Politics and murder mix in the second mystery, after Goodnight, Irene , to feature Southern California newspaper reporter Irene Kelly and her homicide detective lover, Frank Harriman. Jacob Henderson, teenaged son of a district attorney candidate whose mudslinging race Irene has been covering, asks her to prevent his father's opposition from announcing that the youth is a member of a satanic cult. Sammy, Jacob's girlfriend, tells Irene that the group is pagan but not satanist. She admits, however, that she and others in the group, most of whom live in a youth shelter, fear the man in a goat's-head mask who is their new leader. That night, Frank's elderly neighbor, founder of the shelter, is found murdered, with a rough drawing of a goat's head left on her front door. Then Sammy leaves Irene a message that she has run away from the shelter, which is run by the murdered woman's grandson. After another gruesome murder and mutilation, Irene is kidnapped and taken to a remote cabin where she is systematically beaten. Graphic torture scenes and Irene's cunningly crafted escape give the tale a jagged, somewhat unexpected edge.
This is my 2nd Jan Burke novel and probably my last. I thought her first novel about Irene Kelly was pretty good. Irene is a newpaper reporter in a Southern California coastal city, the region was interesting, and I needed a new series. This novel has all the elements needed for an exciting story—a dirty campaign for district attorney in which family members are exposed to slanderous attacks, charges and evidence of Satanic cults, murders, of course, and—behind it all—a decades long struggle between a community minded woman and a hard driven developer for the soul and future of the city. What is doesn't have is a forward moving plot or snappy dialogue. It is slow and predictable and I was dying for the damned thing to end.
What do You think about Sweet Dreams, Irene (2002)?
rosado mp3Description: Irene Kelly is a reporter with a fierce integrity. Detective Frank Harriman is her lover and friend. Now they're both about to be plunged into political hellfire when a ruthless politician rocks a race for district attorney with a stunning allegation: his opponent's son is in the clutches of a satanic cult. The charge takes a fatal turn when a local woman is brutally murdered, and the grisly crime scene bears unholy implications. Tracking the clues takes Irene behind the closed doors of an isolated home for troubled youths, where obscuring the truth is only part of a stranger's diabolic game. To win it, Irene will have the devil to pay. Can't do it, this is why they invented the word 'craptastic'. The first book I scraped up to a three star, however this went into free-fall from the outset and became as irretrievable as the black box from flight MH370.3* Goodnight IreneNOPE! Sweet Dreams, Irene
—Bettie☯
I actually liked this, I wasn't sure I was going to. Perhaps because the book I read before it sucked so bad. Maybe not, maybe it's just a good book. lol. I just discovered that it's the second book in a series. Well there you go, I intend to find the first one and the next one in the series so I guess I do like this book. lol The characters were believable. You could feel their emotions without it being overly done. There even was a romantic side to it, well a little. Thank the gods no overwhelmingly nauseating lovey dovey shit that I hate. You could tell that Irene and her cop boyfriend are in live and dedicated to each other but there wasn't any of the sappy crap one finds in actual romance novels(if that makes sense.)Hmm, I may have read the first one. The title seem rather familiar. lol
—Nora aka Diva
