A Vengeful Spirit by Lizzy Armentrout

Book Review: A Vengeful Spirit
Author: Lizzy Armentrout
Number of Pages: 261
Overall Rating: 7.5

A Vengeful Spirit is a well written murder mystery reminiscent of Connie Blair, Alfred Hitchcock with a sprinkling of Ellery Queen a Dee Henderson novel. (Having only read one Dee Henderson novel, The negotiator, I can say A Vengeful Spirit was faster paced, and kept my attention throughout the entire book.

Murder disrupts this sleepy town and caught up in the middle is a confused, and scared 12-year old boy, Tucker. Your empathy increases as details of the crime start to unfold to reveal more than a random act of violence, but a more deep rooted and sinister plot. With each page, the pieces start to fit together until the final climatic twist. It is the twists and intrigues that keep you reading and the resolution you, as with the characters, pray for. Overall, it is a well-written enjoyable murder mystery (if one can call murder enjoyable).

I thoroughly enjoyed reading A Vengeful Spirit, but I did have a slight problem believing Curly and other seasoned law enforcement officers would be so open and free with their investigation findings. Granted Shelly and her best friend were first on the scene, (sans Tucker), I didn’t feel seasoned professionals would share so openly the details of an ongoing investigations unless it pertained to what they had witnessed. I found it almost comedic when Chad obtained information from the waitress on Bob’s address. And after promising not to reveal his source, he turns around and reveals this information to the barber (who, fortunately was her Uncle). I attributed his openness to inexperience. And though I may have found this cavalier sharing of information slightly unrealistic, I feel it is completely acceptable for conveying needed information to the reading audience and doesn’t detract from the storyline or its quality.

The most enjoyable part is the author didn’t gloss over or obscure real-life tragedy for the sake of creating a Christian novel, yet I appreciated descriptions limited to the crimes without full disclosure of the “gory details”. A true suspense leaves much up to the readers’ imagination. A Vengeful Spirit is written for both adult and youthful audiences and Lizzy’s ability to captivate, intrigue and even make you smile is a tribute to her craft. I also loved the subtle romantic possibilities integrated into the story without detracting from the plot.

I recommend this book.

Visit Lizzy Armentrout.com
A Vengeful Spirit available from Tate Publishing on their website’s online bookstore. Starting Sept. 29th, 2009 it will be available at bookstores worldwide.

A Vengeful Spirit written by Lizzy Armentrout,
published by Tate Publishing
is available online for sale.
ISBN 978-1-60799-484-8