The Twisted Knot
JM Peace
Sammi is on desk duty, unable to face going into the field after her abduction by a killer two years ago. When she is faced by a mob of people demanding that a pedophile is caught by police, she finds the courage to start active work again on a case which is as twisted as any you will have read about.
It’s nice to see a crime novel where I can follow where some of the places are (ie. Australian). To think that crime used to be one of the genres that I turned down to review as a matter of course! I was selling them short by only imagining old-time detective novels.
I wasn’t sure why we were constantly reminded of Sammi making sure her gun didn’t catch on anything. Was it because the author wanted us to see this as something important to her as a plot device? Sammi developed nicely as a character, and I was certainly kept enthralled and up past my bed time.
Pedophiles are some of the most disgusting people on the planet, and I can’t think of a biological imperative for why it might be ok. Consenting adults people, consenting adults only. There is likely a psychological issue, as there was in this novel, and you can do more reading about it if you are interested. Remember that not all pedophiles act on their desires, just like some gay people never admit that they are gay.
I didn’t realise there was a ‘first book’, where Sammi is the one who is being investigated. This novel was a true stand alone though. In the back, it suggests other novels like itself, which I also enjoyed.
Ooh, this one was good. I really enjoyed this crime novel that wasn’t a thriller! I could stay up late to read its satisfying conclusion, but not be too scared to sleep. I’m giving this one 4 stars.
Pan Macmillan | 28th June 2016 | $29.99 | Paperback
This book greeted me on my front doorstep, and I responded by reading it straight away despite my current efforts to catch up on reading novels again. Boy was it worth it.
This is action driven. Alfonso hardly seems to get a rest between being attacked by plants and swords. Hehe, while I’m talking about it, every time I write Alfonso, I find it pretty funny. It reminds me of Houdini perhaps? Anyway, there’s no chances to get bored, and the storyline trots along – right until you get tipped on your head!
I put off reading this novel because the cover didn’t fill me with confidence (I have included the updated image here). Lo and behold, setting off into it I remained nervous. By about half-way through, I was already committed, even if I didn’t feel particularly pushed to finish it.
Dear me. This novel. Where to start with its faults. There weren’t enough clues for the reader to really feel like they were on the scene. I was told how to feel about every situation, I didn’t need to think for myself. Again, the blurb gives away too much of the novel contents.
Stetz-Waters creates characters that are compliments of each other, particularly in these romances of hers (
This novel was trying to see itself by other reviewers as a ‘thriller [and] a titillating delight’. Sorry, the sexual tension that Kendra seems to feel towards Lynch isn’t even that tensioned for me as a reader. I saw it, yes, but the gripping storyline was what did it for me.
This novel takes both its name and its conversational writing style In the ‘tradition’ of 
If this novel had been billed as an expose of what it looks like when a family is ripped apart by a disappearance, then maybe I could have gotten into it. Even then, it was too caught up in what Sam felt for anything else to really come through. I never want to be in that position.
This is the novel of when parenting isn’t smooth sailing. Or perhaps, just parenting in general. It takes a look at how men and women somehow change in the months following their child’s birth, and yet hopefully stay the same.