Review Of Liquid Deceptions, by Colleen Hofstadter Hlavac
We’ve finally reached the first weekend of summer! Bring on the long days, BBQ, and beach days! This past Thursday was a special day for us, my youngest graduated from Grade 8 with Honors! While I’m proud of her accomplishment, a bit of nostalgia tightens my throat. But alas, you can no more put a stopper in time than you can bottle a Cruise Ship and cork the top. Just a second, I need to wipe my eyes.
Okay, onwards to today’s review.
Some Background:
His hunger to kill again has reached a boiling point. The list of potential victims is ever growing. The residents of South Lake Tahoe are being tormented by him. The “Water Bearer” killer is cold, calculated and insatiable. Will the green homicide detective, Cosette DuPont, be able to stop him before he kills more innocent people? Fasten your seatbelt for the unexpected twists and turns of Colleen Hofstadter Hlavac’s gripping novel.
Just My Opinion:
The plot incorporates a few classic detective story traits. Cossette pursues a career in law enforcement as the result of a personal tragedy; former victim engages villain in a perilous chess match.
Yet, it was so refreshing to discover that Cossette wasn’t the stereotypical workaholic, sleep in your clothes, office dwelling hermit, who considers takeout the ONLY food source and alcohol to be the answer for everything. This woman had a life!
Oh, but don’t mistake her balanced life for incompetence, indolence, or indifference. Not by a long shot! She’s a strong female protagonist, who relies on her team to help cage a blood thirsty monster. And just who is that monster? I ran out of fingers to point while trying to sum that up.
Crafted in a vividly descriptive style that makes visualization effortless, there’s a variety of positive, non-distracting asides, that enrich and pull this tale off those pages.
I greatly appreciated the lack of gore and overly graphic descriptions.
I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a head scratching, chin rubbing mystery with plausible characters.
Allow me to introduce Colleen:
Colleen Hofstadter Hlavac was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She spent many childhood summers visiting her relatives in Switzerland. She completed her undergraduate degree at U.C. Berkeley. After graduation, Colleen felt it was time for some adventure. She became a flight attendant for United Airlines and worked for the company for eleven years both as a flight attendant and eventually as an Inflight Supervisor. While flying, she was able to complete graduate degrees in both Counseling and Human Behavior. She continues to reside in the Bay Area with her husband and their four children. When Colleen isn’t spending time with family and friends or writing, you can often find her with her beloved Rhodesian Ridgeback, Trixie, and her mischievous, yet lovable, orange cat, Romeo. The Stalker in the Desert is Colleen’s first mystery novel.
