Identity Crisis

Apr 16, 2011 Benjamin Sobieck rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

With so many lawyers running extracurricular sleuthing activities already in crime fiction, it's hard to latch onto yet another attorney with seemingly too much time on her hands. This is the feeling I had going into "Identity Crisis," by Debbi Mack (Lulu, 2009).

Fortunately, readers won't suffer through the 254 pages of Mack's mystery. In the protagonist, attorney Stephanie Ann "Sam" McRae, they'll find something both familiar and new. They've probably been down the lawyer-detective path before...more With so many lawyers running extracurricular sleuthing activities already in crime fiction, it's hard to latch onto yet another attorney with seemingly too much time on her hands. This is the feeling I had going into "Identity Crisis," by Debbi Mack (Lulu, 2009).

Fortunately, readers won't suffer through the 254 pages of Mack's mystery. In the protagonist, attorney Stephanie Ann "Sam" McRae, they'll find something both familiar and new. They've probably been down the lawyer-detective path before, but they haven't met someone as real as McRae.

That's because McRae has a real problem: one of her clients skipped town. Not only that, but this client appears to have stolen McRae's identity.

McRae doesn't immediately jump out of her chair and start cracking skulls. No, she cautiously investigates the pieces of what's happened. She's an unwilling participant with a lot at stake. The action definitely picks up later on, but readers won't get a sense McRae is egging on the bad guys.

And that's the real difference Mack weaves into "Identity Crisis." There are no "Law & Order" archetypes. There's a sense of care placed into developing the characters, one that's reflected by how McRae acts. Careful characters make for intelligent plots. This book won't talk down to or over readers.

This notion fades a bit as the book moves toward conclusion, with McRae engaging in some TV-style detective work, such as sneaking in after hours at a strip club. But that's forgivable, since it's all in the name of a good crime novel.

Which is fitting, since this is a good crime novel. McRae has staying power, something the author feels, too. A blurb on the cover says "A Sam McRae Mystery," suggesting this is part of a series.

That said, latter parts of the novel drag. The beginning is an explosion of intrigue and drama, but that fades as the page count grows. The mystery itself keeps readers involved, but nothing packs the punch of the beginning. Maybe that's an effect of coming off of 50 excellent pages, but it's not a deal breaker.

In all, "Identity Crisis" is an intelligent, intriguing and sometimes just fun crime novel. It's novels like these that lend legitimacy to the self-publishing and POD movement within the book world.

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Mar 28, 2011 Penandra rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I downloaded this for my Kindle for free or 99cents (don't remember, not worth looking up) and wanted to like it . . . I finished the book only because I was on travel (in the area where the book was set) and my flight had been delayed for a couple of hours. As other reviewers have stated there was the possibility of a great plot here, but there were some places where the ball was just dropped by the author . . .

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

So, why was there a POBox with her name on it and mail to someone e...more

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Aug 10, 2010 David Kubicek rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Mystery Readers

Identity Crisis follows former public defender Sam (Stephanie Anne) McRae as she works to clear her client of a murder charge which turns out to be anything but simple. The clues lead her into a case involving identity theft, ties to the mob, a fire in a school lab, and revenge.

Sam's practice doesn't make a lot of money. She shares an office building--and a receptionist--with an accountant, her car is an old beater that barely runs, she lives in a small apartment and has trouble paying her bills...more

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Mar 01, 2010 J.T. Cummins rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Early in Debbi Mack’s crisp and exciting mystery/thriller Identity Crisis there’s a reference to Dragnet and Joe Friday’s no nonsense manner. The same could be said of Mack’s efficient storytelling, which wastes no time plugging the reader into the life of lawyer Stephanie Ann McRae. By page two of Identity Crisis, Sam (a nickname constructed from her initials) is indoctrinated into what appears to be a simple missing person’s case. Unfortunately, as Sam begins to dig, nothing is as it appears,...more

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Dec 10, 2009 Viccy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I received this book from the author with a request for a review. I told her I only posted positive reviews on DorothyL and she was happy with that. I am very pleased to tell you how much I enjoyed this book.
Stephanie Ann “Sam” McRae is a small-time lawyer with a small office and an even smaller staff, her landlord’s secretary. She is happy representing common people who need help. A simple domestic abuse victim suddenly turns up missing and is the lead suspect in the murder of her abusive boyf...more

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Mar 22, 2012 Linda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A good, quick read. Sam McRae is an attorney doing detective work in this novel. This is the second Sam McRae mystery that I have read. I like the author's style which is fast. Near the end of the book, unnecessary characters and relationships surfaced but did not destroy the fast pace of the book. I worry a little about Sam McRae. Her car is not reliable. Her clients cannot pay for Sam's legal services. The mob 'knows' her. She is all alone in the world. She has not invested in a house, probabl...more

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Jun 26, 2011 Judith rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Just another Chick Dick book...in this case, though, she's an attorney with a Nancy Drew streak....a decent amount of moxie..a married boyfriend....and a temperamental automobile. The story is set in and around Baltimore...old CHARM CITY herself.

This little tale of identity theft and murder-most-foul (with a back story of High School hijinks gone wrong, and the revenge that followed) was a sweet respite from heavier fare. Nothing earth shaking, mind you...but it flowed smoothly, without too much...more

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Oct 12, 2009 Nikki rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: a-mystery-for-every-state-project, fiction, mysteries, books-set-in-maryland

Although these posts aren't blogs as such, new FTC regulations suggest that I ought to disclose the Debbi Mack graciously sent me a review copy of her recently re-published book. I was happy to get it because my "A Mystery for Every State" challenge to myself was inching up on Maryland, and I'd just about read all of Laura Lippman's Baltimore-based series and Barbara Michaels' books, many of which are set in rural Maryland.
Identity Crisis is set primarily in Prince George's County. Since one of...more Although these posts aren't blogs as such, new FTC regulations suggest that I ought to disclose the Debbi Mack graciously sent me a review copy of her recently re-published book. I was happy to get it because my "A Mystery for Every State" challenge to myself was inching up on Maryland, and I'd just about read all of Laura Lippman's Baltimore-based series and Barbara Michaels' books, many of which are set in rural Maryland.
Identity Crisis is set primarily in Prince George's County. Since one of my news sources is a daily email of headlines from the Washington Post, I knew that Prince George's is a middle-class suburb of Washington, DC with a large African-American population. The impression I got from Identity Crisis is that it's not a place I'd be interested in living in or even visiting. It's a place where people spend a lot of time in cars, part of the miles upon miles of suburbia punctuated by cities which is the "Bos-Wash Corridor." A lot of the places I've gone in this exercise in armchair travelling have been ones I'd like to visit in person; but the reality is that a lot of our population lives in places like that described by Ms. Mack, and that's useful to read about too. (And I'm sure there are compensations, nice people, etc.) Still, I wish Sam McRae (Mack's protagonist) would set up a practice in one of those towns Barbara Michaels writes about!
The title Identity Crisis is a good one for this book. There's the crime of identity theft, which is part of the reason Sam is pulled into the case; the question of people assuming false identities; the discovery of relationships among some of the characters; and Sam's own struggles with her love affair, which affect her sense of her own identity. There doesn't seem to be a character in the book who is part of a close or even functioning family, and I'd call that an identity crisis too.
The plot, while at times confusing to me, was quite satisfactory. Without giving too much away, I can only say that the obvious bad guys are not the only ones in the story.
Although Sam McRae is an attorney, she functions more as a private investigator in this book, and takes on many of the characteristics of the classic private eye -- the loner personality, the incredibly rapid recovery from injury, and the tendency to keep information to herself; not to mention the poor nutrition! [Book: Identity Crisis] is a good first book, and I hope Debbi Mack gets a chance to continue the series and grow the character of Sam McRae.
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Oct 01, 2010 John rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I wasn't sure what genre this really is. The protagonist is an independent lawyer, but seems to act more like a PI than anything else. There wasn't a single court-related action in the whole book. Maybe she's just an attorney because that's what the author is familiar with.

That said, it was a good PI book. I saw the resolution of the stolen identity a mile and a half away, but I think maybe I was supposed to. It makes you think that you've solved the mystery, while all along there are bigger unk...more

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Mar 02, 2011 K.R. Bankston rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed this book without doubt. Ms. Mack crafted very believable characters, easily identifiable with for the readers. I loved Walt, the loveable grouch of a neighbor, his crotchety ways reminded me alot of myself.LOL. Sam McRae the lead character, attorney, in the saga was definitely a terrier in her journey to find the truth. There are alot of "what the hell" moments during the story where you can only shake your head at the true nature of people. Once the story was unraveled, the reasoning...more

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Mar 28, 2011 Kristi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, ebook, fiction, kindle-books-borrowed, mystery, suspense

I felt this book was an average mystery with a touch of suspense. It did not get intense enough to really grab me hard. I think part of that was I did not feel terribly connected to any of the characters.

That said, it was en enjoyable enough book that I will likely read the next book in the series, Least Wanted.

The Kindle edition did not have chapter markers. The chapters flowed together, causing many odd breaks with my usual text setting. Minor complaints though. Otherwise the formatting and te...more

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Apr 28, 2011 Sharon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Was able to "borrow" this from booklending.com and downloaded it to my Kindle for iPhone. Most of the reviews were very good and I'm looking forward to reading it. It'll definitely be a different experience for me not turning physical paper pages.

Finished it fairly quickly. I enjoyed the writing style. The main character is very easy to relate to. The end of the eBook had an excerpt to "Least Wanted" which is a sequel to "Identity Crises" and includes the main character, Sam McRae. I'm going to...more

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Mar 30, 2011 Marti rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

ebook Despite the title, there seems to be little about identity theft that truly affects the main character, attorney Sam McCabe, who goes to great lengths to prove her client innocent, in one case, breaking into a strip club after hours to check some files to exonerate her. There are several murders, and a Mob connection which doesn't seem well explained--rather convoluted at times. Sam likes to eat at Burger King, and has a hearty appetite. She has an affair with a married man--might better d...more

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Aug 14, 2010 Alexander Inglis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: amateur-detective, first-novel

I highly recommend Debbi Mack's Identity Crisis concerning a lawyer, Samantha "Sam" McRae who gets mixed up helping a client suspected of stealing from the bank she works for ... that quickly turns into murder. Sam works on her own but finds a couple of sympathetic friends along the way ... and has a couple of mafia encounters she'd rather not repeat. Vulnerable but tough, Sam's sleuthyness gets her into and out of trouble as she pieces together clues that reveal a much bigger story than her cli...more

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Oct 18, 2010 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Debbi Mack's first novel, Identity Crisis, had me hooked from the first page, and proved to me by last page that she is a mystery author to contend with. She builds a tight and compelling plot in this noir murder tale, while managing to pace the story so nicely that I never once felt bored. And there's a great twist that I just didn't see coming - and I'm usually pretty good at spotting a twist from a mile away.

Of course plot and pacing are important in any mystery, but I'm a reader who loves a...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Darcia Helle rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks, fiction, suspense-thriller-mystery

I know this is fiction, but the story still needs to make sense. And, for me, this one stretched plausibility to the breaking point.

I don't like to give spoilers, so I'll keep my complaints in general terms. The main character is supposed to be an educated attorney, yet her behavior is irrational at best and outright ridiculous at worst. She finds clues that involve her own safety, yet doesn't report them. She is right in the middle of a dangerous situation, yet when badly hurt, not one person q...more

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Dec 29, 2010 Jim Thomsen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Debbi Mack's debut novel, "Identity Crisis," has a lot going for it. It's a well-written, briskly paced, plot-packed detective mystery that makes strong but subtle use of its Chesapeake Bay-area settings held my attention for the most part. Overall, it's a few cuts above the majority of self-published fare.

Unfortunately, it's a little too packed with plot -- to the extent that the final act goes off the rails, with way too many scenes in which way too much is explained. I found myself jumping b...more Debbi Mack's debut novel, "Identity Crisis," has a lot going for it. It's a well-written, briskly paced, plot-packed detective mystery that makes strong but subtle use of its Chesapeake Bay-area settings held my attention for the most part. Overall, it's a few cuts above the majority of self-published fare.

Unfortunately, it's a little too packed with plot -- to the extent that the final act goes off the rails, with way too many scenes in which way too much is explained. I found myself jumping back and forth, trying to make sense of who did what to who and for what reasons, and not often succeeding.

And what's explained most of all is that most of the mystery in the preceding pages was a red herring that distracted from a solution that no reader of "Identity Crisis" could possibly have anticipated. That, in my opinion, cheated me as a reader out of the "Aha! Fiendishly clever! I should have figured that one out!" moment that makes good mystery fiction so satisfying.

What was ostensibly a tale of identity theft and murderous greed -- and a very complicated one at that, filled with shifting money, drifting evidence and possible double-crosses by the bucketful -- gets almost completely tossed aside in favor of a story of personal vengeance that comes out of nowhere. It all culminates in an overly talky climactic scene in which the killers, peripheral characters to that point, all but stop the action to explain. And explain and explain and explain.

The overall impression I get is that the author lost the handle on the plot and had to scramble to tie together several loose strands of plot.

I'd almost be OK with that if I cared more about the characters, but the book's heroine, Sam McRae, is not particularly well-developed. She's a lawyer who seems to have only one client -- someone who starts off being charged with murder and ends up almost completely offstage -- and seems to forget her canon of ethics as often as not. Some of the things she does, like being ahead of the police in questioning the owner of a strip club that appears to be run by a couple of scam artists or not reporting a mob beating that hospitalized her for a week, stretch plausibility to the breaking point.

The shadings of her character seem to be cobbled together from other detective novels -- a cat, a crappy car, a caretaker neighbor and a complacent lover among them -- and don't add up to anything compelling. (I did appreciate that the developing new love interest, a competing investigator, was nicely underplayed.)

All that being said, I admired Mack's grasp of genre craft, and was glad to see that she ensured her novel received strong story-editing and copy-editing. While I was disappointed in "Identity Crisis," I also see that Debbi Mack knows her stuff. So I'll give her, and Sam McRae, another chance in the next book in this series, the just-released "Least Wanted."(less)

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Jan 21, 2010 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I downloaded (it's on Kindle!) this book and read it because the author is the sister of an old friend. I am happy to report that I enjoyed it, not just because I wanted to, but because the author does a good job of building realistic characters and puts in some worthy twists in the story line. As another review noted an editorial review could tighten up the occasional awkward phrase but that did not interfere with my enjoyment of the book. I am a huge Laura Lippman fan and if you like Lippman I...more

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Apr 17, 2011 Alison rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book wasn't all bad. I love a good crime mystery book. I just found parts of this one to be VERY predictable. The premise behind the book had potential...a victim in a domestic abuse case & connection to the mob & identity theft. The idea was fantastic, but the writing to my dismay lacked much substance. All in all this was a free book & I am glad I didn't pay for it! It wasn't a complete waste of time thanks to a twist I wasn't expecting, but the characters were pretty cliche.

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May 31, 2012 Judy B. Burford rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Great 1st novel, Debbie!

While I was reading it, I enjoyed the characters. I agree another reader's comment, that the identity thief could have been explained a bit better. However, overall it was a good read. I'm already reading Least Wanted and enjoying it a lot. I'm wondering how well the embellishment plot will be worked out after the comments about the identity thief. Still, a great read so far and I think this author will do well.

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Jun 03, 2010 Scott Collins rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoyed reading this mystery thriller. It was hard to put down and I wound up using the text to speech feature to finish it faster. I got confused with a couple of the characters, but I think that was due to automated voice reading to me. Hard to look down while driving to try and figure out what was just said. I straightened it out though, and finished it up on my lunch break at work. I'd recommend this novel and hope to read more by her in the future.

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Mar 22, 2010 W.s. Gager rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book took me a long time to read but that was only because life got in the way and the book would disappear.However, I was always able to pick it back up and get involved in the main characters problems. U like the main character and wish I had an attorney that went to such lengths to help a client.

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Jan 22, 2012 D rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The story was a bit bland. I kept hoping that there would be some exiting twist around the corner. It never came. I found the narration of the story very average as well.

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Mar 01, 2011 Beckimoody Moody rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a fairly quick and enjoyable read, but also fairly forgettable. I liked the main character and didn't predict a couple of the twists. Good "beach" read.

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Aug 24, 2011 Carol Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Carol Ann by: Kindle on line

This is the author's first book and it is good. I thought the plot and characters were believable. The story moved along quickly and made sense.

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Aug 08, 2011 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, kindle-free-cheap

Lawyer Sam chases a missing client and gets involved in an identity theft/murder/Mob mystery. Cast full of caricatures and plot full of holes.

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Feb 28, 2010 Scott Nicholson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mack introduces a hard-edged heroine with a squishy interior in this new mystery series. Brisk pacing and intense characters move her to the head of the class.

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Oct 30, 2012 Marva rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Too many names floating around. I still didn't remember who was who 3/4th through the book. I read to the end and it had a reasonably satisfying conclusion, but I really wouldn't recommend it for hardcore mystery buffs.

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May 25, 2011 Valerie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a good murder mystery. Nothing new here, but well-written (I say that a lot, sorry). Worth the time.

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Feb 27, 2011 Lady Nicole rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found this book to be pretty predictable. It lacked surprise and it lost my interest. It was an easy read, but I would not read again or recommend to others.

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Identity Crisis

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