CLOSURE by Angela Ford spins an interesting mystery about an FBI agent and ghosts from her past, but it felt rough, incomplete and contrived at times. I give it three stars for keeping me interested despite its various issues.
In CLOSURE, FBI Agent Jessica Resario is on the hunt of an online sexual predator, and unfortunately gets caught in the killer's crosshairs, barely escaping with her life. She's sent to her family's summer house as a "safe house", but it's the first time she's been there since her parents were killed on her first day of college.
While attempting to come to terms with her past, she stumbles over some information which may shed new light on her current quarry. The information was collected and kept secret by Jessica's father, also an FBI agent, and points to a person who stalked Jessica when she was in high school. Jessica must figure out who and where this man is before he takes from her another person she loves.
The beginning of this novel is great. Suspenseful and compelling, it keeps you glued to the page. The overall plot is intriguing and unfolds at a brisk pace. Unfortunately there were subplots that were never tied off or resolved, e.g., how does her friend's "I Crave You" tie into the overall plot? What is the connection?
The romance in the novel was minimal, appropriately so given that it is a workplace romance, where discretion and professionalism are crucial. There is enough of a foundation for the romance, but it develops from zero to sixty in the blink of an eye. Granted, things can change quickly when reluctant characters make life-altering decisions, but here, it was just a little too fast to be believable.
On the technical side, the novel vacillates between heavy narration and lengthy character monologues. There is a big difference between someone telling you a story and someone telling you *about* a story. The heavy narration here often falls into the latter category, telling about what someone said even when quick dialogue would easily and more effectively convey the information. A good portion of the narration provided redundant information--details explained twice in similar fashion--and foundational information that was provided at the climax or resolution of the novel instead of in the beginning.
There were also many typographical errors, some which seemed like revision leftovers--words or phrases which should have been deleted upon revision. Oftentimes, the sentence structure, word choice, and paragraph arrangement felt disconnected from the rest of the novel, as if they were written and dropped onto the page without smoothing out the edges or inserting transitions.
Overall, the technical issues, rather than the substantive issues, were the major difficultly in enjoying the novel. If readers can get past those, then the intriguing plot can carry them through the end.
** Review originally written for The Romance Reviews.com at http://www.theromancereviews.com/viewbooks.php?bookid=10690.
