IRREFUTABLE: a Crime Thriller

by Dale Roberts

Life as detective Alex Mendez knew it came to an abrupt end two years ago with the murder of his wife. Now he is raising his teenage daughter alone. The demands of his job and the fact that his wife’s case remains unsolved have been a strain on both of them, but now a new case threatens not only what’s left of their fragile relationship, but their very lives. When three local women are brutally raped, the case consumes Alex. His daughter, feeling abandoned, unknowingly befriends a looming shadow from Alex’s past. DNA evidence found on the first two victims leads Alex to his suspect. It looks like an open and shut case until DNA from the third victim is matched to Alex. Now, to clear his name he must face the demons from his past and reveal a long kept secret that could disprove the evidence against him, but doing so would not only devastate his daughter, it could destroy them both.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Crime, Suspense, Ebooks

363 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 24, 2011

Reviews

[Becki]

"isle" instead of "aisle"
"waived" instead of "waved"
"bazaar" instead of "bizarre"

The same description, word for word, is used for one of the characters 3 times in the first 40% of the book. Word. For. Word. It's like a copy/paste error. Almost. I like the story, but it's these things that are a distraction from it.

*************************************************************

Now that I'm finished with the book...
The use of wrong words was really, really bad. I mean, what author doesn't know the difference in the words I listed above? It completely detracted from the story, which, wasn't all bad. If it weren't for the misuse of the words, I'd give it 3 stars. As it is, I'd give it a 1.5 if I could.

[Jess]

I got this for free off Amazon and decided to give it a go, thinking it would be a good in-between novel. The grammatical errors alone make me give this one star, let alone the boring plot and the utterly flat characters. I couldn't, in good conscience, recommend this to anyone.

[Tulay]

Very good thriller.

Almost five stars, but at the end had couple unanswered questions. Figured who done it very first part of the book. Couple twists made me wonder about my decision and that made it more exciting read.

[Shelly Bretheim]

Good police thriller, but the typos got old very fast! I enjoyed the twists and turns and will read something else by the author.

[Anthony Colozza]

I though this book was pretty good. It is well written and will hold you attention. It is a typical murder/crime/ mystery type of book but it does have a good twist at the end and is intriguing throughout. The characters are believable and easy to keep track of. The story is not that complicated but with enough twists and turns to keep you thinking. All in all if you want an easy read with will keep you interested this will do.

[Sheila Cohen]

This book was okay. It could have been better. It was pretty obvious from the beginning whodunit.

[Melissa Herman]

Excellent Read!!

[Stace]

Slow and easy to guess

I had fr everything figured out very quickly. It was very slow moving, nothing was a surpriseno twists, and nothing to make you question your theory

[Cheryl Landmark]

An okay read, but with some issues that took away from my enjoyment of it. It was not a complex thriller. In fact, it was quite formulaic and predictable. The culprit was fairly obvious early on in the book, so there was not much of a shocking revelation at the end.

The Kindle version definitely needed the deft hand of a good editor. Lots and lots of grammatical errors that could easily have been fixed and would have made the writing a little more professional and enjoyable. Most of the time, I can overlook a few editorial errors--after all, no one is perfect and things can be missed in the editing process. But, unfortunately, there were quite a few in this book that were difficult to dismiss.

Most of the characters seemed a little flat and cardboardy (is that a word?), and it was hard to really connect with any of them, even Alex who, because he was the main character, was a little more fully developed than the others. At times, he was not very likeable, and I found his attitude toward his partner, Samuels, condescending and rude at times. I like detective stories where the partners share a strong, easy-going rapport between them, but that was definitely lacking in this one. That doesn't necessarily make this a bad book, just not quite my cup of tea. Other readers of the genre might enjoy it more than I did.

[Underground Book Reviews]

Roberts keeps the plot moving by effectively building tension, making the ride interesting for the reader... mostly. Like the characters, the plot was very formulaic. The somewhat original twist, Alex talking to his dead wife, is suddenly abandoned mid-book and then reintroduced at the end as sort of an afterthought. In doing so, Roberts loses an opportunity to make the book truly stand out. As for the “who done it” aspect, it’s not hard to figure out by mid-book, though Roberts treats it like a bombshell at the end.

For such a professionally written novel, Irrefutable suffered from a surprisingly strong case of the Indie Writers Curse - mechanical and grammar errors. IWC afflicted this novel throughout, but wasn’t enough to detract from the enjoyment of the book.
This novel is suitable for ages eighteen and up, for sexual content, violence and suggestive themes.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed this book. Roberts is obviously a talented writer. My main critique is it could have been so much more. Irrefutable is soundly written, but flat.

Read the rest of this review at Underground Book Reviews: http://www.undergroundbookreviews.com...

[Lynda Kelly]

Yet another free book deleted due a flagrant disregard for any proof-reading exercise. It's such a pity so many authors don't seem to bother these days. For me it really DOES matter.
Again, the story sounded an intriguing one but I got as far as 13% in and packed it up.
Firstly, I think the governor's name was altered. On one page he was a Mr Schmidt and a couple of pages on a Mr Scott was mentioned instead ! Cypress Village when mentioned was always capitalised till the author suddenly wrote village without one, there were spaces left out of sentences, needless commas (And, who are you)then breach was written as breech. I gave up when I read this sentence-"She is a friend of your moms". Now, she didn't have more than one !! That was enough for me.
A previous reviewer had mentioned the surfeit of commas which, with so many I've read recently with a lack of them, I thought was impossible but it was true.

[Lisa Tortorello]

I would give this book a 3.5 star rating if that was a choice. I think Dale Roberts is a promising author. I liked his characters especially Alex Mendez and his daughter. I thought the plot was good too with some suspenseful parts, but I was able to figure out "who done it" when I was only 42% finished with the book (which I thought was a bit early for a police mystery).

I liked the idea of his dead wife speaking to him and giving him advice. It reminded me of the show The Gifted Man that aired last season.

I know it's hard to catch all errors in spelling/grammar when writing, but there were many in this story that could have been fixed.

With all this being said, I would read another book by Dale Roberts.

[Kate]

I enjoyed this book! There were some editing errors, as mentioned by other reviewers, but I don't feel that is a reason to completely toss a book. It was a free download but I feel it is worth keeping an eye out for future works.

I did figure out the mystery pretty early on but I still wanted to find out what happened. I really enjoyed the main character Alex and his daughter; their relationship was very sweet.

I hope this isn't too much of a spoiler, but... This is one of many books lately I've found that includes mistreatment of children and I certainly haven't been seeking that plot line out! I feel like it was a bit unnecessary and there could have been a multitude of other reasons for the "villain"'s actions. Other than that, good mystery/crime thriller.

[Linda]

A neat book. Interesting but not complex. A long book but quickly reaad. It was free and well worth more thanthat price. A detective's wife was murdered, and he has trouble getting on with his life. A series of rapes, of which he is accused, the kidnapping of his daughter, his dead wife's appearance and counsel to him alone resolves his issues his desire to move on with his life. The plot could have been developed to make this a really good book.

[Holly]

When three local women are raped, Detective Alex Mendez follows DNA from the first two victims to his suspect. It's an open and shut case until DNA from the third victim is matched to Alex. Now, the hunter becomes the hunted. To clear his name Alex must disprove all the evidence that he has collected, but in doing so, he could also vindicate a sadistic predator.

Interesting story but characters seemed to lack depth.

[Rebecca]

This was an ok book. Got it free so that makes it better. Could use some editing. Overall, plot was ok but predictable ... I had the villain figured out very quickly ... just not all the whys of it. Character development was ok but I didn't feel close connections to any of them. Again, an ok read - especially since I got it on a free deal.

[Shawnna]

I didn't think this was too bad - not like some reviewers; however, the end seemed rushed and there were some questions unanswered and something didn't make sense - if she had semen in a condom, how did she get pregnant, and if she got pregnant, what about the baby? maybe this is a series and I don't know it but I'm not looking for the sequel.

[Jessica]

An interesting premise and what could have been a surprising ending if there had not been so much foreshadowing. Personally, I like to try to figure out who did it but enjoy it more if I am fooled by the twists and turns as a book progresses. While this plot had a number of twists and turns the true culprit was blatantly obvious to me before I was even halfway through the book.

[Chantal]

This was a really interesting book... I wasn't sure if I'd like it when I started, but then it grabbed me, and I couldn't stop reading. There were some predictable parts, but it was enjoyable, anyway. It's an easy read - you don't have to put too much thought into it.

[Bob]

Enjoyable. The typos mentioned are annoying, but I've seen similar errors in Tom Clancy books. Alex, Carmen, Rachel all seemed human to me. Janet seemed a little less so. It was good to watch the changes in characters.

[Kerry Fine]

Like most self-published works, this was badly in need of a good editor. However, the story was interesting enough to keep me reading in spite of the poor-ish mechanics. I'm looking forward to reading more of his work.

[Jim]

Not a bad book. It was a good police mystery with a pretty good story line. Characters were a bit simple, but believable. Typos in the free Kindle version were a distraction, but easily overlooked. I will look for more books by this author in the future.

[Kelly]

Not enough meat. The plot was ok, but I had it figured out from the first time I met the character who turned out to be the killer. I am not going to recommend this book. There are too many good books out there to waste time reading something mediocre.

[Richard Ross]

This book was an excellent police procedural, with realistic characters and an intriguing plot. My only criticism was numerous grammatical and spelling errors that should be taken care of through editing. Unfortunately, most e-books seem to have this problem.

[Lillie]

A very creative plot kept me reading in spite of the grammar and usage errors. Almost all dialogue was written incorrectly: ["I don't know." He said.] rather than ["I don't know," he said.] An editor would certainly have corrected these and many other errors.

[Sue]

I enjoyed the main characters, Alex and his daughter Carmen. I thought it handled the loss of their wife and mother well. I would have given it 4 stars but it was too early in the book to figure out who was the guilty party.

[Karine]

Very good police thriller. I had to get half way through the book to kind of figure out the killer. It was a smooth and quick read.

[Jack]

Better than I expected, thanks to the intricacies of the plot.

[Richard Philbrick]

Good police thriller. Quick read. Easy way to spend a couple of evenings.

[Aimee Dars]

A quick read that kept my attention, but rather obvious plot with cliched characters. The Kindle edition was riddled with typos and grammatical errors.