goodreads | Fatal Shadows

Title: Fatal Shadows (Adrien English Mysteries, #1
Author: Josh Lanyon
Genre: Suspense
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: 198
Date read: February, 2017

One sunny morning Los Angeles bookseller and aspiring mystery author Adrien English opens his front door to murder. His old high school buddy (and employee) has been found stabbed to death in a back alley following a loud and very public argument with Adrien the previous evening.

Naturally the cops want to ask Adrien a few questions; they are none too impressed with his answers, and when a few hours later someone breaks into Adrien's shop and ransacks it, the law is inclined to think Adrien is trying to divert suspicion from himself.

Adrien knows better. Adrien knows he is next on the killer's list.

I was actually surprised by how much I liked it, and kept finding excuses to read more. I can't even quite explain why, as the plot itself was fairly straight-forward, but the writing kept me interested, and I was satisfied by the ending, even if I had seen it coming ahead of time. I used to say that I don't like whodunnits, but I think it's probably safer to say that I'm very picky when it comes to that genre. I'm not a fan of Agatha Christie and that ilk, but love crime novels that read like an episode of CSI or similar. This was closer to the latter (despite the main character being a possible victim rather than a cop) and kept me nicely entertained for all 198 pages.

It's a very quick read, and nicely contained, even if it does pave the way for more books in the series.