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A review by audreych
Victim Rights by Norah McClintock
4.0
Read the full review on my blog, holes In My brain.
VICTIM RIGHTS lets me back into the awesomely familiar world of Ryan Dooley, I just love reading about every aspect of this boy's life, seriously. The conflict is immediately introduced without much dilly-dallying and Dooley's reactions are something that I found was true to his character (despite some angsty groans from me).
As usual, McClintock takes readers for a ride, having events gradually build and build before she throws yet another curveball at you. There were some jaw-dropping moments that kept the intensity going, never lulling back into a sluggish pace. What I liked about this third installment is that she focuses a lot more on characters, on Dooley and Beth in particular, than she did in the previous novel where the crime overruled.
Another aspect about this novel I enjoyed is that the third person narrative didn't disconnect the reader in me, it sucked me back into the story pretty quickly, as if there wasn't even a year in between reading books 2 and 3. A slight disappointment I had with the novel is that I didn't feel the desperation and urgency as much as I did in the previous two. True, they deal with vastly different topics, but especially with the second twist I didn't find everything as... atmospheric.
There is an underlying mystery in this book that's mentioned briefly throughout several scenes that is the basis of Dooley's alibi which I just couldn't get myself to love. It didn't play a big enough factor for being such a big plot point, if you get what I mean. In the first two books the 'underlying mystery' blew me away, this time I was underwhelmed. But alas, it is underlying for a reason, because the overlying stuff was fantastic.
VICTIM RIGHTS lets me back into the awesomely familiar world of Ryan Dooley, I just love reading about every aspect of this boy's life, seriously. The conflict is immediately introduced without much dilly-dallying and Dooley's reactions are something that I found was true to his character (despite some angsty groans from me).
As usual, McClintock takes readers for a ride, having events gradually build and build before she throws yet another curveball at you. There were some jaw-dropping moments that kept the intensity going, never lulling back into a sluggish pace. What I liked about this third installment is that she focuses a lot more on characters, on Dooley and Beth in particular, than she did in the previous novel where the crime overruled.
Another aspect about this novel I enjoyed is that the third person narrative didn't disconnect the reader in me, it sucked me back into the story pretty quickly, as if there wasn't even a year in between reading books 2 and 3. A slight disappointment I had with the novel is that I didn't feel the desperation and urgency as much as I did in the previous two. True, they deal with vastly different topics, but especially with the second twist I didn't find everything as... atmospheric.
There is an underlying mystery in this book that's mentioned briefly throughout several scenes that is the basis of Dooley's alibi which I just couldn't get myself to love. It didn't play a big enough factor for being such a big plot point, if you get what I mean. In the first two books the 'underlying mystery' blew me away, this time I was underwhelmed. But alas, it is underlying for a reason, because the overlying stuff was fantastic.