I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review
NYPD Detective Sharon Davis works to solve a string of grisly murders targeting young, beautiful wannabe models before the killer strikes again. Interwoven with the mystery in DARK ILLUSION are the stories of ambitious, unhinged business woman Kelly and supermodel Gloria. Being beautiful on the outside doesn’t make you beautiful on the inside.
I wanted to like DARK ILLUSION. Really, I did. The serial killer aspect was interesting and a woman detective is a nice touch when the book bills itself as having strong female leads. The problem, for me, was in the execution. I spent a lot of time confused thanks to near constant “head hoping” between characters in a single scene and far too many characters to begin with. I would have liked some sort of prologue setting up Sharon Davis as the lead (or at least the one in charge of investigating the crimes). Instead, we get an opening chapter with love-struck photographer Andy and aging supermodel Gloria. I spent the entire first chapter thinking it was going to be a romance between Andy/Gloria. It’s not. The Andy/Gloria chapters are where the worst of the head hoping occurs too.
It would have been nice if Sharon was set up as the lead point of view character and the others (Kelly and Gloria) were secondary characters instead of leads. At least it would have tied everything together in a more cohesive manner. Nothing particularly pulled me into the story and characters though the idea itself has merit. A serial killer targeting models while a female cop desperately tries to stop them before they kill again could have been amazing. Instead, it was just “meh”. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either.
Truth Of Imagination 