Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Skin Deep (Siobhan O'Brien #1)

Skin Deep is the first novel in a sharp new American PI series by Sung J. Woo. Released 21st July 2020 by Agora, it's 325 pages (print version) and is available in paperback and ebook formats.

This is a well written modern PI procedural with a strong intelligent female protagonist whose straightforward missing persons case turns into a tangled web of conspiracy and corruption. Interestingly there's no murder in this one, so it's can't precisely be called a murder mystery, but it is fast paced, moderately action filled, well written and with a convoluted plot of numerous interwoven threads. The author has also included a light romance subplot which, happily, doesn't threaten to overpower everything else which is going on (and it's a fair effort to keep the disparate threads and secondary characters straight, but the author does a good job).

The pacing is even and despite being a little over the average length for the genre, it never dragged and I finished it in one setting. It's an easy and engaging read, although the denouement was unexpected and not entirely satisfying. I'm looking forward to future installments to see what the author has in store. I liked that Siobhan is unexpected in a lot of ways and not some superwoman who figures everything out instantly. She's plucky and intelligent and a little bit sarcastic and I liked her very much.

Four stars. This one will appeal to fans of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels and similar.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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