Storm Gathering by Rene Gutteridge

When Mick Kline wakes up on the floor of a woman's apartment he barely knows with no remembrance with what happened the previous night, he is immediately accused of her murder. No one believes him when he says he didn't kill her. Everyone just wants someone to blame, and he's the most convenient target.

Evidence continues to mount against him and implicate him with her murder, so Mick finds himself literally on a run for his life. With no one on his side, he must find the evidence he needs in order to prove himself innocent.

The whole idea behind this plot is pretty lame to start with. Mick Kline is the ultimate downtrodden character who no one likes. No one believes his story. Poor, poor, Mick. Mick is portrayed as a victim the entire time. The sickening part is, evidence is actually found in the end in his favor. Not that I didn't see it coming, though.

There are many stereotypical circumstances throughout the plot like a crooked detective who strives for evidence against Mick, a woman who used to love Mick but now loves his brother, and a typical enemy character who has the same kinds of thoughts that most other murderer characters do. There aren't any good characters, of course. They are all either perfect or evil. As with most "suspense", there are no ambiguous characters.

The problem with books marketed as suspense is that they aren't really suspenseful. The reader knows all along that the good guys are going to win out. That's not suspense. Suspense is truly not knowing what's going on or what's going to happen at the end. That's why suspense has become a mediocre genre.

At the end of the book, there are several unrealistic convenient connections that help the heroes solve the mystery and that help Mick get off clean. This makes the situation even worse because if Rene Gutteridge had actually come up with a good reason for why Mick was innocent, that would have been one thing. But since she resorted to cheesy pieces of Literary Trash like convenient connections, this makes the book even worse.

There is one original thing at the end that saves the book from being completely absurd but that is it.

I think Rene Gutteridge needs to stick to more non-"suspenseful" plots like Ghost Writer and Snitch in order for her to be an original author.

1.5 stars