Review: All the Pretty Brides (Jake Carrington Thriller #3) by Marian Lanouette

Print Length: 300 pages

Publisher: Lyrical Press (December 18, 2018)

From Goodreads.com: Homicide detective Jake Carrington has an engagement that can’t wait—with a killer. 

 
Haunted by the murder of his sister, Lieutenant Jake Carrington struggles to control his personal demons as he stands over the brutalized body of a young woman found dead on the railroad tracks. The victim disappeared on July 6th, the fifth woman in as many years to go missing on that date. The fifth happy bride-to-be. The only one whose body has turned up. 
 
Soon the killer is sending personal messages to Jake. They refer to an unidentified brother he believes Jake hates as much as he does. With his partner distracted by turmoil at home, Jake is on his own. Drawn deeper and deeper into a murderous family feud, his mission is to find out who the killer’s brother is—and stop him before another innocent woman’s life is cut tragically short. 

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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Let me begin by saying that the only thing the three books in the series have in common is the main character, his colleagues, and to a certain extent Mia. Otherwise they can all be read and enjoyed as stand alone novels (seriously, having read the second book, but not the first, I expected there to be at least some mention of events that had happened in book two, but there was nothing). 

As for the genre, I would definitely classify these more as police procedural novels and not so much a "thriller" novel. There is a lot of "chasing down leads", "getting nowhere" and "dealing with bureaucratic nonsense" that I feel while very realistic in terms of how the police really operate, do not always make for the best reading material. In this case, it was enjoyable, BUT there seemed to be a lot of distractions in the side stories (Louie's drama with his wife, Mia having a stalker) that I felt took away from the story instead of adding to it. In fact, the big reveal as to who Mia's stalker was felt very anti-climatic. I would have enjoyed them more had they added something to the overall story instead of just seeming like "filler". Perhaps it was the authors intent to use them to keep Jake and Louie distracted, but it was a bit over the top for me.

Finally, it rates being mentioned, but I liked Jake less and less during this story. During the course of his investigation he goes into tattoo parlors. And while even he agrees that tattoos, piercings, and other body modifications are not for him, he comes across as being a pretty judgmental jerk when it comes to those who do have them. A nitpick on my part for sure, but this was just one of several reasons that it made it hard (for me) to even care about this character. Coupled with his hot and cold relationship with Mia, and I was definitely left wanting more here.

However, the author does have a strong writing style and this story moves at a fairly steady pace so I am sure there will be a lot of fans. I may finish this series out (as of right now its being billed as a 4 book series). However I would read more from this author.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

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                           All the Pretty Brides is available from Amazon.com