Broken Ferns

(Paradise Crime Mysteries, Book 4)

By: Toby Neal

Narrated by: Sara Malia Hatfield

Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

The island of Oahu is warm breezes, skyscrapers, and green mountains - but a daring young thief is out to make a statement, and Special Agent Lei Texeira's new career is already on the line.

Lei Texeira has made a difficult transition from detective on Maui to the FBI on Oahu - and her first big case as an agent draws national media attention. With her typical jump-first, look-later style, she pursues her quarry from Oahu to the outer islands, rousing old conflicts and new heartbreak.

©2013 Toby Neal (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Critic reviews

"Crisp, well-written and full of local color - Broken Ferns is another page-turner from Toby Neal." (Greta Van der Rol, author of Morgan's Choice)

An unusual style of crime = more interesting plot

While I enjoyed this one more than the previous book, Lei’s overwhelming sympathy for the thief gets annoying by the end, and the author proceeds to defend the thief as if they’re a little angel who’s done nothing wrong, and carries on like they’re some moral crusader or something. Given how bad things get by the end, the author’s increasingly tolerant stance on the thief gets frustrating. I can’t be more specific without spoilers, but the relaxed behaviour of the investigators toward the thief is absolutely baffling. The author literally goes out of her way to justify the serious crimes just so she can remove the consequences, due to how sympathetically she paints the thief.

That said, I did enjoy the more unusual flight-based crimes, it was a different dynamic, meant the thief could travel around unpredictably so added tension, and the end was exciting, if slightly ridiculous. This book also points out the FBI problem – Lei was never qualified for the FBI, never fit in and her investigation style was a complete mismatch. Luckily this storyline was short-lived (I read book 5 first when I realised I didn’t yet own book 4).

The drama continues with Stevens but I actually don’t mind, it makes sense. I was slightly bothered by how the author has just moved on from Lei’s childhood abuse – it was a major part of her character in the early books, but now has all but disappeared. While I don’t want the author continually harping on about it, I do feel like it’s a fundamental element of Lei’s character and it feels like it’s being glossed over now because it’s no longer useful. Not a real complaint, just a little niggle.

Also, I have no idea how true this is IRL, but why would FBI agents be doing their own forensics?? It’s an incredibly specialised, very scrutinised field in terms of courtrooms, why would unqualified FBI agents be collecting evidence which could easily be attacked in court? As I said, I don’t actually know but given how lawsuit-happy America is, I find it profoundly unlikely this would actually be done in practice. That said, this might fly for local law enforcement due to budget constraints, but definitely not for the FBI.

The reader does her usual excellent job with all of the accents, she really does help hugely with immersion.

It’s times like this I wish Audible had a more accurate rating system out of 10 instead of out of 5. I’ve had to give all of the books so far four stars despite some books being better than others. I enjoyed this book very much, I just didn’t enjoy the moral preaching that was going on, justifying the thief’s crimes because of society’s inequality etc, despite those actions inspiring fatal consequences. That’s actually my number one problem – the absolute lack of any real consequences by the end.

Great

I've fallen for the characters and love the speed of the story. Just ever kill off a dog.

Broken ferns

I really enjoyed reading about the FBI agent who loves dogs. This book has plenty of action and drama.

What a Rollercoaster Ride!

As with all Lei Crime stories, the beautiful back drop of Hawaii and the culture of the islands come through. This story puts Lei in the limelight with a high profile case and allows you to meet some compelling and intriguing characters. There are so many unexpected twists and turns that I found myself many times sitting in the driveway...car parked, listening to see what happened next!

We learn more about Lei and Stevens, and even though there is no blatant sex in this book, the romance scenes did make my heart skips beat!

The narrator is incredible - one of the best out there!