certainly attracts trouble wherever he goes.

This instalment picks up minutes after the previous novel, After the Goode, ends.  The introduction of the new characters is a bit long-winded, but necessary for the important plot points.  The killer in this book is a copycat in the style of Lori Powers, who we met in After The Evil.

I liked how all the books in this series tied together.  Characters carried over from one book to the next, even though their main jobs were done in earlier stories.  And Jake Roberts becomes an author throughout this series and they refer to the previous books inside this story which was a great sense of amusement to me.

Has Cary Allen Stone created more stories in Jake Roberts' universe?  I'm not sure.  He sure could.  The writing of these stories has gotten progressively better throughout the series.

This poor guy has been through enough crises and heartbreak in these books.  I hope, if his stories carry on, that Jake can find a quiet life after all the strife he's been through.  I know that doesn't make for a dramatic story, but I think Jake Roberts deserves his happiness!

Book Review: After the Goode - A Jake Roberts Novel

*I was sent this book free of charge so I could read it and create this review*

After the Goode is the third book in the Jake Roberts series.  I have one more after this one to read and review.

This book is a story of what Jake Roberts gets himself into after retiring from the police force.  Seems these good detectives can't leave the detecting behind!

This instalment started out well, but with some characters I hadn't seen before.  This isn't a problem, I was just expecting to Jake Roberts to be more involved earlier on in the story.  He does show up, and he has a big role in the novel, but there was an adjustment period where I had to wade through a bit of slow character development with the new characters.

Once I got into it, the story rolled right along.  I was pretty hooked once the conflict (read: murder) happened, and all the characters rolled into one coherent storyline.

This is really the story of murder by accident; and then the intrigue of one character trying to hide it while the others are trying to solve it.  Heartstrings are tugged a little at the end.  And then it's left only slightly open for the next story. 

Again there were some (although less) editing errors.  An extra re-read of the copy would have been beneficial I think.  Now that I'm three books in, I don't notice the errors as much, but comma splices, incorrect quotations etc. are unfortunately still there.

I do look forward to finding out how Cary Allen Stone wraps up this series.  Jake is slowly growing older, and he's trying to leave his detecting days behind.  Maybe the last book will see him settle down somewhere more remote with his lady and have a quiet family life.  Who knows!  I guess there's only one way to find out.

Stay tuned for my review of After the Kill, coming after the book I'm wading through right now.

~Jess

Book Review: Mind Over Murder - A Jake Roberts Novel

*I was sent this book free of charge so I could read it and create this review*

Reading Cary Allan Stone's next instalment in the Jake Roberts series was more enjoyable than the first one.  The story flowed coherently, the characters were well rounded (bonus - I knew most of them from the previous book), and the third person switches were much easier to follow.

I really enjoyed this detective story.  Another book where you know what happened and who's committing the murders right from the beginning.  It was very enjoyable to follow Roberts along in his quest to figure out "whodunit."

I'm not sure if it's due to the author having more writing experience, but I had a much easier and enjoyable time reading this book.  There were still some comma placement issues, and a few areas where I had to read a sentence over again, but much better writing and grammar use in this story.

There are 2 more books that follow Jake Roberts - I have both to read yet and I'm looking forward to them!  Mr. Stone has created a great character (and he's killed off a few great characters too!) and I hope his next "situations" are as riveting as I found this one.

Book Review: After The Evil - A Jake Roberts Novel

*I was sent this book free of charge so I could read it and create this review*

Cary Allen Stone has created a series of books around a character named Jake Roberts.  This is the first book in this series.  Cary sent me all 4 books in this series but asked for them to be reviewed separately.  Definitely not a problem for me as I have a few other authors waiting to be read as well - I can intersperse his novels with theirs.

The story of After the Evil is a police drama.  Not quite a murder mystery because you know who's doing it right from the first page.  But the story plays out about how you'd expect.

I had a very hard time getting "into" this book.  There was quite a bit of jumping from one character to another, and it was sometimes tough to realize who was speaking (or thinking.)  As the novel progressed, the scattered feeling dissipated so the storyline was easier to follow.

Another minor problem that detracted from the story was the punctuation and editing of the sentences and paragraphs.  Often times commas were incorrectly placed, opening or closing quotations were missed in spots and and other grammar items (contractions etc) were not used in the correct context.  Unfortunately all the grammar errors contributed to my not enjoying this story as much as I could have.  I had to re-read parts of some paragraphs just to figure out what was meant, when all it needed was a little editing.

Overall (once I got past the grammar issues) I thought the story was well thought out, and well executed.  The characters were interesting, the plot flowed quite smoothly and the end leaves you wanting more.  Good thing, since there are 3 more books in this series!

I'm looking forward to reading the next stories, and now that I know the editing could be a bit better I can try to gloss over the errors to get to the great storyline.  I look forward to seeing what Cary Allen Stone has in store for Jake Roberts next.