Addicted to Love by C J West

Wes has holed up in a cabin in the holiday town he used to summer in with his family. He's sold up his business and fallen madly in love with a local hairdresser. He's completely besotted but his pleasure is interrupted by the death of the local sheriff. He is appointed to the role temporarily despite having no experience of any sort in law enforcement. What seems to be a one-off crime of passion turns out to be the start of a series of inexplicable attacks and Wes has to try and tear himself away from his new darling to try and prevent any more deaths in a town more used to love than hate.


I started this book with high hopes, having given The End of Marking Time 4* when I reviewed that book by West. And to begin with I was enjoying this book. However as things progressed, although the reason his behaviour became clear later, I just found Wes a bit too ridiculous. Also the whole premise of the town council appointing a man with no credentials but a respected family as sheriff for a murder investigation was unbelievable. The reason for the murders and attacks could have been chilling and thought provoking if it wasn't all quite so daft. 


I was also put off by the fact there seemed to be something missing when a major revelation was made about what was going on in the town. When an aspect of it was mentioned later in the book I thought maybe I had inadvertently skimmed the important sentence or paragraph but going back and re-reading the relevant part I still couldn't see it.


On the positive side there was one character I could warm to, and the author's style makes for an easy flowing read. There are some very interesting and potentially quite worrying ideas in this book but the way the story plays out almost cheapened those ideas. The end made my skin crawl a little. It was okay and might be to some people's taste but it's not a book I could really recommend.


Format: Kindle, freebie
Publisher: 22 West Books
My rating: 2*