THE TIPNER LAKE MURDERS by Pauline Rowson

2* After a great intro to Horton, in what I realise now was book 1 (I'm late to the series), this felt too far-fetched.

Ugh, I hate to say it, but this book needs a brutal pass by an editor. It's so full of improbable stuff that I couldn't keep track of the 'beautiful Aimee' arc; of who was who; of which cops were okay and which were jobsworths; of whether Horton was still fully living on his boat or not; whether he was with a colleague or not, or just bumping hips. It all felt disjointed and as if too much was crammed in, with clarity being the victim, not Roxanne.

I'm sorry but the bullying storyline felt weak and unbelievable. Poor Roxanne got forgotten quite quickly, it felt like. There was too much focus on irrelevant characters to make the book tight and paced correctly for a murder investigation. The actual murderer wss absolutely not believable and to bring that person in when the author did, to reveal a contradicting M.O., was just too about face. I didn't believe that Horton saw anything, just that there was nowhere to go with all the weeds bogging down this too-long tale, that he had to go with something. Disappointing. 

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Joffe Books for my reading pleasure. 

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