No Way Out
by Tower Lowe
Book: Stand Alone
Publisher: Solstice Publishing
Pub Date: February 23, 2020
Genre: Suspense
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher
If anything happens to me… That phrase from Gloria’s email haunts Molly as she bounces around half-conscious in a dark space. Later, she opens her eyes in a small house with all the windows bricked shut and the door boarded from the outside. Her kidnapper has taken her keys, her cell phone, and her purse. Molly scrambles through the house, looking for any sign of life, any hope of escape, but the house is abandoned and she sees no way out.The kidnapping of former fraud investigator Molly Donovan follows Gloria’s murder, an event witnessed by Molly and PI Miguel Alvarez. Gloria’s mysterious email throws the two investigators together in a frantic search for the perp. A stranger traps Molly inside the abandoned house while an old friend sucks Miguel into his troubled past. Molly trusts Miguel until a series of notes incriminates him and leaves Molly on her own to investigate a sex cult, missing money, and jaded love.
My Review: When fraud investigator turned receptionist Molly Donovan is involved in a workplace shooting, her entire world turns upside down. Her friend and coworker Gloria is killed in the shooting but it is revealed that she sent Molly an email that very morning, warning her not to come to work and asking her for help to solve a mystery. Molly teams up with a recently recovered addict and PI named Miguel Alvarez, who she feels a strong attraction to. The two work together to solve the mystery of Gloria’s death and its connection to a "women's empowerment business" called Xanadu. Their search is hindered by their attraction for each other, their past issues that haunt them, and a series of kidnappings and attacks that leave them struggling for answers and their lives.
The protagonist, Molly Donovan, is a strong character. This is important to note, especially because of Molly’s disability - her left arm was paralyzed after a stroke in high school. It is wonderful to see a novel with a disabled protagonist and Molly subverts the stereotype that people with disabilities need to be rescued or treated differently. As for the mystery, it is pretty interesting, full of twists and turns that leave you with a new question every time another one is answered, but I have to admit that the ending is rather lackluster.
Despite the exciting premise and promise of interesting characters, there were quite a few problems with this novel including: typos and grammatical errors, stilted dialogue, and “telling” rather than “showing”. Character reactions to events were often unbelievable (no one really reacts to Molly being kidnapped or Miguel relapsing) which makes it hard to suspend my disbelief enough to feel invested in the story. To add on to that point, Molly is investigating the death of her only friend but she is frequently side-tracked by her attraction to Miguel and spends a good amount of time thinking about him and/or her ex-boyfriend Jason rather than the mystery. It’s frustrating to see a novel about such a strong, independent woman focus so much on her relationships with men.
I think another round of editing would have been exactly what the book needed to fine-tune these issues and turn it into something great. With that in mind, I would say this is a decent read to pass the time but not something that I would recommend or read again.
My Rating:
✪✪✪
