Dawn Girl by Leslie Wolfe

Rating:           9

General Rating: A fast, hard-to-put-down, detective crime thriller.

Skip factor:  1%. Only skipped when I couldn’t wait to see what happened next.

Who should read:  Readers who like thrillers—especially detective-crime junkies—this is for you. I neglected chores and duties to sort out who the fictitious serial killer was.

Summary:  Detective Tess is called to the scene of a crime. The body of a girl has been found on the beach in the early morning hours and tagged with the name Dawn Girl.  Quickly, Tess suspects this is the result of a serial killer. Suffering PTSD herself, Wolfe’s protagonist  keeps readers in suspense as to what happened to her that makes her such a good detective. She’s solved every single case she’s led—except one. Was that her own case? We don’t know.

The fast-paced writing is what kept me reading. Lots of dialogue combined with just the right amount of description. It wasn’t so graphic that it turned me away but  intense enough to make me cheer for Tess to find the killer.

This novel tells the age-old, serial-killer story but with enough flare to keep you turning pages. Character development is great. Where normally I’m not a fan of detectives, I found myself liking Tess, along with the side-kick Officer Fradella. Other characters filter in, some I liked immensely, others not so much, yet each was perfectly placed. The author wasted not a minute on the non-essential.

Writing:  Good overall and great for those who like to pick a story apart through dialogue.

Read this author again?  Absolutely.

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