I’m not a closet reader… in fact, anyone that knows me, knows that I LOVE to read and it’s one of the things that helps keep my mommy brain sane for long periods of time.  I wish I had more time to cuddle up with a great book, but lately – life has taken over.  My mom used to tell me as a child… “hey, speed read through it – utilize the skills I have taught you so you can get through the book faster.”  But, I hated to speed read… I wanted to be able to get lost in a book, feel every emotion and live every situation.  Because of this reason, it has taken me months to finish reading this book I’m talking about today.  I’m ashamed to say it has taken me so long… but I literally had to read it while in the car waiting in the parking lot for my twins to finish with school each day; When it was quiet and I could hear every thing described, smell everything and feel like I was a part of the story.  I struggled to be able to put the book down the last several months even if it took me a long while to get to the end.  But, today I finally give you my thoughts on Town Red, by Jennifer Moss.

Now, I’m just letting you know now that I am not the type of person to ruin a good story line or offer up all the info prior to the other person reading it, so you won’t really get much of that here if that is what you are looking at.  I do suggest you get the book – available via Kindle Edition and read it for yourself.  The story line goes quickly and you’ll easily enjoy reading it without needing any spoilers.

I am usually someone who loves to read about romance and you can find collections from Nicholas Sparks and Danielle Steel in my library at home quite frequently – so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I began reading Town Red.  I had hoped it would offer up a little bit of romance with a crime mystery entwined through out the story.  It was just that and so much more.  See, many do not know that I married into a family of law enforcement, so when it comes to crime novels or anything along those lines, I pay great attention to detail with regard to accuracy and protocol.  I was consistently amazed with what I was reading and how accurate each detail was with regard to story line and the law enforcement side of it all, even the lingo.  The detectives lives seemed realistic, like it was plucked straight from the precinct and every word was not only believable, but it allowed you to really get into the story and feel the emotion and life of each character.

After his partner is killed and girlfriend takes off, Chicago homicide detective Ryan Doherty has one last chance to save his career with the double murder of ad execs Scott and Carly Redding. Ryan quickly learns that life wasn’t so lush at the Reddings’ agency, Town Red Media, where the list of ex-employees runs fifteen pages long. At the top of this list is Catharine Lulling, a former Vice President at Town Red.

He becomes obsessed with Catharine from their first meeting. She is charming, intelligent, wealthy, and possesses abilities even he can’t understand. Catharine draws Ryan into her unconventional world where he will risk the case-and his life-to find out if she’s for real, or if she’s the real killer.

There were many times I laughed, felt sad or emotional and darn right angry because of the actions of some of the characters.  It was easy for me to not only relate to them, their lives – but their situation.  As a reader, I look for books that can take me to the place where it is all happening and put me right in that spot as if I was there and this book did that and did it well.  It was well written and you could tell that Jennifer really took the time to research information regarding the story prior to completion.  This book has a unique twist to it and I can usually tell the outcome of a mystery prior to finishing it… but was stunned and held my breathe up until the last moment.  I also loved reading about Jennifer Moss and how she was born and raised in Evanston, Illinois which made the story real and each detail outstanding.

This book is whitty but captivating.  It is a page turner that is difficult to put down and I struggled to do so when I needed to break from the read.  The characters are not only realistic but her descriptions of each one make you feel like you are literally a real person in the book’s story line.

I actually own Jennifer Moss’ first book – The One-in-a-Million Baby Name Book and absolutely loved her debut of Town Red and how different it is in writing style and mystery than what I had expected.  If you love crime and mystery with a little romance and suspense, Town Red is a great book and one you will surely enjoy.    I can’t wait to start reading some of the others that Jennifer has written because if they are anything like this one, I’m sure I’ll love them.

You can check out Town Red and other books from Jennifer Moss in the Kindle Store through Amazon.  Thank you Jennifer for giving me the opportunity to read Town Red, I truly enjoyed it!

Disclaimer:  This book was sent to me free of charge in exchange for my review – which is long overdue.  All opinions are my own, 100% honest and unbiased and I was not paid to provide my thoughts on this product.  Affiliate links are posted through out.