And then we came to the end...

Title: Lethal

Author: Sandra Brown

Progress: 100%

Platform: Kindle

Amazon Rating: four out of five stars

NYT BS Hardcover List: #8 (former number 1)

Book 2 out of 107

The last few chapters of Lethal read fast but not fast enough. They kept me awake well past my bedtime, but I wasn't going to put the Kindle down until the last few mysteries were resolved.

Here come the SPOILERS, seriously, SPOIL-FREAKING-ERS!

For about two thirds of the book, you wonder, Who is the bookkeeper? Who is this ruthless, murderous, cruel person who has more power than anyone in Louisiana? Who orders death like most people order pizza?

You want to know? You sure? Really?

It's Tom's wife, Janice Van Allen. Yes, the mother of the brain dead boy. The player of word games on her phone. The sexter with perverts around the globe. The bitter, tired woman who has been unhappy ever since she was trapped in a house with an invalid and trapped in a marriage with an unambitious FBI officer.

Goodbye Sandra! Good luck with the three books
you wrote in the time it took me to read this one.
Bring back Coburn!

Mrs. Brown kept that info hidden well, and really, cheated a few times to keep it from us.

She offered a large variety of suspects, from Stan the stern old man full of rage, to the rich eccentric millionaire who seemed to have all the money anyone could ever want.

I don't mind the different suspects. That's part of the fun, thinking about each one, seraching hints and clues.

With Janice, at one point we think she might be caught red handed, as Tom discovers her typing away on her phone and then, as Ms. Brown does so often, we dramatically cut away to another scene.

When we get back to Janice and Tom, we find out that it was only sexting, a little diversion for her to stave off boredom. According to Tom, it was filthy stuff, so dirty he could barely read it.

At that point, we think, Well, she's not The Bookkeeper, next suspect!

But then, at the end of the book, it turns out she is. Somehow she was running a massive crime ring at least partially by sending coded messages disguised as filthy sex texts.

And also, none of her minions, who she's constantly giving orders to, ever thought, What kind of woman commits this much crime, orders this much death? 

It's almost like at some point, Mrs. Brown had someone else in mind for The Bookkeeper, and then changed her mind and inserted Janice.

Who knows? All I know is that it felt a little false.

However, I did like the ending. I liked that Coburn was alive and after a few months, still waiting for Honor to show up. 

So what have we learned from Lethal? First, don't stray away from sex. It's fun to read and your readers are paying for fun. Second, have more than one mystery working at the same time. And third, and this is kind of a boring one, outlines are your friend.

I don't know this for a fact, but it seemed like Mrs. Brown organized her story around four key acts, with a big direction-changing moment happening after every quarter. A novel with so many characters and plot lines would be difficult to manage, but chopped into quarters, it would feel quite writeable.

Goodbye to Lethal and Mrs. Brown, who was actually nice enough to send me a tweet. Until next time!

Next book...Shock Wave by John Sandford.