Sandra RuttanCritiques

Suspenseful to the end! The story starts with a reporter, a cop, and a videotape of suicide or murder. When they begin to investigate this causes a ripple effect that keeps expanding.

This book is skillfully written with characters that are real. The dialogue never flags or confuses. But, the suspense does rivet you to your chair with your fingers tightly grasped on your kindle.

Mystery and suspense I will read more by Ms.Ruttan.

We finally learn what happened when Nolan, Hart, and Tain met each other when unresolved issues from that case come back to haunt them. Long flashbacks make up most of the book, interspersed with the current investigation. Loose ends are tied up, both from the original case and their latest.

Interesting enough, but less involving than the first two.½

I enjoyed "Lullaby for the Nameless" by Sandra Ruttan even though I had not heard of this writer before and have not read the first two books in the series.
The story held my interest and the characters were well thought out. I did however tend to get lost in all the flashbacks and was not certain sometime (even with the dates usually pointed out) exactly in what order some events happened.
It was a good book but I don't think I will make a point of looking for this author again.

I started off enjoying the first 50 pages of the book, and then it just went downhill. I found the story to be almost a satire of detective stories with really cliched story lines and really corny writing - I cringed when I read some part. In the beginning of the story, I was thinking about getting her other two books but when I finished this book, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Due out in November, this second suspense novel featuring Vancouver-area RCMP officers Nolan, Hart, and Tain is as good as the first. It is several months after the events of What Burns Within. They have a new sergeant who is giving them a hard time. Now a small child has been beaten to death, and his brother says their older sister did it--but she's missing. Hart and Tain search for the missing girl and for the truth. Meanwhile, Nolan is assigned to look into an old case to make sure that no mistakes were made. The characterizations continue to be good, and we learn more about their pasts as tensions mount.

Set in the Vancouver area, several police officers/RCMP investigate a series of rapes, arsons, and kidnappings that seem to be related. The characterizations are good, although I got a little tired of the cryptic references to earlier case(s) and their aftermath. I gather there's a previous book with (some of) these characters; reading that one first might solve that problem. But I didn't enjoy this one enough to hunt down more by this author.

RCMP Constables Craig Nolan, Ashlyn Hart, and Tain (no first name) worked together on a case the year before that profoundly impacted all three. Since that time, they've not worked together. As the story opens, each is working a separate case: Nolan, a series of rapes, Hart a series of arson, and Tain a string of child abductions, one of which has turned to murder. As the separate investigations proceed, it becomes clear that they are linked in some fashion, bringing the three together again. What follows is a police procedural that meticulously follows the constables as they pursue leads, run down blind alleys, and eventually piece together the truth.

WHAT BURNS WITHIN is built on procedure, and offers the readers a sense of authenticity in its depiction of interdepartmental interplay and politics as the police and fire departments must cooperate, and hidden agendas try to dictate the investigation within the RCMP itself. The characters are well-drawn and believable, human and fallible rather than omnipotent superheroes. The one small problem I had with this book is that too little information of the previous case with the three protagonists was given. A bit more detail would have been nice.

That aside, this is an excellent book.

Due out in November, this second suspense novel featuring Vancouver-area RCMP officers Nolan, Hart, and Tain is as good as the first. It is several months after the events of What Burns Within. They have a new sergeant who is giving them a hard time. Now a small child has been beaten to death, and his brother says their older sister did it--but she's missing. Hart and Tain search for the missing girl and for the truth. Meanwhile, Nolan is assigned to look into an old case to make sure that no mistakes were made. The characterizations continue to be good, and we learn more about their pasts as tensions mount.

Set in the Vancouver area, several police officers/RCMP investigate a series of rapes, arsons, and kidnappings that seem to be related. The characterizations are good, although I got a little tired of the cryptic references to earlier case(s) and their aftermath. I gather there's a previous book with (some of) these characters; reading that one first might solve that problem. But I didn't enjoy this one enough to hunt down more by this author.

I am mentioned on the acknowledgments page of this book!