Without Warning

Without Warning

David Rosenfelt

Genre: Thriller

Summary (from Goodreads):  Years ago, Katie Sanford’s husband was convicted of the murder of Jenny Robbins, then died himself in prison. It’s a small town and memories are long, and Katie and Jenny’s husband, Chief of Police Jake Robbins, have had to work at putting the tragedy behind them. But it's all brought up again in the wake of a hurricane which has just wreaked havoc on their quiet Maine town. Since its founding, Wilton has had a quaint tradition of creating a time capsule every fifty years, and the storm unearthed the most recent capsule. As the editor of the local paper, Katie joins Chief Robbins to supervise its opening. Neither of them is prepared for the macabre set of predictions, dating back to months before Jenny’s murder, that they find inside. Someone predicted her death, as well as eleven other tragedies, which are still occurring even long after the death of Katie’s husband.

At last, after all these years, Katie has reason to hope that her husband might not have been guilty of Jenny’s murder after all. But as she and Jake race to stop the next predictions from coming true, they find themselves caught in a terrifying mind game with no rules…and life or death consequences.

In Without Warning, David Rosenfelt has written another tightly plotted thriller that will hold readers in its grip from the opening page all the way through to the stunning conclusion.

Review:  This was the first book by David Rosenfelt that I have read, and I enjoyed the clever plot - a time capsule is opened that contains predictions for murders, and police chief Jake Robbins has to figure out why the murders all seem to be connected to him.  But I thought the character development was lacking; newspaper editor Katie Sanford started out as a strong, interesting character, but then her voice disappeared a short while into the novel, and the relationship that develops between her and Jake seemed to happen way to quickly.  The dialogue was somewhat stilted, especially in the scenes between Jake and Katie; I felt that Rosenfelt's writing was stronger when dealing with the police investigation than when dealing with relationships.  I had a few other small complaints, like why Jake scheduled the finale on such a tight timeline, but those were minor.  I may try out another Rosenfelt book, but I don't think I've found a new favorite author.

Rating: 3 stars