Bad Girl

By: Michele Jaffe

Narrated by: Teri Clark Linden

Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

She never meant for it to happen....

For Chicago Thomas, aka Windy, it was an offer too good to refuse: the chance to head the forensics lab at the Las Vegas Police Department. With her six-year-old daughter in tow, Windy moves to Sin City hoping to start over with a loving fiance - far from the sad memories of a first marriage that ended in tragedy. But the job of her dreams is about to take a nightmarish turn.

She wanted to be a good girl....

Though the first murders appear to be random, they are savage in their intensity: an entire family, butchered in their own home. Only a few days later, another family meets the same grisly fate. To Ash Leighton, the enigmatic chief of the Metro Violent Crime Unit, the signs are clear: a serial killer is stalking Las Vegas.

But she just couldn’t help herself....

In a breathless race against time, the lines between good and bad, right and wrong, begin to blur, and Windy and Ash find themselves irresistibly drawn to each other. In a town where nothing is what it seems, only the evidence doesn't lie. And Windy may have to pay for the truth with her life. Sometimes being good is dangerous.

©2003 Michele Jaffe (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Fun to read at an exciting pace

What a great tho undercelebrated author. This was my first M Jaffe book. I will be reading her other books at once. Can’t wait.

The narrator was all wrong though with bizarre inflections and consistent flat tones during the most heart thumping scenes, strange accents attributed to characters seemingly with whimsy, and odd pronunciations at times…”she ‘riffled’ through his suitcase” eg, etc.

Well done for a mystery-suspense-thriller.

The last two hours were edge-of-your-seat-could-not-stop-reading.

Windy (female) is the main character forensics expert. She reminded me of Sherlock Holmes in a couple scenes. Her observations impressed me. There were a lot of good ideas in the clues and ways of solving of the mystery. There was a red herring and I was ok with that.

I like third person. We are inside the killer’s head but we don’t know who the killer is until the last quarter of the book.

A negative for some readers is harm to children. Charles does horrible things to his wife and stepson. The killer gets a mother to do what the killer wants by holding a knife to her children. Another mother is terrified as the killer threatens her daughter. Harm to children is a guaranteed way to make readers feel terror, hurt, pain, fear.... but I’d rather not read about it. Some back story showing abuse to a child causing the child to become a killer is ok, but there was a lot more than that which bothered me. If you’re ok with that, it’s an excellent book for mystery lovers. The crimes are graphic and gory - if that is a concern.

Some things were not answered and I wanted to know.
1. The killer captured character A. Character B shows up which saves A’s life. The author never said how character B knew where to go and when.

2. One character C changed their name. How did C do that, when, and why? Some characters knew C’s old name and I assume the new name. How was that working?

3. What ever happened to Charles?

There is a happy ending. And toward the end a romantic relationship occurs, but it is a minor part of the story. This is not for romance readers because not enough is done with that relationship.

The cover is a bad mismatch. It looks like chick lit. It should be changed to something dark and serious.

The narrator Teri Clark Linden was very good. I didn’t notice her which means I wasn’t thinking about her and taken out of the story.

Genre: mystery suspense thriller

Romantic tension in a thorough thriller.

One of the only romance/thriller/ procedural that ties up its loose ends. I love the friendship/relationship that builds between Windy and Ash. It makes their eventual get together feel natural and doesn't diminish either characters strengths or the story.