‘DISTORTION,’ BY TERRI BLACKSTOCK

My familiarity with Terri Blackstock is confined to only two novels and though I’m quite late to the party, it’s not hard for her writing to pull a reader in. Book two in her Moonlighters series may not have been my favorite but it’s still a solid mystery that doesn’t follow genre convention.

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STORY: Fifteen years of marriage means stability and savoring the “good days” for Juliet Cole. Married to a successful doctor with two sons, Juliet is a happy stay-at-home mom who thinks her husband Bob may overwork, but is a happy family man. When her husband is murdered in front of her, Juliet falls apart, unsure where to go from here.

Family friend and private investigator Michael Hogan begins working the case. Along with Juliet’s sisters Holly and Cathy, who happens to be dating Michael, the gang investigates why the mild-mannered Bob Cole was a target. Only the answers they find uncover more questions than the truth Juliet so desperately needs.

Distortion, by Terri Blackstock | Book Review

With a fun concept (three sisters who “moonlight” as PI’s) and another family unit for avid readers to root on (think of the McKenna, McKinley, Christiansen families), Blackstock starts off running with this series. I cannot help but respect the Kramer family on a whole new level; the characters are very unconventional, but their quirkiness is hard to ignore.  

Holly is the rebel of the bunch; Cathy the grown-up; and then there is Juliet, the dutiful mother whose identity is in being Bob Cole’s wife. When she loses this, she must learn who she is again (what she should believe, how she should plan for the future, worry over the finances).  

It’s refreshing to read about a group with flaws yet they don’t step past the line of being unlikable. What is really interesting about this story is that even though the each book picks a sibling for the summary to zero in on both involve the siblings in more than just a perfunctory way. With exception to perhaps Jay, who (poor guy!) is usually left out as the caretaker of kids, which limits how well we get to know him. In Distortion, the attention shifts to Juliet though I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I thought it was a pity the conceptual stories followed each other so closely. Both deaths here may be for different reasons, nevertheless it seems too “easy” to have the spouses be the victims. I do appreciate that we didn’t know Bob well in the first book so he isn’t someone we mourn terribly.

Perhaps it’s just that I had read the books right after the other that causes a feeling of repetition. Nonetheless it really doesn’t hinder the satisfaction of the experience. Fans of Blackstock or mysteries in general should look into this series. It’s written very well and doesn’t miss the chance to share God in a real way. Something all inspirational fiction readers are likely to admire.   

About the Book:

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Author: Terri Blackstock
Publisher: Zondervan
Source: Litfuse Publicity
Publication Date: 2014
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Series: Moonlighters – Book 2
Genre: Fiction; Suspense, Mystery
Rating: 4 out of 5

Sincere thanks to the publisher and Litfuse for providing a complimentary (ARC) copy of this book for reviewing purposes.