Derailed - Dave Jackson

Title: Derailed (Windy City Neighbors #2)
Author: Dave Jackson, Neta Jackson
Genre: Christian fiction
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 320
Date read: August, 2015

Forced to give up his hard-earned retirement, Harry Bentley goes back to work as a detective. Receiving a bizarre undercover assignment that sends him across the country by train. Things suddenly go awry when it appears one of his new neighbors may be part of a smuggling ring and suspicion rises about his own son’s involvement in a major drug cartel.


As far as I can deduce, Neta and Dave Jackson took turns being the main writer vs. co-editor of this series, so Neta wrote (most of) the first one, Dave wrote (most of) the second one, etc. Unfortunately, while still being an able writer, Dave just doesn't have the same talent as Neta does, and it shows. The plot is decent enough, and I love the characters enough that I had problems putting the book down, but the writing is a lot more clumbsy, there's a lot more telling and less showing, and it just doesn't come across as effortless as Neta Jackson's books do. Nor did it come across with as strong and moving Christian message. This was a decent Christian book, but it didn't move me remotely as much as the earlier books did.

The book covers the same time period as "Grounded" which was a bit of a disappointment, as I was eager to see what happened next! But on the other hand, I did enjoy getting to see Harry and Corey together :)

The only thing I really, really, really didn't like was the epilogue. That knocked off an entire star by itself. It was sickeningly saccharine and tacky... I can't believe the Jacksons would stoop to that level.