Annie C. (anniechanse) reviewed on 9/6/2014 + 35 more book reviews

I received a copy of this book through First Reads giveaways, and I have to say, I'm very glad that I did. Despite the fact that this book is third in a series -- and I haven't read the first two -- I had no trouble falling into the story and understanding what was going on. When I entered the giveaway for the this book, I was terribly ambivalent about being selected as one of the winners because I felt that a book calling itself "A Forensic Handwriting Mystery" had the potential to either be very interesting and unique OR be horribly boring and silly.

Thankfully, this book turned out to belong to that former category. I really enjoyed reading about Claudia Rose and her handwriting analysis expertise. The plot is similar to an episode of Bones. Some people die, and the protagonist comes into contact with several viable suspects who could have potentially done the killing. Then she is forced to endure endless uncomfortable and nerve-shattering situations with each of these potential murderers until everything finally comes to a head at the end. Pretty standard stuff, really. But Sheila Lowe writes beautifully, and her characters -- especially Claudia, Joel, and the gender-confused matchmaker Grusha -- are personable and endearing. Not to mention the whole handwriting thing... it adds a totally unique angle which I've never experienced before. I fully intend on looking up the other two books in the series and reading them quite soon.

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