Beaten Track Publishing, $0.99
Romantic Suspense, 2016
The WAG and the Scoundrel is likely the worst fit Debbie McGowan can find for her overly verbose writing. When it comes to suspense, there needs to be the occasional moments of concise pacing, some judicious economy when it comes to the use of words, and what not to create tension and suspense.
Here, I get word hemorrhage like this:
Since the night out with Will, Gray had so many questions, and as always, it was the not knowing—the gaps he couldn’t fill with logical explanations—that kept him awake. Why was Will lying to him? Was he lying to him? And if he wasn’t, why did Gray think he was? He wondered if it stemmed from Will’s resignation, which seemed improbable, seeing as what they did for a living was one of the first things that came up in conversation the night Josh had introduced them. Will had said it flippantly, like it bore no consequence. I’m an investment banker, or I was until three months ago. There was nothing underhand about it; he’d been quite frank. He’d resigned from a top-paying city job to try to reinstate some quality of life.
On one level, Gray got it; money was never the answer. Between insurance policies and gratuities from death in service, Jean had left him a wealthy man. He hadn’t needed to work, yet he’d continued to do so because, without Jean, his life wasn’t merely lacking quality; it was lacking, full stop. They’d lived together, worked together, socialised together. Outside of Jean, Gray had no life, and if he hadn’t stayed with the SIU and retained what little of his sanity persisted, he’d have done himself in. Indeed, he’d intentionally sacrificed his career to bring down a senior police officer, knowing that it might be the last thing he ever did, but it was a small price to pay for his brother’s liberty and happiness.
Will’s decision was the direct opposite of Gray’s. Holding down a job in the city and having any kind of life outside was impossible without the additional responsibility of caring for a sick relative, and Will seemed to have a good life. He had his house and his dogs; presumably, he had a supportive family. It was entirely reasonable that he’d want to spend his time with them, particularly with his mum’s days being numbered. But what didn’t make sense was the timing. Will said his mum had been sick for a couple of years, so why had he gone back to the bank a year ago, after his sabbatical leave? And why resign? His employer had given him extended time off once; surely they’d have been open to a period of compassionate leave?
The truth was, Gray could reasonably answer every one of those questions. The bank would be disinclined to grant further leave, with or without pay, when he’d already taken time out. Two years was a long prognosis, so there was no need for Will to resign until his mum’s condition deteriorated. In short, there was nothing untoward about anything Will had said or done, which brought Gray back to his starting point: why was he so sure Will was lying?
So he was an investment banker. So what? Gray had met honest bankers—not many, admittedly, which wasn’t to say they were all swindlers. When one’s job was to investigate fraud and embezzlement, the sample was somewhat skewed. Will didn’t fit the profile, though. He didn’t worship money and was more slacker than hacker. He wasn’t competitive, not outside of a work environment, or else he would have pursued Josh rather than immediately backing off. Nor was he confrontational, as illustrated by his willingness to eat meat in order to keep the peace. Not a problem.
But it was a problem to Gray. No matter how tough it got, the risks it posed, the people who might get hurt, Gray abided by his morals. Fairness and integrity were the values he held closest to his heart, both in his work and, now he had one, in his everyday life, although he appreciated it probably didn’t look that way to the likes of Rob Simpson-Stone, or Helen—the woman he’d married as part of his cover. Maybe his personal investment had led to some poor decisions on the Strang and R13 cases, but he’d made them for the right reasons.
What it all seemed to boil down to, then, was Will’s dismissal of his vegetarianism, which was an absurd reason not to trust him, if taken in isolation. Yet, however hard he tried, Gray couldn’t separate that one instance of Will taking the easy route from the complex whole. After all, if he’d done it once, he’d do it again, and a man who was prepared to compromise his morals…
By the time I reach the last paragraph, I’ve completely forgotten what this whole thing is supposed to be about.
The whole story is like this. Paragraphs after paragraphs of the characters just talking or thinking non-stop, over-analyzing everything in a way to suggest that the author is paid by the word for this thing. How about having the characters make their points through action now and then? No, this is the night of the long sentences, and these characters will deliver the whole story via conversations or internal monologues. Nothing is left to the reader’s imagination. Sit down, shut up, and read as these people will drone on and on and on about every freaking thing that crosses their mind.
Not that I am saying that one can’t create suspense through the use of conversations and internal monologues. It can be done, of course, by authors such as Agatha Christie. However, here the author is way too in love with her long, rambling sentences. There is no change in cadence, no build up of tension by varying sentence structures and lengths or using appropriately suspenseful words. No, everyone here is interchangeable because they all talk and think like the same person that doesn’t know when to hush and do some showing instead of telling all the time. I end up feeling like a dazed fellow having to listen to someone talk to themselves non-stop for a few hours.
Oh ya, the plot. One guy dates another guy and thinks that the other guy isn’t whom he claims to be. Have fun wading through the word salad to get to the inevitable happy ending; me, I would read something else in the genre if I wanted halfway decent romantic suspense.
