Book #28: A Time to Die (Whitney Book #9)

Title: A Time to Die: A Shandra Covington Mystery
Author: Jeffrey S. Savage

I generally avoid starting a series of books in the middle of a series, but sometimes, like when I'm reading for the Whitney Awards, it's unavoidable. It always gives me the sense that I've started a class midway through the semester. At the beginning of A Time to Die, Shandra Covington is at the hospital, where her bff Bobby is in a coma after a bullet intended for Shandra got him instead. Shandra, a reporter for the Deseret News (I guess she survived the recent round of firings) find support in a lively cast of characters-- toothless Cord the butt-kicking PI, and numerous members of the police force who Covington knows a little too well from her previous escapades. In order to distract herself from Bobby's predicament, Shandra takes on a story-- the daughter of a sitting US senator's death from a heroin overdose. Shandra soon discovers that the death isn't as accidental as it appears, and she spends the rest of the book chasing down yet another serial killer.

There are many things Savage does well in A Time to Die. I liked Covington's character, as well as the supporting cast (especially officers Dashner and Wells, no strangers themselves to the Whitneys). My favorite scenes took place in the hole-in-the-wall diner where Shandra goes to escape Cord's health food regimen. In fact, I loved that the book takes place in my hometown, because it was easy for me to imagine the landscape of the city, from the senator's house in the Avenues to the gang bangers (who spoke with hilariously clean language) hanging out by the homeless shelter near Pioneer Park. I read the book in one sitting, and it wasn't because I was pushing myself to get through it; I genuinely enjoyed reading the book.

That said, A Time to Die wasn't without its problems. I know Shandra Covington is pretty smart, but it seemed like she made connections that needed a little bit more time to develop. In fact, I feel like the book would have benefited from an extra hundred pages of development. I felt like Shandra would have had to do more convincing to get the police to come onto her side in preventing another murder. I don't know if I got a different copy of the book than the published version (I read a PDF) but after I came across a dozen typos and misspelled words, I stopped counting. Misspellings? Really? Finally, even though I didn't read the book just prior to this one, I know that by the end of A Time to Die, less than a week has passed since the beginning of the novel, and we hit this novel just off the breakneck pace of the previous story. A Time to Die closes with a cliffhanger that will send us directly into another adventure. I felt a little sad for Shandra. I just want her to be able to clean the blood off the floor of her apartment, order a pizza, and enjoy a quiet evening at home.