Searchable Whereabouts
Non-series
Tinisha Nichole Johnson
Xpress Yourself (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-9799757-0-0 (0979975700)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9799757-0-7 (9780979975707)
Publication Date: February 2008
List Price: $16.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): After becoming obsessed with finding her Uncle's
killer, and no definite answers from the police, Rahkel Williams
enlists the services of private investigator, Darrin Miller. With his
help, she sets out to find answers and it's not long before they both
begin to get personal.
As time goes on, Rahkel finds herself caught in a web of lies and
deceit, where nothing and no one are as they seem. She begins to wonder
if she can trust anyone. The deeper Rahkel searches for answers, the
stranger things become, while people of interest are being killed and
she’s afraid she’ll be next. There is a race against time
for Rahkel to find the truth.
Review: Rahkel
Williams discovers the circumstances surrounding the mysterious death
of her beloved uncle in Searchable
Whereabouts, a debut thriller by Tinisha Nicole Johnson.
Rahkel is a nurse who does a little bookkeeping for her uncle on the
side. She's had a tough run lately, recovering from divorce and
substance abuse. But she's convinced she's on the right track in life.
One day she comes across some unusual entries in her uncle's accounts
and asks him about them. He waves them off as being routine business
matters, but several days later he's found dead, badly burned in a car
accident. Convinced that her uncle was murdered, Rahkel embarks on a
personal investigation to uncover the truth.
The formulaic plot of Searchable
Whereabouts is brightened by the character of Rahkel Williams.
She's not a typical heroine and has plenty of weaknesses to balance her
strengths. Although the book's resolution is foreshadowed early and is
not unexpected when it happens, there is a fair amount of misdirection
along the way. The suspense in the story increases when Rahkel becomes
a target herself, though it's never quite clear what she knows that
makes her a threat. One thing that doesn't work to the story's
advantage is that it takes place over the course of 7 months or so (not
including the 8 months that pass prior to the final chapter which reads
more like an epilogue); a much tighter time frame would have helped
maintain a higher tension level.
There are a number of stylistic and syntactic problems with Searchable Whereabouts. There is no
uniform voice to the story. The narrative abruptly shifts from formal
to informal and back again for no obvious literary reason. The dialog
is mostly conversational but often doesn't sound natural, especially in
the context of the story. And somewhat inexplicably, towards the end of
the book there are a couple of chapters from a different character's
point of view; it's unnecessary and confusing. Finally, the book could
have benefited greatly from a critical eye towards editing. Sentence
structure is frequently awkward and commas are used far too often,
disrupting the flow of the text and making the story seem choppy and
uneven.
Searchable Whereabouts
is a moderately successful first novel, but the reader needs to
overlook some of its shortcomings to appreciate the story being told.
Special thanks to Tinisha Nicole Johnson for providing a copy of Searchable Whereabouts for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Searchable Whereabouts? How would you rate it?
Novels by this author …
Searchable Whereabouts
Xpress Yourself (Trade Paperback), February 2008
ISBN-10: 0-9799757-0-0 (0979975700)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9799757-0-7 (9780979975707)
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