A review by ocurtsinger
Citrus County by John Brandon

3.0

Brandon weaves a chilling suspense tale that is totally devoid of any stereotypical one-dimensional suspense characters. What we have instead is a group of people who are as deeply layered and complicated as real-life people, each with their own fears and just-slightly-twisted obsessions that make them seem so close to reality that we could speak to them or hug them...not that we would want to. The book follows the life of the perpetrator so closely that there's no room for edge-of-your-seat mystery or head-scratching. Instead, the joy in reading comes from peeling back the layers of these awkwardly placed and often misguided characters, and I found myself rushing back to the book not as much for the storyline but just to see what Toby or Shelby or Mr. Hibma would do next, what part of their warped sense of themselves in this garish setting I could identify with. Brandon writes great dialogue and his writing holds a shaky but reverent light up to this strange part of the country which add much to the richness of his tale.

My only complaint would be the way that the novel finished, the last fifteen pages reading more like a summary from a police report than a chapter of the carefully crafted tale that Brandon had weaved so far. Still recommendable, if not for the good writing then just for a refreshing break from the cliches that are so commonplace in similar novels.