Blog Tour: THE GROUP by Kevin Doyle
THE GROUP
by Kevin R. Doyle
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GENRE: Mystery
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BLURB:
Sure,Ron Green had made a mistake, but it wasn't one that millions of other guyshadn't made before him. And maybe he deserved some sort of punishment, like hiswife leaving him or his kids hating his guts. But this? Being the main suspectin a single murder was bad enough, but at the same time knowing he was apotential victim of a serial killer was even worse. However, before Green couldconvince the cops of his innocence, he first had to convince them the serialkiller actually existed, and at the moment they weren't believing a thing hesaid.
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Excerpt One:
Hollis fellsilent as the ME went about her business although even he could pretty muchguess what had happened. With no exit wound, the small caliber bullet had nodoubt buried itself somewhere inside the skull, probably after ricochetingaround for a while.
“So how manydoes this make?” she asked without looking up. “Have you all hit the tripledigits yet?”
“Actually,” he said, “we passed the hundredmark at the end of last month. I’m not sure what number this one makes.”
“Well,” the MEsaid as she stood up and stripped off her gloves, “I won’t be able to putanything down officially till I get him on the table, but it’s pretty obviouswhat happened here.”
“One bulletback of the head,” Hollis said.
“Right. Whichgets back to the oddity.”
“How did he endup lying face up?”
“Exactly. Even a .22, in the back of theskull, should have sent him tumbling forward. This looks almost apologetic.Could it have been some sort of a robbery?”
“That’s the nice thing about it, Hollis. Mypart’s easy. I just have to come up with the means. You guys get to do thewhole motive and opportunity thing.”
Hollis grimacedas she walked off.
“Oh by theway.” She turned back to him. “I checked with the office before I left. Thismakes number one hundred twelve for the year. And only sixteen days to go.”
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Review:
All he wanted was a job. In fact,after months of unemployment, he really needed it. But the rejections just keptcoming. No one would give him a break.Meanwhile, Ron—father, husband,student, teacher—has just found out that his ex-lover was murdered and wasworried about being the prime suspect.
The premise grabs you right away.Ron is practically nerve-wracked about being the prime suspect. When talking tothe cops, we find out that Ron met the woman at a focus group. Ron tells hiswhole story about how he met her and how their affair got started. I wasn’tsure how the nameless guy looking for a job tied into all this. And what aboutthe dead guy with a bullet hole in head in the first chapter?
At times, the story hit a lag,slowing the whole thing down. When a second woman was found dead, it becomesapparent that the deaths may be connected to the focus group they were all in.Supposedly, this group was for a senator at the time. At this point, the readstarts feeling too long. I kind of expected a quicker investigation and ariveting mystery. I really don’t think this story needed 50 chapters. Therewere just too many holes that didn’t quite fill in all the way and I wasn’tsure how they fit the rest of the story. Primarily what interested me was Ronbeing the murder suspect and who the real murderer was.
This was a fairly nice read aboutmurders that some crime aficionados might enjoy. I just think it could’ve beenbetter.
Rating:3 stars
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
A retired high-school teacher and former college instructor, KevinR. Doyle is the author of numerous short horror stories. He’s also written fourcrime thrillers including The Group and The Anchor, and one horror novel, TheLitter. In the last few years, he’s begun working on the Sam Quinton privateeye series, published by Camel Press. The first Quinton book, Squatter’sRights, was nominated for the 2021 Shamus award for Best First PI Novel. The fourth Sam Quinton book, Clean Win, wasreleased in March of 2023.
Web site: www.kevindoylefiction.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/kevindoylfiction
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6473241.Kevin_R_Doyle
Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09CGB2QV4
Barnesand Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-group-kevin-r-doyle/1119265954?ean=9781509239351
Audible:https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Group-Audiobook/B0BRQZZQGK
GoogleBooks: https://books.google.com/books?id=LO-SswEACAAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=2
Kobo:https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-group-29
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GIVEAWAY
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