Dead Ringer

Another recreational read that kept me up a bit later than normal... Dead Ringer by Ken Douglas. This was actually sent to me by another author who is friends with Douglas. Not knowing what to expect, I went in with few expectations. Turns out that Dead Ringer is a pretty good crime thriller with some major cases of mistaken identity going on. Maggie grew up thinking she was the only surviving twin of an airplane crash that killed her mother and sister two weeks after her birth. She learns that's not exactly the case when she is reported as being "murdered" and dumped behind a bar on the beach. The murdered woman is a dead ringer for her, and Maggie figures out that it's her twin who really didn't die as earlier reported. The problem is that Maggie is still being stalked by her sister's killers, who apparently want her dead for some reason she doesn't quite understand. Since they screwed up with the first killing, they're under pressure to get it right the second time. Maggie is also pregnant from a one-night stand, and she doesn't want to lose her well-known husband who will know the child isn't his. Can she take the risk of telling him and driving him away, or will she get rid of the child and deal with that guilt for the rest of her life? Her "death" reveals a few facts she didn't know about her husband, so she decides to leave him and step into the role of her dead twin (since no one really knows she's the one that was actually killed). Maggie's twin has quite a bit of money as well as some strange emotional baggage that brings its own series of complications. Maggie needs to maintain the illusion long enough to find out why the killers want her dead, as well as what her sister was involved with that made her so much money. Overall, the story was pretty good. Surprisingly, the main hitman is struggling with his own situation involving the murders, and really wants to put that life behind him. It doesn't change the fact that he's scummy, but there's still a bit of empathy there for him. I also enjoyed watching Maggie try to act like her sister she never met, and how to take over the mother role to an eight year old who knows something's a bit off, but likes the "new" version of mom much more than the old version. Things wrapped up well at the end, and I was glad that I had taken the time to dive into Dead Ringer...

This book reminded me of the movie Pulp Fiction. It took a while to get into it, but boy, was I glad I stuck with it. The plot was a wee bit complicated but well written, and written in a way that made you want to stick with it. Different characters flew around the pages but eventually everything came together and made perfect sense. It was the type of book that when I'd finished, I placed it on my "read again" list.

This is another story about someone finding a twin they had not known about. In this case, a woman fleeing from a cheating husband and marital problems steps into the life of an identical twin after the twin is murdered. It turns out the twin had money - lots of money along with a young daughter. Some people have to be let into the secret, but it is a closely guarded secret. The thugs who killed her sister are thrown into confusion. The more they try to solve their problem, the greater the complexity of the problem. Various characters are drawn into the plot including the dead woman's mother, a couple of police officers willing to mete out their own justice, a neighbor of the dead woman, and two mysterious men under the pier who seem to move about silently like smoke, or maybe like guardian angels (one never knows). Maggie finds an odd assortment of allies as she takes on a new life. You may think some of the black hats are going to walk away free, but don't be too sure. Some people are tougher than they look, especially women who feel their children are threatened. I disagree with the publisher's assessment that stories are hard to write. I have found that stories are relatively easy to write, but very hard to get published. Everyone wants to be a writer, and editors are very selective. I do agree with the assessment that reading novels is better than watching TV.

I finally got to read the book that everyone in the salon where I work is talking about. By the time it came to me it was pretty dog-eared, but I took it home, despite the fact that the girl in the chair next to me had apparently left some of her lunch between the pages. So you can imagine how I approached Dead Ringer when I started to read it over breakfast the next morning.Like the other girls at work, I was immediately drawn into the story and it was Saturday, so I was able to read away, and I did. As you know if you've read the reviews and the publisher's comments, Maggie Nesbitt is pregnant and her husband isn't the father of her baby. A killer murders her twin and the media mistakenly thinks that it was Maggie who was killed. Maggie takes advantage of this by becoming her sister. So now the killer goes after her.This is a super thriller that had me hooked right from the beginning, as I said. No way could I put down. Even though there was one really yucky violent scene where Horace Nighthyde, the killer, runs over Maggie's sister's dead body in an alley. Totally too violent and not necessary. If not for that, and a couple other places where the violence approached the yuck level, I'd be glad to give Dead Ringer the five stars my friend, Ms. Lunch in the Pages, gave it here, but sadly I feel I have to take away a point for that. So in conclusion, a very good thriller, but maybe a touch too much violence, so only four stars from me.