Homicidal Innocence by V.J. Lee – Review by Angela Hayes

Homicidal Innocence by V.J. Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 Stars

Homicidal Innocence by V.J. Lee is a gripping and twisty little romantic suspense that had me intrigued right from the outset. This was quite an intense ‘introduction’ to Ms. Lee’s storytelling, as I had never read any of her work before, but now that I have a taste, I will certainly be coming back for more.
I am a sucker for a great psychological thriller/suspense story, and throw in some gritty tension, twists, and some sizzle- and I am all in. This promised all that and more- and I have to say that the author delivered on the promises held in the synopsis.
Maya works as a live-in nanny in a very affluent and ‘exclusive’ gated community where lots of dark secrets are hidden. Things take a darker and sinister turn when a serial killer seems to be using the area as his hunting grounds. Several beautiful young women have vanished, and bodies of other young women are being discovered after being tortured and then brutally murdered. Detective Cole Silverthorne is determined to hunt down the killer before things get even more grim. But there is a bit of a tangle web to unravel in order to get to the bottom of things- which won’t be easy. Things are far more complicated than he can imagine. And the stakes are only going to get higher. Add in some danger, drama, edge of your seat developments, and clever, unexpected twists which all come together seamlessly to make for quite a gripping read.
The story is told from several POVs, which gives us, the readers, a deeper perspective and appreciation of what is going on. It definitely made my reading experience even more intriguing- especially since we also get to ‘hear’ from X, the serial killer. But Ms. Lee doesn’t make things too easy to unravel, keeping a tight rein on my attention and keeping me guessing the whole way through. Even when I thought I knew what was going on, she would then throw something in the mix that had me second-guessing everything all over again.
So why have I rated this 3.5 stars instead of 5, you might wonder. Well, the story itself was well woven and the ‘mystery/suspense’ side of things was clever and tense- which is fantastic- and the characters are complex, well-developed individuals who brought the whole story to life—– BUT, there were a few ‘minor’ issues that I had with character ‘attitudes/thoughts/dialogue etc, which all combined to affect my rating. Plus, there were quite a few moments where Maya’s weight was mentioned (usually in a derogatory manner) and it became a little uncomfortable to read those comments/thoughts, and seemed repetitive after a while. I appreciate that Cole liked a ‘curvy’ woman- but we are told that Maya is a curvy size 14 – which is not really big, or plus size in my opinion. It is a healthy, normal weight for a ‘normal’ woman. She is ‘happy’ with her size and weight- so I don’t understand why her weight was such a factor. Yes, mention it in passing maybe, but I just felt uncomfortable for her after a while. Which affected my reading experience. I should have been focusing on the well-crafted suspense, which I did do to a degree, but the uncomfortable feeling never left and was always in the back of my mind, the whole way through.
But, putting that aside as a ‘me’ thing/issue- like I said earlier, now that I have a taste for Ms. Lee’s work, I will definitely be going back for more.
Happy Reading…

Thank you, V.J. Lee!

Reviewed by @angelahayes

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