Review: Killing Kate by Julie Kramer
A murdered erotica writer with books of coded messages. An urban legend about a cursed angel statue in a cemetery. Chalk outlines of angels mysteriously appearing at crime scenes across the Midwest. What more could you want in a crime novel?
Julie Kramer delivers this and much more in her Minnesota-set Killing Kate crime novel. It's another in her series featuring TV journalist Riley Spartz.
I'd discovered Kramer through Delivering Death (there's that alliteration again that themes these titles), a crime novel that I thought packed all the right punches. Killing Kate was to be my confirmation that I could add author Kramer to my list of regular reads. (Note: Killing Kate comes before Delivering Death in the series, but reading out of order doesn't seem to mar the experience.)
Test passed. Killing Kate moves just as quickly and as smart as Delivering Death. The shift between third and first person POVs is there, as is a worthy adversary to match wits with Spartz.
I wanted so badly to give this five stars, but I'm going with four. Here's why.
Unlike Delivering Death, Kramer takes the wind out of her novel's sails by giving away the murderer early on in the novel. It's just a matter of time until the murderer and Spartz cross paths. We know it because Spartz is too smart not to put all the pieces together.
Watching Spartz do that is entertaining, but it felt dragged out. That there are B, C and D plots for Spartz to address just added to the wait.
Don't get me wrong. This formula (giving away the bad guy) can work if the suspense is cranked up. There seems to be an effort to do that, but Spartz's other commitments push the thrills to the background.
Even with this handicap, Kramer rescues the reader with her pure storytelling ability. If Spartz takes a few chapters to do a news story about a divorced couple fighting over a dead dog, the novel doesn't necessarily suffer. Kramer could make the ingredients list on a package of frozen waffles breathe to life.
That said, I'll continue reading Kramer and her Spartz series. They're easily my best find of 2014 so far.
Get Killing Kate at Amazon, Barnes & Noble or order it through your favorite independent bookseller.
